The Birth of a Nation & The Civil War Films of D.W....

Buy This Item The Birth of a Nation & The Civil War Films of D.W.... by Kino Video  Available from Amazon  $26.99  on 11-26-2008     A pivotal moment in film history. After <i>The Birth of a Nation</i>, nothing was the same: not the way audiences watched movies, not the way filmmakers created them. D.W. Griffith's jumbo-size saga of the Civil War expanded the boundaries of storytelling on the screen, conveying a richer, more complicated (and certainly longer) tale than anyone had seen in a movie before. The delicate relationships, the sad passage of time, the spectacular battle scenes all look as fresh and innovative today as they did in 1915. So do Griffith's brilliant actors, most of them--including favorite leading lady Lillian Gish--drawn from his regular stock company. What has become increasingly problematic about <i>The Birth of a Nation</i> is Griffith's condescending attitude toward black slaves, and the ringing excitement surrounding the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith, whose political ideas were naive at best, seemed genuinely surprised by the criticism of his masterwork, and for his next project he turned to the humanist preaching of the massive <i>Intolerance</i>. Despite protests, <i>Birth</i> sold more tickets than any other movie, a record that stood for decades, and President Woodrow Wilson famously compared it to "history written in lightning." That judgment has lasted. <i>--Robert Horton</i> Reader Reviews This film will be of great use in teaching the evolution and development of cinema in my Media Studies classes. D.W.Griffith's pioneering techniques were used in Peter Jackson's "Forgotten Silver" mockmentary on the birth of film in New Zealand. The two films will be useful as examples of film history.

The Birth of a Nation & The Civil War Films of D.W.... Available from Amazon Price: $26.99 Updated on 11-26-2008.

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