Split Personality

Rating: 1/10 (27 May 2000)

I see a remarkable similarity between the personality of composer Richard Wagner and the director David Work Griffith, pariticularly as it applies to "Birth of a Nation." Both have the capacity of creative technical and even emotion genius, while at the same time, a penchant for prejudice and bigotry.
What makes their work so difficult to judge is that it tends to slip in and out of sickness subtlely and surprisingly. Their genius has the power to draw one into its fold, then manipulate one's emotions to its pleasure. Having gotten the viewer hooked into its context, it weaves its clever, overpowering spell of persuasion.
Their is very little to uplift the spirits here, to make one feel good about one's self, not to mention one's fellow beings. Where is the love and celebration of life as it's to be lived? Where is the joy of this precious gift to be on this planet, enjoying its richess? Where is the embracing of each and every human being who is our brother and sister, and trying to empower them to reach their full potential?
I see none of that here, only a lugubrious attitude of hatred, superiority, and downright fear. Parallels between the work of Leni Riefenstahl and her "Triumph of the Will" and "Birth of a Nation" are not without validity.

This work will forever be a contridiction, and there is no hope in making it better. We can only strive to separate its technical achievements from its low-level mentality -- or avoid the work altogether.