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| The Birth Of A Nation |
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| Originally released: 1915 |
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Griffith's early masterpiece, the first great epic of the American
cinema, remains the subject of fierce controversy. Nobody disputes
the delicacy of performance from the director's stock company, the
authenticity of art direction, and above all the power of the editing,
whose dynamism far surpasses the lumbering Italian epics (such as
Cabiria) which inspired Griffith's own art. Nobody, either, can
dispute the fierce racism of the narrative, the message of white
supremacy and the exaltation of the Ku Klux Klan. A hard film to stomach,
then, but essential viewing for anyone who loves the cinema; a
monument, in David Thomson's words, "worthy of some shame and
much exhilaration".
Alex Jacoby
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