In 1915, a film adaptation of the Thomas F. Dixon novel, The Clansman was released. The 133 minute (another cut is 190 minutes) spectacle which was directed, produced, co-written, and edited by the "Inventor of Hollywood," D. W. Griffith is viewed as one of the most significant films ever made. People flocked to see this film despite a high price of $2.00 per ticket ($47.57 in 2016). The silent epic broke box office records with no one exactly knowing how much was earned at the box office. However, the acclaim it receives today is focused on its innovation in the process of film making. Panning, filming at night and the use of extras creatively to make the hundreds appear to be thousands are among the techniques the film pioneered. Unfortunately, the content of the film is rather disturbing.
The Birth of a Nation features two parts. The first takes place during the Civil War, examining two families, the Stonemans and the Camerons from the North and South respectively. Near the end of the war, Ben Cameron at the Seige of Petersburg is injured and ends up in a Northern hospital where he meets Elsie Stoneman, whom is working as a nurse. Ben Cameron is almost hung for being a Confederate but Elsie and Ben's mother convince Abraham Lincoln to pardon him. He agrees. The first part ends with Lincoln being killed and Elsie's father, Austin Stoneman deciding with other men to punish the South. While the first part seems rather innocent, the intention of the first part is to depict the North as a violent aggressor wishing to punish the just South. The second part is far worse.
Part two takes place during Reconstruction after the Civil War; however, the plot is far overshadowed by the rampant racism. African Americans are depicted as violent, unfair and evil. Scenes show black people harassing white citizens; stopping white people from voting while themselves rigging elections; and probably most disturbing, African American men are depicted as sexually aggressive and animal-like. Furthermore, most black characters were played by white people in black face. Ben Cameron views these actions and is inspired to form the Ku Klux Klan. The traditional Klan outfit is shown in the film to be derived from white children dressing up as ghosts to scare black children.
Not long after the formation of the Klan, Flora Cameron, Ben's sister, dies when she is chased by Gus, a black Union Army captain attempting to rape her. As a response, Ben and the Klan hunt down Gus and lynch him. The newly elected Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, a half-black, half-white psychopath attempts to stop the Klan. He tries to do this by kidnapping Elsie in order to marry her and attempting to kill Ben. However, he is stopped when "the former enemies of North and South are united again in defense of their Aryan birthright." That quote is directly from the film.
Ultimately, the Klan saves Ben. On the next election day, the armed Klan waits outside the homes of black citizens to keep them from voting. A double wedding ends the film and the second to last inter title reads: "Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more? But instead — the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace."
Naturally, the film was protested quite extensively and the NAACP (only six years old at the time) even tried to get the film banned in Los Angeles. The film board, which was entirely made up of Caucasians, allowed the film to be shown. When banning the film didn't work, the NAACP decided to release information about the Reconstruction period in order to show the films many inaccuracies. When this didn't do anything, riots broke out in major cities. Also, gangs of white people attacked black people after seeing the film. Some murders were reported, but none were proven the result of The Birth of a Nation.
The NAACP was not the only ones disturbed by the film, three states and many cites banned the film fearing it would encourage racial prejudice and violence (which it did). Despite the censorship, the film still enthralled audiences. Hopefully, it had less to do with the content and more to do with the production value.
Griffith was fairly outraged by the criticism of his film and ironically made a film in response to this criticism. That 210 minute film was released the following year and titled Intolerance, something I'd imagine Griffith could have learned.
