EOTO #3: "The Birth of a Nation"

"The Birth of a Nation" is a film that some describe as "...history written with lightning..." and others claim as the "....most virulently racist imagery ever to appear in a motion picture...". The film was directed by D.W. Griffith and was based off a stage play by the Rev. Thomas F. Dixon Jr. 

The play itself was based upon two of the Reverend's books:  “The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan” and “The Leopard’s Spots.” It was a landmark film for the industry and is credited as being the first true blockbuster film, the longest and most profitable film of its day, and the film that secured feature films as a respected and profitable medium of entertainment. 

The film follows two families, the Stoneman's, who are stuffy
and intellectual Northerners, with the patriarch based off of Thaddeus Stevens, and the Cameron's, who are plantation owners living in a small Southern town. The political tensions between the North and South are shown through these two families and the interpersonal tensions between the Union and Confederacy are shown through the forbidden love of Elsie Stoneman and Ben Cameron. 

Though the film portrays the Civil War and Reconstruction Era in an epic way, the inherently racist portrayals of the characters is what caused the immense controversy and chaos surrounding the movie. The Cameron brothers are portrayed as effeminate and weak, with Ben only fulfilling his traditionally masculine role when he becomes a Klan member and dons the white robes. 

The youngest Cameron and one Stoneman brother bond in the war in numerous "homoerotic" ways and will die on the battlefield in each others' arms. The lack of traditional masculinity in some of Griffith's characters bring into his style the idea that masculinity "...needs to be curbed...". 

This masculinity is portrayed by African Americans in the film in a brutal way, tying them to brute sexuality. The character of Gus Long, a liberated slave, attempts to rape Flora, a white woman, and all male African Americans in the movie are depicted as "...lusting after white women...". 

Not only are they portrayed as sexually brutal, particularly in the Reconstruction era, the Blacks are depicted as "...the root of all evil and unworthy of freedom and voting rights...". Contrary to this, the KKK is portrayed as heroically masculine and a "...healing force, restoring order to the chaos and lawlessness of Reconstruction".

The effects of this movie were immediate and stark. Not only were the Los Angeles, Boston, and New York premieres accompanied by riots against this film, Civil Rights activist and author of The Guardian, William Monroe Trotter joined forces with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and vehemently bid to ban the film. 

The direct-action demonstrations that this film provoked provided a model and a template for the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960's. Though the protests played out in various venues and sometimes turned violent, it did not stop the release and consumption of Griffith's film.  However, Trotter's efforts succeeded in propelling Boston's Civil Rights movement, and by proxy, the Civil Rights movements across the nation, and "...exposed in no uncertain terms, the movie's bigoted treatment of historical events". 

The most significant impact perhaps, was the reemergence of the KKK. The film's heroic portrayal of the Klan revived the order, as it had mostly disappeared after the 1870's. After the movie premiered in Atlanta, Col. William J Simmons, led a cross burning on Stone Mountain in Georgia, leading to a "...new era of Klan activity". 

Though there have been many attempts to ban the film, it was shown and narrated to new Klansmen through the 1970's, is still taught in film schools today, and was claimed by the Library of Congress to be one of the "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films" ever and is preserved in the National Film Registry today.