Mixed Feelings

Rating: Null/10 (22 July 1999)

First of all, if you're going to appreciate this film, then you're going to have to appreciate the technicality and handle of the camara both before this movie was ever made and after. Before, camaras never moved; camaras were far away, never any close-ups of any kind. Griffith took what he had and used it. He reached new heights with it. It's grand because before this movie, movies weren't really much. It was also the first movie to create a LOT of strong feelings for any film. It was a racist movie. It said the Civil War wasn't the Union (North) against the Confederate (South), it was about the blacks against the whites. There were stereotypes everywhere! Of what good girls were, what mulattoes were like, of the relationship between black men and white women, of faithful black servants, and the relationship between whites, etc. It was a strong story that either evoke feelings to fight prejudice or to support for the KKK. You'd have to know a little bit about film history and US history. Remember also, that Griffith was a poor, Southern boy growing up. He would hear stories of the "good ole days" before the Civil War from his father who was a colonel of the Confederacy.