Lillian Gish: should a great actor be judged by a racist film?
An Ohio cinema has removed ‘Gish’
from its name due to her role in notorious 1915 film The Birth of a
Nation. Cultural myopia – or proof of newly enlightened times?
DW Griffith’s 1915 film epic is still
dangerous, perhaps increasingly so. The movie, which prompted
protests from the NAACP and cinema riots on its release, praises the
Ku Klux Klan and contains deeply offensive representations of African
Americans in the years following the civil war. It was held
responsible for a surge in KKK membership and has always had a toxic
reputation, while being lauded for its technique.
MOVIELAND, May 10
When D. W. Griffith gave us The Birth Of A Nation
it was seen as and, rightly, deemed a sensation.
In black and white, his skillful directorial hand
celebrates hate and the Ku Klux Klan.
(Am I alone in finding that name
silly, illiterate and exceedingly lame?)
Anyway, as I had started to say
this flick was a hit back in its day,
way before anyone would call attention
to what is, at least, its extreme condescension.
(Well, it is actually more propaganda,
pandering slander from a racist grandstander.)
This “classic” agitprop still is deployed
to make down-market whites more paranoid,
assuring they never get to a place
where they can see there are no races.
Therefore a #MAGA conflagration
climaxing in The Death Of A Nation?
We have a leader who is such a jerk, he'll
likely lead us in this full circle.
We have a leader who is such a jerk, he'll
likely lead us in this full circle.
