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Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Drama texts, plays > From 1900
The Birth of a Nation (1915) remains the most controversial
American film ever made, and its director, D. W. Griffith, one of
the most extraordinary figures in film history. It was the first
true feature film and did more than any other to launch Hollywood
both as an industry and as an idea. The film consolidated a trend
in cinematic technique and an approach to dramatic narrative that
define American cinema to this day. As a great but ideologically
troubled film that offers us a reflection of ourselves as
Americans, The Birth of a Nation continues to intrigue, challenge,
infuriate, and awe. Robert Lang's introduction to this volume
explores in fascinating detail the warped view of history that this
great film presents. Griffith, a Southerner, was intent on
resurrecting, idealizing, and justifying the South. In The Birth of
a Nation, it is racism that unites the white North and South; the
protection or abolition of slavery is not the divisive issue. In a
powerful synthesis of spectacle and narrative, Griffith seeks to
give the Southern cause a sense of glamour and high purpose. Lang
considers the film as a historical melodrama, and by examining
Griffith's "historiography as ideological practice," he traces the
way in which the bloody, traumatic reality of the Civil War and
Reconstruction becomes melodramatic myth. This unparalleled guide
to The Birth of a Nation offers a shot-by-shot continuity script; a
biographical sketch of the director; a sampling of contemporary
reviews; a series of essays by distinguished critics including
James Chandler, Michael Rogin, Janet Staiger, and Mimi White; and a
filmography and bibliography. Robert Lang is an assistant professor
of English and film studies at the University of Hartford.
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