D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation

In this deeply researched and vividly written volume Melvyn Stokes illuminates the origins production reception and continuing history of this ground-breaking aesthetically brilliant and yet highly controversial movie. By going back to the original archives particularly the NAACP and D. W. Griffith Papers Stokes explodes many of the myths surrounding The Birth of a Nation (1915). Yet the story that remains is fascinating: the longest American film of its time Griffith''s film incorporated many new features including the first full musical score compiled for an American film. It was distributed and advertised by pioneering methods that would quickly become standard. Through the high prices charged for admission and the fact that it was shown at first only in live theaters with orchestral accompaniment Birth played a major role in reconfiguring the American movie audience by attracting more middle-class patrons. But if the film was a milestone in the history of cinema it was also undeniably racist. Stokes shows that the darker side of this classic movie has its origins in the racist ideas of Thomas Dixon Jr. and Griffith''s own Kentuckian background and earlier film career. The book reveals how as the years went by the campaign against the film became increasingly successful. In the 1920s for example the NAACP exploited the fact that the new Ku Klux Klan which used Griffith''s film as a recruiting and retention tool was not just anti-black but also anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish as a way to mobilize new allies in opposition to the film. This crisply written book sheds light on both the film''s racism and the aesthetic brilliance of Griffith''s filmmaking. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the cinema.