Birth of a Nation

631 Words2 Pages

On March 3, 1915 the movie The Birth of a Nation was released at the Liberty Theatre in New York City. This film was financed, filmed, and released by the Epoch Producing Corporation of D.W. Griffith and Harry T. Aitken. It was one of the first films to ever use deep-focus shots, night photography, and to be explicitly controversial with the derogatory view of blacks. Throughout the movie, the film justified the need of the KKK in order to keep social harmony among society after the Civil War. In the beginning, the Cameron family was depicted as loving family and the slaves were depicted as sensible and content beings during the slave period. The chaos and madness started after the civil war during the Reconstruction period. Blacks were then portrayed as animalistic savages that were oppressing the rights of the white people in the community and threatened their livelihood. So, African Americans could only be placed into two categories in this movie. They were either the faithful servant or the renegade whose objective was to intimidate and terrorize white people. The black slaves are shown as noble beings that defended their masters against other black people. However, the black people in congress are shown as arrogant and ignorant with no manners. This sort of subtly suggest that blacks proper role is to tend to the land and that they lack the sense and morals to be given them the same equality as a white person. If blacks were on the same le...

Show More
Related

  • Who Killed Reconstruction Dbq Essay

    835 Words  | 2 Pages

    They thought they were lesser people and deserved to go back to slavery. Colby later wrote in his testimony to the House, “Some are first-class men in or town. One is a lawyer, one a doctor, and some are farmers… They said I had voted for Grant and had carried the Negroes against them (Doc B).” Colby is again talking about the KKK and what they said to him that night. This quote describes the actions of those rich white men. Why else would they act out like that? They gained power by terrorizing the voters. In the Independent Monitor, on September 1, 1868, there was an image depicting the democratic KKK hanging carpetbaggers (Picture in Doc A). The term “Carpetbaggers” means a Northerner heading South after the Civil War. They usually took important offices and tried to get rid of slavery. That angered the South and the KKK. Though some Northerners had bad perspectives on the Freedmen in the South, so did the people in the South. There is an image about the South Carolina State Legislature during Reconstruction (Picture in Doc D) that shows the African Americans arguing , while the white senators look angry and frustrated with them. Their faces show they are haughty and are looking down upon the newly elected African American senators. This shows they think they are better than

    Read More

  • Effectiveness of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    Also citizens groups such as the KKK created an environment of fear that stopped white people who may have helped black Americans improve their lives. It also prevented many blacks from trying to take advantage of the rights the Amendments had given them.

    Read More

  • African American´s Limitations from 1865-1900s

    578 Words  | 2 Pages

    The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...

    Read More

  • The Strange Career of Jim Crow

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...howing the true race relations throughout the south during that period. Jim Crow laws might not have been in effect and might have been though unnecessary by a portion of southerners, but it would be interesting to find out how many African Americans were lynched during the period before Jim Crow laws became prominent for ‘offenses’ which would later be illegal under Jim Crow. Just as Woodward quoted President Eisenhower as saying “you cannot change people’s hearts merely by law”(163), so the lack of Jim Crow legislation does not necessarily mean that some southerners wanted it and lived as though it existed.

    Read More

  • Tulsa Race Riots

    1511 Words  | 4 Pages

    Even though slaves had been free for almost sixty years, it was still hard to find well paying jobs in other areas nationwide. The lives of African Americans were so well established, the area was coined the “Black Wall Street of America”. You’d think with such well-rounded men and women that something like this would not happen just based on their skin tone, but that is far from true. Whites of the time were still extremely prejudice towards African Americans, despite the reputation they had. It was only a matter of time before something ignited the flame that had been burning for years.

    Read More

  • No Country for Old Men

    1618 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bitter about the evolution of the corruption of society, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell plays the official hero clinging to old traditions and reminiscing about the old days in No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Delusions of a peaceful utopia during the time his grandpa Jack was a sheriff has left Bell looking at the world through hopeless eyes; a world on its knees with only one explanation for its demise: Satan. Not necessarily a religious man, Sheriff Bell, when asked if he believes in Satan, remarks: “He explains a lot of things that otherwise don’t have no explanation. Or not to me they don’t” (218). Throughout No County for Old Men, Sheriff Bell is determined to save Llewellyn Moss in order to prove that justice can be served in a world now drenched in decay. Throughout the book and the film adaptation, the audience can see Sheriff Bell, a tormented old man, sink deeper into his bitterness and his hope sizzle away in the Texas heat.

    Read More

  • Birth of A Nation

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    It has been said that the Declaration of Independence was more democratic and for equality and the Constitution was more for a republic that benefited only some people. The Declaration was idealistic the Constitution realistic. That 1776 gave us liberty and 1787 gave us order. Although as unfair as it may sound this seems to be true. After gaining liberty this country had to establish a system that would have order.

    Read More

  • Fabe's Narrative Techniques In The Battleship Potemkin

    971 Words  | 2 Pages

    But in terms of shooting style it is a realist film. Birth of a Nation of a realist film in its content, shooting style, and editing. According to Mast and Kawin, Griffith’s two great accomplishments in the film were “his realization of the power of atmosphere, décor, and texture within a shot and the power of editing to join shots” (174). In Fabe’s chapter on Birth of a Nation, she first describes the narrative techniques of the film, including mise-en-scene, cinematography, and editing. The actors in a film play a large part in mise-en-scene. Griffith carefully chose his actors and rehearsed with them before shooting (Fabe 3). He directed them to “act in a restrained, natural, less flamboyantly theatrical style” (Fabe 3). He also chose the “costumes, props, and settings with an eye to providing narraitive information that would enhance the film’s dramatic effect” (Fabe 3). The sets themselves were also a very important part of the mise-en-scene for Griffith. He insisted that they be authentic and three-dimensional rather than just fairly realistic like the sets in another one of his films, The Great Train Robbery (Fabe

    Read More

  • The Ku Klux Klan

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    The KKK was once an African American hate group in the late 1800’s, created by Confederate generals who wanted to continue suppressing their former slaves with terror. It was shut down after their leaders were plagued with scandals, and their business dealings put out into the open, for all to see and read. People finally understood what the Klan was about and obviously did not want it. Although in 1915, William J. Simmons watched D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” which depicted the story of what happened after the Civil War, through the eyes of a glorified Klansman. He was stargazed at how Griffith depicted the Klan, and as him being a long time joiner of clubs, he decided to bring back the Ku Klux Klan. A surprising fact is how a man like this could lead a group of hate, as he used to be a minister. (“Ku Klux Klan -- Extremism in America”) This second generation of the Klan created almost an “Invisible Empire” by their high point. Their members were scattered across state and federal government, and one could say that they “co...

    Read More

  • Natural Born Killers

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of Oliver Stones masterpieces, Natural Born Killers, caused severe controversy due to the graphic, but sincere portrayal of how the media devilishly feeds on violence and how the people of the country respond to these glamorized acts of wrong doing. Although the nation has condemned the movie for its shockingly violent scenes, critics like Roger Ebert and devoted Stone fans like Jason O’Brien have a different perspective on the message that this movie is trying to portray. That is, the simple fact that we, a television based society, have narrowed our variety of entertainment to violence, sex, and sexual violence. A master a satire, Oliver Stone takes film viewers through a twisted tale of two mass murderers, their glorification by a journalist and the nation’s idolization of them.

    Read More

  • Nat Turner Film: The Birth Of A Nation

    322 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Birth of a Nation was released on October 7, 2016. It has grossed $15,803,772 (boxfficemojo.com) almost doubling its production budget of $8.5 million. As historians try their best with other historical facts, The Birth of a Nation has its part of fictional moments. Historians may be able to list events in chronological order to help inform readers, but if not every moment and conversation had been documented, historians could only fill in the blanks. This is the case with the Nat Turner film because not everything had been documented. It was engaging to see that there are some film producers in Hollywood trying, to be honest about diversity and slavery. Not every African American that was enslaved has the same story as author, Solomon

    Read More

  • Ku Klux Klan Influence

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Ku Klux Klan had a large influence on the lives of everyone in the Southern United States in the late 1800s throughout the early 1900s. To Kill A Mockingbird is set in the 1930s which was just after the Ku Klux Klan reached their largest capacity of members. The KKK was just one of the many problems that the very mature protagonist Jean Louise Finch faced as a child in To Kill A Mockingbird. Jean Louise was heavily influenced by many things including the KKK without directly having altercations with these things.

    Read More

  • Why Do People Choose To Be Evil

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    They targeted African American people just because of the color of their skin. These are things that people have no control over. Although we are all people, the KKK thinks that there is only one supreme race of humans, and that not everybody should be treated fairly just because of who they are. Some people may think that the KKK was good because they made whites feel secure about themselves, and made themselves feel important, but all people are people, and everyone should be treated fairly no matter what makes them

    Read More

  • Mudbound Theme

    485 Words  | 1 Pages

    When the KKK go after Ronsel, the KKK, exhibits the extreme of the idea of white supremacy. The KKK knocks Ronsel out and hangs him, as they beat information out of him about his child. The KKK’s actions show how they think that they can do what they like to Ronsel, and that they see people like Ronsel as people who have no right to resist them. They see themselves as superior to people of color, especially the black race. This infectious idea of white supremacy is what causes the unfair treatment of people of color, that they don’t deserve to be seen as human or given the same human rights as whites.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Birth Of A Nation

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    The mastery of his film industry used techniques of film-making, motivated shot, and motion pictures. In response to critics of the “New York Globe” Griffith affirms that his film was “a production which was brought forth to reveal the beautiful possibilities of the art of motion pictures and to tell a story which is based upon truth in every detail” (Griffith, 168). Griffith’s work made history when his film was released. People had not seen anything like this before and the fact that they could relate to the story being told made the film more exiting and meaningful. Until present times, his film is very popular in American culture and a critic stated in 2004 that “Griffith set a new standard for film aesthetic by synthesizing new types of shots and cutting techniques, improving production quality and fidelity to historical sources, integrating music into film more comprehensively” (Salter, No. 2, October 2004). The Birth of a Nation is very significant because with its innovative techniques it made history. This is where the idea that the film makes history while it tells history comes into play. Griffith used his skills to tell a story and his skills became

    Read More

More about Birth of a Nation

Open Document