Example Of Movie Report: The Birth Of A Nation Essay

D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) portrays two families who become amiable to each other when their sons board together at school. Abolitionist Congressman Austin Stoneman is the patriarch of the Northern Stoneman family. The Southern family of the Camerons presides over a plantation in Piedmont, South Carolina where the slaves are employed to carry out the chores. At the inception of the war, the young fellows of the families enroll with their respective armies. The Cameron family is attacked and a few members of both the families meet their demise. Ben Cameron later faces punishment for joining the militia. His spouse decides to plead Abraham Lincoln for issuing a pardon. At Lincoln’s assassination, Lynch is sent to the South where he organizes the blacks to rise up against the whites. In such turmoil, the Ku Klux Klan is born with which Ben is involved. A series of clashes occur between the black militia and the Klan. The film exposes the intricacies of human desires and vested interests. At the end, peace is restored and amorous relationships prevail as the Klan has triumphed.
The response to the release still remains unprecedented as it sparked off societal unrest and violent outbursts. The NAACP protested at many premiere venues of the film. Riots started in Philadelphia, Boston and many other places. Chicago, Kansas City, Missouri, Denver and a few other cities barred the viewing of the film. Acts of violence spurted as whites attacked blacks. The portraiture of African-American people showing sexual aggression toward white women and upholding the Ku Klux Klan in heroic aura made the film get bombarded with torrential criticism. It ignited debates over the issue of racism. In spite of being a commercial success, the film got shrouded in controversy and even today one is reminiscent of the film in that light.
The film propagates the stereotypical view of the black and anyone else from a different religious, ethnic or racial origin. Thus, the film essentially promotes the flawed racist point of view. The African-American or Asian-American is supposed to be ruled over by the whites and any instance of breach of this subordination would result in chaos and massacre. The outlook is biased and hence strips the individual concerned of his humanity and moreover attributes primitive animistic characteristics on him. Thus, he is seen as less civil and not capacious with the innate tendency to aggressive outbursts of sexuality. The Asian-American male, as such, is stereotyped craftily as a backward, subordinate, jeopardizing self. The alpha male prototype being a white American, everyone else is placed in juxtaposition zeroing in on the supremacy of the white race.