D.W.
Griffith, a film
director working in Hollywood,
made over 400 films for the Biograph
Company between 1907 and 1913. Griffith wanted to make
feature-length films but when this idea was rejected he left the company.
He immediately began work on adapting Thomas Dixon's novel, The
Clansman.
Dixon's novel tells the story of the aftermath of the American
Civil War. Griffith, the son of a Confederate Colonel in the war,
was interested in conveying the feelings of people living in the South
after being defeated by the Northern army.
When Birth
of a Nation
opened on 8th January, 1915, it created a sensation. Griffith's use
of intricate editing and film techniques such as alternating close-ups
and long-shots from varying camera angles, were revolutionary and
inspired a generation of directors.
However, the film's portrayal of the Ku Klux
Klan and African Americans, resulted in D.W.
Griffith being accused
of racism. Despite attempts by the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People to have the
film banned, it was highly successful at the box office. The film,
which cost $110,000 to make, eventually grossed more than $60 million.
Deeply hurt by the accusations of racism, Griffith's next film,
Intolerance
(1916), was a quartet of stories of man's inhumanity to man. Griffith's
attempt to compensate for the politics of the Birth
of a Nation was
a commercial flop.
Intolerance
left him heavily in debt and over the next few years desperately attempted
to make films that would enable him to pay off his creditors.
Film poster for Birth of a Nation (1915)
(1)
Ida
Wells, a members of the NAACP, was
involved in the protests about Birth
of a Nation.
In her In her autobiography, Crusade for Justice (1928),
she described how D.
W. Griffith
defended his film in court.
Mr. D. W. Griffith, the creator of the film, took the stand and denied
that there was anything in The Birth of a Nation which could
be objected to. D. W. Griffith was a great artist and one of the leading
geniuses in presenting photo plays. That he should prostitute his
talents in what would otherwise have had the finest picture presented,
in an effort to misrepresent a helpless race, has always been a wonder
to me. I have often wondered if his failure to establish himself as
a moving picture magnate is not because he chose to prostitute his
magnificent talents by an unjust and unworthy portrayal of the Negro
race.
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