Hard to Separate Form from Content

Rating: 8/10 (3 April 2006)

I don't know what prompted Griffith to make this film. Ignorance abounded. The South was reeling from the post Civil War era. The book, the Klansman, was probably pretty popular, just like anti Muslim books became popular after 9/11. This in no way should make such content acceptable. As we look at historical curiosities, this film falls into that category. I bought a VHS copy of this a few years ago because I had never actually seen it (I had watched isolated clips on cinema retrospectives). My wife and I were stunned by the content, although we knew what it was about. To see it, makes it even worse. Nevertheless, since I've been educating myself about film history and craft over many years, I felt I really needed to watch it with both a critical and a societal eye. One thing I saw was masterful images of war on film made in 1915. I saw motion and shadows and all the other things the early geniuses did to separate themselves from the also rans. The editing is excellent. The acting is emotive and appropriate for the time period. I have seen other Griffith films and know that this was a mistake. He could have applied his genius to another milieu, but he didn't. I doubt that anyone takes the content of this film seriously. If it weren't so sad, it would be downright amusing. The stereotypes are so lame and over the top. But we need to place ourselves in the historical context and evaluate it that way. Mostly, however, we need to look at it as one piece in the process of the development of cinema.