The Birth of a Nation (1915) - 3/10

I’ve watched thousands of films, of all shapes and sizes. Like many viewers who review, I’d like to think I’ve a wide and varied knowledge base of cinema. There are a lot of films though and you can’t watch them all. So why watch this 3 hour, highly controversial film from 1915. I’ll be honest, it’s that last bit for me, 1915. I love old cinema and this by fortune of the era in which it was made, counts as a classic regardless of your politics. It doesn’t mean you have to like it though. Now, watching stuttery sepia toned silent film, with a bombastic chamber music score and reading text slates (every one hammering home the vain directors name), maybe isn’t for everyone, but this is still pretty accessible, worryingly so. We’re introduced to two well to do families, the northern Stoneman’s and the southern Cameron’s and all is cordial and polite to begin, romance blossoming between the eligible members of each. We are of course though, in slave era America and conflicting values are soon to drive a wedge through their hopes and the country. It’s not at all balanced, nor that accurate. It’s propaganda, weighted toward the south prospering off the backs of their slaves. The northerners are depicted as devilish and untrustworthy, the southerners, refined and galant. It’s odd to watch through modern eyes. Yes America, still to this day has ongoing race issues, but to see slavery depicted here so blatantly as a just cause to be protected is really shocking. Neither side come off particularly well and the scale of the loss throughout is palpable. It’s certainly very arresting and the production is impressive. Why it’s so long though is basically down to indulgence. Some of the battle sequences must’ve taken a long time to set up and so the cameras are left to roll longer than needed to serve the pretty base level story. The civil war is really only part one though and worryingly the less troublesome half. Returning home, the surviving Cameron brother, Ben finds his slave powered riches gone. Lincoln’s assassination adds fuel to the fire and part two kicks off with the souths reconstruction, but what exactly are they to construct. The blatant racism now comes to the fore and honestly, it’s hard to watch. The rightful hero’s vilified, it’s all backward and quite laughable, if the real life ramifications weren’t so vile. With the mention of vile ramifications, enter the Ku Klux Klan. Who are ridiculously depicted here as righteous hero’s. The two families remain at the heart of this twisted narrative, but the KKK rubbish takes over as you’d imagine and that fact that the KKK are still around in 2026, makes this all the more horrifying. It’s so far from the truth of historical fact, that it really has to be seen to be believed, but seriously, don’t watch this, it’s repulsive crap. 3 marks for its obvious technical execution, it’s a shame it was employed in service of such hateful nonsense.

3/10