DW GRIFFITH The Birth of A Nation 1915

The birth of a Nation is recognised as being the first important movie for " parallel montage". This mean thatbefore Griffith, a movie was mainly following the action of one heroe, and all the sequences were having a unity, of time, of story and of personnages. If we take "The general" of Buster Keaton, we notice that he is always on the screen, and the movie is just Followinf the heroe.

That is what Griffith will change, giving to the worlwide cinema he first masterpiece build on paralelle montage, and so set up the basis of the whole cinematographic language coming afterwards : it is so widely used in any movie today that it is hard to understand what is 'paralelle montage'. For us it is really obvious, but during 25 years the cinema did not know it !

Birth of a Nation has plenty other quality. The images are great, the duration (3h !)is exceptionnal for this time( it was the most expensive movie ever done in USA by this time), but mainly, the thematic is very good.
This movie is a true example of how cinema appropriates itself History. The subject of Birth of a Nation is the cession war (1861-1865) which is in accordance with this time of middle 1910's when cinema search to attract a more intelectual public than he did at the beginning when mainly comedies were produced and critised by higher-society-classes.
Here, Griffith propose us a true Historical subject combining all theelements of complete movie : love, action, war, death, despair, hope, assassination, historical moments, and happy end... On a technical and artistical point of view this movie is a masterpiece : the sound shut down while the army is running over the battlefield, the zoom, the usage of blacked part of the image, the quality of the disposition of actors, the escaping lines of the images : everything contribute to make on everypoint a brillant movie.
The movie explain (and without a spoken word !) really clearly (a vision of) the steps for war :

• Bringing black people in USA put the seed for desunion
• Abolitionnist ask for abolition of esclavage
• South refuse and would stop to be in the Union of States of America in case North states goes for abolition
• Abraham Lincoln, chief of the union, make a call of 75 000 military guys to defend the cause of the union over the interest and will of the secionnist states
• The war begin North and South begin
• At the beginning, the North States won, and the cause of black people is on his way
• The war end on 9th April 1865
• Lincoln is assassinated 5 days after, on 14 April 1865 (to be noticed : this assassination on the movie looks really the same as the last try to kill Al Pacino on the 3rd episod of The God Father (1972): on a theater, the same balcony, a body guard behind the door...)
  

Till this point the movie is quite straightforward,; full of feelings : between the departures for the front, the annoncement of the death of sons, the battle field, the hospital scenes, etc, etc ... (in fact it is incredible how much these sequences seems to us kind of Deja vu but it simply show how important is this movie in history of cinema : everyone copied it after ! ).

But, then, the movie show some scenes on which black people are seen as non-educated, not-knowing how to speak, irrespectfull, cheating on electoral process etc... and the movie become racist, which did not please by the time of its issue ( Don't forget Birth of a Nation was issued in 1915, certainly to celebrate the 50 years of the end of the war ( 9 april 1865).
So, according to the movie, the black people cheated on the election processs, get elected as deputies, and are voting plenty of laws to make their right as equal as the white people. But finally, seen as abusing their new power, the white population is enclosed, attaqued, dismiinushed by the black people, wanting to take their wife and girls to make inter-racial marriage, and build a "black empire". Hopefully enough, the resistance of the white get organised and the Ku Kux Klan free the state from these black guys, giving an happy end for all the white community.
And the movie stop here.

Obviously what do not show Griffith is what happen after : how the Ku Kux Klan will be forbidden and what will the History remember of it : on the movie it is shown pretty much as a defensive and non-violent organisation; while Historians are speaking about some much more violent actions...

Cinema and History relationship really begun with this movie, and will never stop to exist on the background of American production...