Birth Of A Nation: Film Analysis

Movies and entertainment outlets speak volumes about the current state of a nation’s culture. Cinematic creations in the United States allow small voices to be heard and controversial issues to be addressed. However, a repetitive and monumental issue continues to be addressed, yet continues to persist in our 21st century culture, racial inequalities. Since the inception of the United States, black men and women alike have been disenfranchised at the hands of the “white man” in America. Instead of continuing the conversation today, the issue is continually silenced referencing the successes and achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century. Nonetheless, an unfortunate reality looms upon this great land; racially based systems and structures continue to exist in 2015 the in United States. This paper synthesizes three films focused on racial inequalities in different time periods. Separate but Equal (1991), Selma (2015), and Crash (2005) illustrate how influential the Civil War amendments are, while serving as an uncanny reminder of how the racial prejudices during the 20th century continue to exist in our great nation today. Needless to say our nation has made great strides, but still has a long way to go.

D.W. Grifiths 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, is widely recognized as one of the most consequential films in American cinematic history - it contains many new cinematic innovations and refinements, technical effects and artistic advancements, including a brilliant color sequence at the end, that laid the foundations for modern filmmaking. In 1993 the film was elected into the National Film Registry, and in 1998 voted one of the "Top 100 American Films" by the American Film Institute. Aside from its influence on Hollywood, the film has left an indelible mark on American culture as one of the most prolific pieces of anti-black propaganda of all time.

Movies that are based on a book are not always the same. In social studies class, we read a book called Our America. The book is about two boys named LeAlan jones and Lloyd Newman becoming reporters and interviewing people in their neighborhood to show people what it’s like in the ghetto life. The movie that went with the book was very different. In the movie and the book Our America, there were many differences such as Principal Williams momentarily becoming an antagonist, Davis Isay was more important, and Lloyd’s life was focused on more in the movie.

Birth of a Nation uses its histrionic plot to show how tangled destinies of a southern and northern family before and after the Civil War. It willingly portrays southern blacks as spiteful and uncivil, the northern whites as crafty, dishonest, and conceited, and the film’s southern whites as anguish recurrent radical and erotic mortifications at the hands of white northerners and black southerners before factually being saved by the thoughtful, Ku Klux Klan. The film is divided to show the different aspects of those two sides during this historical time. During this time Africans were coming to America and it started the reconstruction on our country. D.W. Griffith made this film to show us the reality of racism at this point in time.

The Birth of a Nation, arguably one of the most ambiguous names in the history of cinema, is only about to get more complex and chaotic. The Birth of a Nation was originally the title of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist propaganda film about the rise of the Ku Klux Klan who “saved” the South from being dictated by blacks during the Reconstruction era when the North tried to rebuild the South after the Civil War. Now, that title poises a new movie written, directed, produced, and starring actor Nate Parker that dramatizes the 1831 slave rebellion led by enslaved African-American Nat Turner.

In this movie the African Americans were treated nicely but in reality they did not feel this way. The masters mistreated their slaves but in the movie they were actually having conversations. There is a scene in the movie where a group of African Americans were shaking hands with the white Americans. The producer of the movie wanted to inform others that the “birth” of America was founded on the basis of equality rather than discrimination. If the producer of the movie did not show how the slaves were mistreated, the people will just see the world in only that point of view; the slaves’ point of view does not exist. Ruling countries oppressed both the undeveloped, barren places and the African Americans. The Birth of the Nation is a perfect example of a form of travel writing; the Americans wanted to inform others about America but this movie was only produced in their perspective. Rather than recording the reality, the produces or writers record history with the input of their own influences.

This short film is known today as what is directly responsible for the rebirth of the “KKK.” In “13th” it explains how African Americans were looked at as “Super Predators.” It was how they were addressed in the news, by politicians, and by high superiors. The movie shows how this not only scares whites away from blacks but it also made African Americans scared of their own race. An example from the movie is Donald Trump’s full-page ad advocating the death penalty for the Central Park Five, who all turned out to be

The history of African Americans in early Hollywood films originated with blacks representing preconceived stereotypes. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, Birth of a Nation, stirred many controversial issues within the black community. The fact that Griffith used white actors in blackface to portray black people showed how little he knew about African Americans. Bosley Crowther’s article “The Birth of Birth of a Nation” emphasizes that the film was a “highly pro-South drama of the American Civil War and the Period of Reconstruction, and it glorified the role of the Ku Klux Klan” (76). While viewing this film, one would assert that the Ku Klux Klan members are heroic forces that rescue white women from sexually abusive black men. Griffith

To begin, the documentary argues that the cycle of African Americans becoming continuously depicted as criminals started with a clause in the thirteenth amendment, which explicitly states "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction" (13th amendment section 1). Several experts argue that this clause was actually intended to be utilized as a tool; and as a result, masses of African American males were arrested for petty crimes in order to be put back to work through convict leasing. Additionally, the movie "Birth of a Nation" created fear of the black man as a rapist of white women, which in turn gave power back to the KKK to advance their causes. As the cycle continues, many groups gained power by utilizing the fear of African American crime including the Democratic party through the use of Jim Crow laws, Nixon and the Southern Strategy, Reagan and the modern War on Drugs, as well as Bush and Clinton's tough on crime platforms. Finally, through the political rhetoric of fear, outside establishments such as the Corrections Corporation of America and companies associated with the American Legislative Exchange Council have benefitted financially.

All through the considered silent period, Blacks in film were typically pigeonholed as toms or coons. Nonetheless, the savage still showed up, particularly in the uncommon, in movies of “all colored cast”. These movies were aimed at portraying women as lesser beings because they could be used as dancers or sex tools in the Antebellum South, or in present-day Harlem. Extensive consideration has been given to the commonness and diligence of generalizations of the blacks in America (Bates 661). Yet one of these recognized generalizations or stereotyping, the “abysmal mulatto,” has gotten quick consideration from researchers and social pundits of film and pop culture in the United States. The Birth of a Nation portrays a society that is truly bent in keeping up the rigid social limits, this exclusion is very tricky. It is true that most films during this period, tried to dissect the film’s political capacities and sociological effect as far as race, sex, and class is concerned.

“13th”, directed by Ava DuVernay, is a film that showcases the history and evolution of race relations in the United States. Using the 13th Amendment and the Law and Order objectives put forth by many different Presidential Administrations, the documentary questions the concept of slavery in the United States. The film begins with the fact that the United States incarcerates twenty five percent of the world’s incarcerated people. This number is astounding due to fact that the United States only contains about five percent of the world's population. The documentary stems further by not only charting America’s escalating incarceration rate, but by showing the history behind the growing rate during each escalation. The main purpose of“13th” is

This can in part be due to this idea that the criminalization of African Americans didn’t stop at the ratification of the thirteenth amendment. One study states, “In 1982, many states still had clauses in their constitutions that deemed slavery and indentured servitude legal punishments or had no proviso about the legality or illegality of prison enslavement” (Gilmore, 2000). This racial disproportionality in the prison population continues to rage on in this nation, and this film, 13th demonstrated just why that was, and how we as individuals need to change if any progress is to be

Rather, thirteenth is an instructive apparatus, based on the expectation that more mindfulness will prompt change. There are some who may whine at the effective case Ava DuVernay makes in "13th." Because her interpretation of these issues is mind baffling, she can't indicate each time an indisputable evidence. However, one of the stunning things this motion picture catches is the manner by which preconception could be the main thrust behind something as rattling as the incline of mass imprisonment in America, yet that bigotry could stay from multiple points of view undetectable. So a few people will be headed to state the prejudice isn't there. Be that as it may, what they're truly saying is, it's not a white people issue. A film influences you to understand that it's everybody's

Dear America is the stories of soldiers who served in the Vietnam war, and their friends and families at home. The film presents the history of the war in a way that is sometimes misleading, due to the omission of several key facts. For example, it avoids any comment that the United States lost the war. It also accepts uncritically the Gulf of Tonkin incident, that President Johnson used to give himself a reason to prosecute the war. It also eliminate the Vietnamese from serious consideration: since the war was fought on their soil. While it is Insight text article on Dear America possible to construe the film as making an anti-war statement, and promoting a patriotic message. Many Vietnam veterans underwent harsh treatment and

The Minority Report is a film that tries to stop crimes before they happen, with the enlistment of 3 teen pre-cogs. These pre-cogs predict future murders and the authorities swoop in and arrest the would-be murders, before they have the chance of committing the crime. Even thing goes great until Anderton, a cop played by Tom Cruise, is suspected. Written by Philip K. Dick and then turned to film by Steven Spielberg in 2002, the short story to film became a success. Though there are many differences between the book and the movie, one would think Steven Spielberg would not be able to grab audience’s attention, but with his skills, Spielberg went above and beyond all measures. Many times, novels to films end up being either a great hit