Comments | life_boy: The Birth of a Controversy

life_boy

The Birth of a Controversy

Oct 18, 2005 18:40

Here's an article about The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915).I'm not sure exactly what Mr. Large's point was for writing the article; his writing is actually kinder to the Griffith film than many of the supposed film reviews I have seen written on it. It is one of those strange things where a reviewer will never make a moral judgement on a ( Read more... )

Comments 1

ex_bela October 18 2005, 23:54:19 UTC

....and yet it's a tremendous achievement. So here's a big flip of the bird to those who can't resist the urge to inflict their "PC" values on a film released nearly a century ago.
When Birth of a Nation was first released, it was shown in opera houses with symphonies providing the soundtrack. Tickets to such shows were in the neighborhood of $10-$15....I can't even begin to imagine what that would be today. Ten times that? Twenty? The mind boggles. Today, if I pay seven bucks for a film, there's still a >50% chance that I'll walk out feeling completely ripped off. Imagine the 'risk' those moviegoers were taking in 1915.
If he's misunderstood because of this film, then those who claim to love Griffith while continuing to denigrate this work still don't "get" him at all.

Same applies to Leni Riefenstahl and Triumph of the Will, imo....the work is brilliant or it is not. There is no "but".