Horrid, Horrifying... And Frightening!

Rating: 1/10 (10 May 2006)

I watched this with the best open mind I could conjure up, and it was still not enough. According to several film historians, this type of racial attitude was actually common back when this was made... And it has been said DW Griffith was actually surprised when rebuffed for making this film. But the worst thing about this film is that, for a time, we had forgotten that it was ever made.
Many students of film praise this work, on a purely technical aspect. In good conscience, I cannot praise this work at all for any reason. Certainly there were directorial facets that can be referred to as "good" but, to be frank, if you use a toilet, and then not flush, then close the lid and clean the outside of the toilet shiny bright, it does nothing except hide the fact that there is still human waste products, unflushed, in the receptacle. On that analogy, a person would probably smell the stench and see the flies from afar before they even got close to the direct source of the stench of racism. And so I can NOT give this film even the slightest iota of praise: If a thing is rotten at the core, it is rotten through and through.
This is exactly the case we have with this film. Of all the disgusting crap we have been sold over the years to us through the mis-use of the medium of film, This pack of lies did the most damage. This film is represented as if it were history and I am very glad it never happened, except for the unfortunate creation of a secret society that I hate with all my might. This Secret Society NEVER rose to the heights shown in the film, because I think that we as human beings actually knew better even back then to support this type of hate on the scale that was shown in this "Epic." The film was presented in much the same way as war films of 1941 to 1944 were presented: As if this "Society" were saviours of the Continental US and that "We all should rise up and keep the repression going and then everybody live happy evah afteh." If any good can be said about this, it would be that we can see what we do NOT want our nation to become. Unfortunately, this film being made when it was made, and Film being such a new powerful medium, that damage this film wrought lasted for decades, even longer.
This film is a monument to all the very worst of Hollywood: It is a monument to a way of thinking, that certain races of people ought to be "Good lil boys and girls" and be seen, not heard, not vote, intermarry, or have any political power whatsoever. This bad way of thinking is not limited to the race in the film, it also spreads to other races from other cultures that have migrated to the US, and even cultures that existed here before this continent was colonised by people from Northern Europe. Even in 1915... This country was not a country with only one race of people living in it, it was a melting pot. But this film represents what we were allowed to see of our nation, and it was the wrong image.
I am frankly astonished that the actors and actresses agreed to be part of such a thing, that they actually cooperated in this. I am thankful that we can look back on this film, as a lesson on all the wrong ways to make a film, or how to treat our neighbors and friends for that matter. I myself apologise, I apologise for this movie.
I also apologise for things like actors in Black Face. You know? Al Jolson, Mickey Rooney, Fred Astaire... in a comedic sense, maybe there is some kind of humour in black face. For me? But what about a person of the race that is being "parodied?" - How to they feel about it? The actual origin of the Black Face is a discussion for another time and place. As far as character acting: In modern film, it is possible to change an actors race for a dramatic part, if the actor is good enough: Walter Slezak to Chinese, Jean Simmons to Indian (Not "American") in Black Narcissus. But from White to Black, is this proper? I do not know if I can ever view films from the 30's that have follies in them, and enjoy them as I used to. Has any actor put on White face and played a white person? This is a type of hidden boundary that was crossed in Vaudeville and on film, and it is pretty tasteless even to do it in a comedic way: In Birth of a Nation, White actors in Black face was NOT being done in a comedic sense: And to see the film, it is obvious who is in black face and who is a real coloured person. This ought never have been done! Griffith overstepped the boundaries of human decency several times even by thinking of making this film, but the use of white actors in black face was the largest misuse of his authority, and his gifts, if any, of a directorial sense.
As far as I am concerned, this film shows the highest level of disrespect from one race to another ever captured on film. And I am sorry, I am so sorry that this was ever done. So, NO, may it not ever happen again, and may films like this be forever forgotten. May it never happen ever again!