Film · Epoch · 1915
Pass it on
The Birth of a Nation
5Leave it.
Don't press play: it is a lie about Reconstruction that sold the Klan as rescue.
Take controlThis scores 5. The Birth of a Nation cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it
The review
I would not put this on for anyone in this house. Griffith took Dixon's The Clansman and staged Reconstruction as a horror, with Black men as a threat to white women and the Ku Klux Klan as the rescue. White actors in blackface play the Black roles. It was screened at the White House. I won't invent what was said in that room.
A printed figure of ten million gets attached to the first run, and later claims go higher. The ledgers are not clean, so I won't stand behind one audited number. The second Klan was founded the same year, on the back of this picture. The crowd was enormous. That is not a reason to press play. It is a lie, and it is not a family film.
Journal
Keep The Birth of a Nation in the record.
No house has filed a sentence for this yet.
Live Historic number 5. Yours can differ.
The glance
Industry and Household and Piety and Courage and Republic and Temperance and Truth and Stewardship are the thin ones.
Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?
This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.
The eight
- 1Industry
No honest job is the point; the picture's job is the lie.
- 1Household
White homes are the excuse; Black life is cast as the threat.
- 0Piety
No conscience stops the Klan the picture calls a rescue.
- 1Courage
The risk it praises is a Klan ride sold as a rescue.
- 0Republic
It wants Reconstruction undone and owes Black neighbors nothing.
- 1Temperance
A huge crowd was trained to sit still for the next outrage.
- 0Truth
It is a lie about Reconstruction, with the second Klan as the bill.
- 0Stewardship
What it left was a Klan myth, not a past anyone can share.
Where to watch
Finding the page.
Live Historic · The Birth of a Nation · 5IMDb
