Artistic value maybe--top 100 definitely not!!

Rating: 2/10 (25 May 1999)

As a movie buff, I had always intended to see this film, but as a biracial woman, I also had mixed feelings due to the nature of the movie. But since Gone with the Wind is one of my all-time favorites, I thought I would finally give Griffith's classic a chance and see. Well, I love movies, and I love silents although I'm only in my thirties, but this movie made my eyes water from the pain it was putting me through. I'll toss political correctness to the winds...this movie, despite the few moments of artistic breakthroughs by Kentucky's own D.W. Griffith, the movie was so painfully bad in its' post-Civil War scenes that I was eventually doing my own version of Mystery Science Theater 3000, creating my own dialogue to match the hideous storyline. The sight of seeing Caucasians masquerading as blacks, the spectacle of Klansman riding to the rescue like the Knights of the Round Table...the historical inaccuracies, it made me physically ill until all I could do was laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. How the AFI thought this movie worthy of the top 100 I don't know. Yes, Griffith was a gifted moviemaker, but give credit to his better Orphans of the Storm or even Intolerance or Broken Blossoms. This film shouldn't be banned however. Let it be seen as the racist piece of vitriolic garbage it is. I'll give him minor credit for his Civil War battle scenes, but that is it.