The birth of a nation

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Movie
German title The birth of a nation
Original title The Birth of a Nation
Birth-of-a-nation-poster-color.jpg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1915
length 187 minutes
Rod
Director DW Griffith
script DW Griffith ,
Frank E. Woods ,
Thomas F. Dixon Jr. based
on Dixon's novels
production DW Griffith ,
David Shepard ,
HE Aitken for
Griffith Feature Films
music Joseph Carl Breil ,
DW Griffith
camera GW Bitzer
cut DW Griffith,
Joseph Henabery ,
James Smith ,
Rose Smith ,
Raoul Walsh
occupation

The Birth of a Nation (English original title The Birth of a Nation , originally The Clansman ) is an American film by director David Wark Griffith from 1915. The three-hour period film , which takes place at the time of the American Civil War, was the financially most successful work the silent movie era . On the one hand, it is praised for its numerous innovations in film technology and is perhaps the most important and influential work in American film history. On the other hand, Griffith's work has been criticized since its premiere because of its racist content, which unequivocally propagates a white supremacy and contributed significantly to the re-establishment of the Ku Klux Klan .

action

The film consists of two parts, the time before and during the American Civil War and the time of the reconstruction in the defeated southern states .

First part

The film begins with the portrayal of an auction selling black slaves . On a subtitle reads: "The fact that the Africans were brought to America planted the first seeds of division."

The film now shows the United States before the American Civil War using the example of two families. On one side, the north, represented by the Stoneman family who live in Washington, DC and a country house in Pennsylvania . The family consists of the powerful abolitionist Congressman Austin Stoneman (historical role model: Thaddeus Stevens ), as well as his two sons Phil and Tod and his daughter Elsie. Phil and Tod Stoneman are friends with the Camerons, who represent the south: In Piedmont , South Carolina, they run a cotton plantation where numerous slaves work who are cheerful and submissive towards their masters. The family consists of the parents, two daughters Margaret and Flora and three sons, Benjamin (later called "the little Colonel" in the film), Wade and Duke.

The Stoneman boys visit the Camerons, with whom they have been friends since boarding school. Phil Stoneman is in love with Margaret, who reciprocates his feelings, and Benjamin Cameron worships a picture of Elsie Stoneman in which he believes he recognizes his dream woman. The secession of the southern states puts an end to harmony. At the same time one learns that Austin Stoneman is under the sexual influence of his housekeeper Lydia Brown, a mulatto : "The great leader's weakness that should destroy an entire nation" (subtitle) is thus presented as the actual background of his abolitionist politics. The civil war begins, the boys of the Camerons and Stonemans join their respective armies. Especially on the side of the southern states there is great certainty of victory. A close-up shows the motto of the southern states: "We have to win, because our cause is just: victory or death."

Two and a half years passed in which the southern states were about to lose. A black militia led by a Scalawag ransack the Camerons' house and tries to rape the women, but is routed by Confederate troops . Meanwhile, Tod Stoneman and Duke Cameron die on the battlefield, where they meet one last time and are now reunited in death. Wade Cameron is killed during General Sherman's devastating offensive . Benjamin Cameron is wounded in a last-ditch effort against the enemy and is taken to a Northern State hospital where he meets Elsie, who is helping out as a nurse. He is slated to be executed as a guerrilla , but Elsie and Mother Cameron plead for mercy from President Abraham Lincoln , who is called "the Big Heart" in the film.

With the end of the war Benjamin returns home, but is shocked to discover how much his parents' house has fallen through the war and the poverty that goes with it. Meanwhile, Austin Stoneman tells Abraham Lincoln to severely punish the South. But the President replies: "I will deal with you as if you were never gone." A little later, Lincoln is shot dead by John Wilkes Booth in the Ford Theater . The president's death allows Austin Stoneman and other radical congressmen to punish the southern states with Reconstruction for their secession . End of the first part.

Second part

Austin Stoneman and his protégé Silas Lynch, a mulatto whom he has appointed as leader of the blacks, travel to Piedmont to secure the rule of the former slaves over the whites. Silas Lynch is in favor of any means, albeit behind Stoneman's back: violence against blacks who sympathize with their former masters, oppression of whites, electoral fraud. The naive Stoneman does not suspect any of this, not even that Lynch has fallen in love with his daughter Elsie, who accompanies them both. The couples of the Stoneman and Cameron families meet again, but the wounds of the war make it difficult for Margaret in particular to find her way back to her old affection.

On election day only blacks are allowed to vote, whites are refused to cast their votes. The blacks now rule parliament, where they behave disrespectfully and barbarically: a black man puts his bare feet on his desk, others drink, the whole crowd hoots. The whites become oppressed: they are molested on the street, black juries give wrong judgments against whites. Parliament now allows mixed marriages.

Benjamin is desperate. Inspired by white children who frighten black children disguised as ghosts, he develops the plan to create a resistance army, the Ku Klux Klan . Elsie turns away from Benjamin out of loyalty to her father after Benjamin accuses her that her fiancé is a member of the "gang of murderers of outlaws". A short time later, Flora Cameron is surprised in the forest by Gus, a former slave, who makes her oppressive marriage proposal. Flora flees, whereupon Gus pursues her. Cornered on an abyss, Flora leaps to her death to avoid being raped. A subheading comments on her suicide: "We should not mourn for her, who had learned the hard lesson of honor, because she preferred the opal gates of death." Benjamin swears vengeance and hunts Gus with his clan. After his capture and a "fair trial" according to the subtitles, Gus is lynched by the whites and his corpse is laid in front of the door of Lieutenant Governor Silas Lynch.

In retaliation, Lynch orders a crackdown on the Klan. Spies report that the Cameron women are making robes for the clan. The Camerons are captured, but with the help of their loyal former slaves, they escape. They hide in a small hut in a field, in which two former Northern State soldiers live, who now gladly support their former enemies in defending their “Aryan birthright” against the blacks. Meanwhile, Lynch tries to force Elsie to marry, against the will of Austin Stoneman, who now realizes Lynch's malice. Camouflaged Klansmen discover this and get reinforcements. The clan, now in full strength, rides into town, rescues it and takes the opportunity to forcibly evict the black militia. At the same time, Lynch's men surround and attack the hut where the Camerons are hiding, but here too the Klan arrives in time. The Klansmen celebrate victoriously in the streets, and the film cuts to the next election, in which the Klan prevents black voters from voting at gunpoint.

This is followed by pictures of Phil and Margaret and Benjamin and Elsie's double honeymoon. The whites of North and South are united in peace, a nation is born. The film ends with two allegorical pictures : the first picture shows the fighting masses, dominated by the personified war, the second happy people in a paradisiacal setting, blessed by Jesus . The final title reads: "Let us dare to dream of a golden day when the bestial war no longer reigns, but instead the noble prince in the hall of brotherly love in the city of peace."

backgrounds

Movie poster that the assassination of Abraham Lincoln shows

history

The Birth of a Nation is based on the bestsellers The Leopard's Spots and The Clansmen by the Baptist Reverend Thomas F. Dixon , who also dramatized the second novel himself. Both novels are now generally classified as racist . David Wark Griffith couldn't give Dixon the $ 10,000 film rights they asked for, so he offered the writer a 25 percent share of the film's profits. Dixon initially wanted to decline, but in the end he became a multi-millionaire through the deal.

The film cost an astronomical sum of over $ 100,000 at the time. Although Griffith was already a well-known filmmaker, he had to ask friends to lend him money to complete the film. The shooting lasted over nine weeks. Griffith shot some of the spectacular battle scenes at the original locations and with the help of around 500 extras, whom Griffith directed over the set from a ten meter high tower. If smoke bombs and projectiles were too loud, Griffith gave his instructions with flares.

The film premiered on February 8, 1915 in Los Angeles under the title The Clansman , but three months later the film was renamed and got its current title at the world premiere in New York . The love story against a historical background was an overwhelming financial success: In the first year after the premiere, a million viewers were willing to pay the entry fee of two dollars, which was unusually high for the time (about 36 dollars at today's rate), and helped the producers to get one big win. How high the profit actually was is controversial: Some sources cite a profit of around 10 million dollars by 1932, others such as Richard Schickel assume up to 60 million US dollars. The Birth of a Nation is still considered the most commercially successful work of the silent film era.

Cinematic innovations

A movie poster praises the film as the “eighth wonder of the world”

The birth of a nation marked a milestone for cinema and today film is revered primarily for its cinematic innovations. Although not a few of these had been used before, they were popularized through the enormous success of Griffith's film: “The film historians agree that the film is the most important single work in American film history and a key work in all of film history: it contains many innovations and improvements in film technology, technical effects and artistic achievements, including a color sequence at the end. He had a formative influence on future films and has a recognizable effect on film history and the development of film as an art form. "

The Birth of a Nation was produced with hardly comparable effort up until then, there were battle scenes with thousands of extras and with the battle there was also a dramatic film climax, which was also a novelty. In contrast, many films of the time had previously been made quickly and cheaply, mainly about revenue and attractions, after which most of these films were quickly forgotten. In contrast, Griffith relied on film as an art form, which should also be successful in the long term with high standards in technology, direction, camera, cast, plot and equipment. With its length of three hours it was the longest American film to date and with its success it was also of great importance for the implementation of future feature films and film epics. It was also perhaps the first major Hollywood film after the East Coast film industry had dominated American film.

Numerous technical innovations are also significant: For the first time, it was filmed at night, which was now possible with the help of magnesium torches. In contrast to many other directors of his time, Griffith relied on the use of real landscapes for the background. Griffith also used important film techniques for the first time or brought them to perfection in this film, including the use of the iris to emphasize certain details by enlarging or reducing a section of the image; the coloring of certain film sequences; the use of screen-filling close-ups and parallel mounting . The sometimes spectacular tracking shots and camera perspectives that Griffith used are also striking .

Also significant was the film music for orchestra by Joseph Carl Breil , with specially selected themes for the most important characters. Although the films were still silent at the time and could not contain any film music, records with the music and the sheet music for the film music were sold. As background music, among other things were Walkürenritt of Richard Wagner , passages from Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz and Ludwig van Beethoven's 6th Symphony used.

Racism allegation

David Wark Griffith

The film shows a clearly negative opinion of the Reconstruction period and the African-Americans , while the old southern states, especially the whites there, are portrayed as victims. The blacks in the film are simple-minded and either evil or loyal to their white masters. The question of whether Griffith's racism was naive or deliberate has been controversial since the film's premiere. Thomas F. Dixon's originals for the film are clearly anti-black. Dixon himself rejected slavery, but campaigned for racial segregation and considered blacks to be fundamentally inferior: “ No matter how much education we spend, whether education for work, whether studying the classics or religious instruction, a Negro can never become a white person or the gap of the centuries that separate him from whites in the development of human nature. "

Whether the political statement or the visual value of the templates was Griffith's motivation for the filming is open, however, according to some critics, there are some arguments in favor of the latter assumption: "As usual, Griffith cared less about the message of the medium than about its means of expression, and in this respect he set standards for modern Hollywood. ”At this point, critics refer to the frequently fluctuating political and social statements of Griffith films, for example his film The Rose of Kentucky had shown the Ku Klux Klan as malicious in 1911, and in 1919 Griffiths Broken Blossoms the relationship between an Asian man and an American woman is portrayed positively. Griffith did not understand the criticism of The Birth of a Nation until the end of his life, his cinematic response to the accusation of racism was his next film Intolerance (1916), which is also considered a milestone in film history, but failed at the box office. He also added a preface to The Birth of a Nation :

AN APPEAL FOR THE FILM ART:
We fear no censorship, because we do not want to offend with impropriety or profanity, but we demand as our right the freedom to portray the dark side of evil in order to illuminate the bright side of virtue - the right given to the written word becomes - the art to which we owe the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.

What is clear is that the film claims that the Ku Klux Klan saved America's South from the pernicious influence of liberated blacks, with “ carpetbaggers ” and mulattos (Lydia Brown and Silas Lynch) being the most disliked characters in the film. The exclusion of African Americans from political participation by preventing them from voting is also portrayed positively.

The film sparked vehement protests at its premiere, for example from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which described the film as "three miles of filth ." The New York Post saw The Birth of a Nation "a deliberate attempt to humiliate millions of American citizens by portraying them as utter beasts." Performances sparked demonstrations and riots and were banned by cities in eight states. The film was censored and particularly obnoxious scenes were removed, even by Griffith himself (who made an abridged version in 1921 without any mention of the clan).

Griffith claimed to be showing historical truth in his film. In a staged conversation between Griffith and actor Walter Huston , which was made for the re-release of the film in 1930, Griffith defended himself that the Klan was needed in his youth and he was only retelling the stories of his fathers. In fact, a number of scenes are based on historical engravings and photos, but the reconstruction in particular is depicted in an unhistorical and falsified manner. For the supposedly authentic parliamentary scenes, for example, in which the black MPs behave unworthily, Griffith chose anti-black caricatures as models.

Griffith is also accused of having contributed to the renaissance of the Ku Klux Klan with this film, although it was officially dissolved in 1870 by the then "Great Warlock" Nathan Bedford Forrest . In fact, Griffith had robed Klansmen ride through Los Angeles as an advertisement for the film . When the film was a huge hit, ex- Methodist Episcopal Church preacher William Joseph Simmons resurrected the clan and held the first admission ceremony of the 20th century on Stone Mountain, east of Atlanta . The new Klan was very popular, especially because the atrocities of the reconstruction time had already been forgotten and only the supposedly “heroic”, i.e. the illusion that was shown in Griffith's film, lived on. This new clan is said to have peaked in the mid-1920s with around three million members. This second Klan still exists today, and the Klan still uses the film as a recruiting tool.

At the instigation of the NAACP, the black poet Angelina Weld Grimké created the play Rachel in 1916 , which addressed racially motivated violence as a reaction to the film.

Black directors reacted to The Birth of a Nation with their own films , such as Emmett J. Scott with The Birth of a Race (1919) and Oscar Micheaux with Within Our Gates (1920).

various

  • All blacks in the film who have essential roles are portrayed by white actors who are clearly visibly made up ( blackfacing ). One of the main reasons for this was the avoidance of scenes in which black actors would have come close to white actresses; contact between a black man and a white woman was unthinkable in the cinema at that time. Afro-Americans also played in smaller roles, including Madame Sul-Te-Wan , a friend of Griffith's.
  • A number of later famous directors probably starred in The Birth of a Nation : John Ford as a riding clansman, Erich von Stroheim in a smaller role as a stuntman and Raoul Walsh as John Wilkes Booth , the Lincoln assassin. Well-known actor Donald Crisp , then one of the assistant directors in addition to his supporting role as General Grant, claimed that it was he who shot the famous battle scenes, not Griffith.
  • The film was the first ever shown in the White House . President Woodrow Wilson , who is quoted several times on the film's intertitles with excerpts from his clan-friendly book History of the American People , was reportedly enthusiastic: “It's like writing history with lightning bolts. And the only thing I regret is it's all so terribly true. ” In fact, Wilson didn't like the movie and felt betrayed by the writer Dixon, an old school friend. The White House issued a statement denying the quote.
  • In 1992, The Birth of a Nation was inducted into the United States' National Film Registry . The American Film Institute ranked him 44th of the 100 best American films in 1998. In 2006 Entertainment Weekly ranked the film 7th on a list of the most controversial films of all time.
  • In Germany, the film was shown for the first time on March 26, 1966 on NDR television.
  • The film exists in the uncut original version (186: 32 minutes) and in a shortened version (180: 24 minutes) from which scenes of violence have been removed.

Reviews

To this day, The Birth of a Nation is undisputed as a cinematic milestone and is also seen by critics as one of the first artistic, epic films. The content of the film is also criticized just as often. On the American film critic portal Rotten Tomatoes , almost all 40 reviews for the film are positive, giving it a positive rating of 98%. The critical consensus reads: "Aside from the racist accounts, The Birth of a Nation remained a groundbreaking film, the achievements and pioneering techniques of which are still completely relevant today."

“ The birth of a nation is the first great historical epic in film history […] Griffith created the basis of contemporary film language with innumerable artistic innovations, and although some elements may seem old-fashioned or outdated today, every film since then is indebted to him. […] It is therefore doubly regrettable that this groundbreaking achievement is linked to a very questionable act. [...] The birth of a nation is an artful propaganda work, but with a hair-raising political message. "

- Joshua Klein

"[...] the lavish, for the childhood days of the cinema enormous, in the cinematic field grandiose and innovative film discusses the slave question from a southern state perspective, is not free from - involuntary - racism, but impresses by deep humanity in the person drawing."

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz

“A film of high aesthetic and political status. The silent film, in which David Wark Griffith, on the other hand, identifies himself as a naive moralist and expresses his unreserved sympathy for the 'white south' of the USA, is considered to be the first big propaganda film in cinematography "

- Lexicon of international film

“ The Birth of a Nation is not a bad movie because it represents a bad cause. Like Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of Will , it is a great film that represents an evil cause. Understanding how he does it means learning a lot about film and even something about evil itself. "

- Roger Ebert

“ Birth of a Nation , on the one hand, is the birth of the epic film, the emancipation from the attraction of the fair and quick fun. One of the first films that have their own persistence as their theme, which deliberately not only exhibit their means of production but also their art. "

- Georg Seeßlen

See also

swell

literature

  • Günter Giesenfeld : The Birth of a Nation / The Birth of a Nation. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Classic films. Descriptions and Comments. Volume 1: 1913-1945. 5th, revised and expanded edition. Reclam junior, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-030033-9 , pp. 24-27.
  • Robert Lang (Ed.): The Birth of a Nation. DW Griffith, Director (= Rutgers Films in Print. Vol. 21). Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ 1994, ISBN 0-8135-2027-4 .
  • Anthony Slide: American Racist. The Life and Films of Thomas Dixon. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington KY 2004, ISBN 0-8131-2328-3 .
  • Melvyn Stokes: DW Griffith's The Birth of a Nation: A History of “The Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time”. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-533679-5 .

Web links

Commons : The Birth of a Nation  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Filmsite.org
  2. ↑ The Birth of a Nation in the nndb (English)
  3. ^ Robyn Karney (Ed.): Cinema Year by Year 1894-2005. 2005, p. 109.
  4. ↑ Richard Schickel: DW Griffith: An American Life (1984)
  5. ↑ a b The Birth of a Nation (1915). At www.filmsite.org. Accessed March 6, 2014.
  6. ^ Rüdiger Suchsland : Richard Wagner and the cinema - an event in the Zeughauskino Berlin. (MP3; 2.4 MB). On April 28, 2013 on Deutschlandfunk (1/2 year online)
  7. ↑ Anthony Slide: American Racist. The Life and Films of Thomas Dixon. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington KY 2004, ISBN 0-8131-2328-3 , p. 27.
  8. ↑ Thomas Dixon, Jr .: Booker T. Washington and the Negro. In: Saturday Evening Post , August 19, 1905, p. 1.
  9. ↑ Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.): 1001 Films. The best films of all time. 2004, p. 30.
  10. ↑ DW Griffith in Black and White  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Article by Bryan Curtis in Slate Magazine, 1913@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.slate.com  
  11. ^ DW Griffith: The Birth of a Nation. DVD video.
  12. ^ DW Griffith, The Birth of a Nation (1915). ( Memento from October 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ^ Robyn Karney (Ed.): Cinema Year by Year, 1894-2005. 2005, p. 113.
  14. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PrYrRt-M1s
  15. ↑ Donato Totaro: Art vs. Propaganda. Birth of a Nation: Viewed Today. At www.horschamp.qc.ca. Accessed March 6, 2014.
  16. ↑ http://www.nwzonline.de/kultur/birth-of-a-nation-oder-wie-der-film-erwachsen-wurde_a_23,0,1451694752.html
  17. ^ Robyn Karney (Ed.): Cinema Year by Year, 1894-2005. 2005, p. 113.
  18. ^ John Milton Cooper Jr. (2011). Woodrow Wilson: A Biography. Random House Digital, Inc. pp. 272-73. ISBN 978-0307277909 .
  19. ^ "The Birth of a Nation" at Rotten Tomatoes
  20. ↑ Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.): 1001 Films. The best films of all time. 2004.
  21. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier , Berndt Schulz : Lexicon Films on TV. 8500 feature films TV video cable. 2nd, expanded new edition. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 276.
  22. ^ Lexicon of International Films. The whole world of film on CD-ROM. CD-ROM edition. Systhema, Munich 1997.
  23. ^ Roger Ebert : Great Movie. The Birth of a Nation.
  24. ^ Critique by Georg Seeßlen : Miscarriage of a medium. In: Jungle World . No. 36, 2008, September 4, 2008.