The Klansman becomes a movie

Rating: 5/10 (8 June 2016)

It is an exceptional experience to play the piano to accompany a classic silent movie. "The Birth of A Nation" (1915) was one of the first such movies for which I played the piano (in 1975 at the USO at the NATO base at Keflavik, Iceland). The movie itself was 8mm B&W film on reels from Blackhawk Films.
I was glad to have had the opportunity to see the movie, but its roots in the novel The Klansman were inescapable. I could not help but draw parallels between "Nation" and "Gone with the Wind". The attitude was blatantly that the South fell, good riddance, and let it stay that way.
The song used for the "march to battle" scene was "Billy, Don't Be A Hero".
All in all, if you are a student of the history of movie-making, you need to include this feature in your "to watch" list. And let us hope that we in America have grown up to think with better respect for each other.