Birth of a Nation

Racism has been around since the beginning of time. Basically if you had a skin tone darker than the shade of white, you were inferior. Times have now changed, but there are remnants of this subject everywhere, even in film. The movie Birth of a Nation is considered one of the greatest films of all time, even with these themes. AMC’s Filmsite even has it listed within the 100 Greatest Films of All Time. Another movie with the some of the same themes is Blazing Saddles. Blazing Saddles does not have the same stature as Birth of a Nation, but it does deserve to be higher in the canon. I do believe that Blazing Saddles does not have the same stature because it is a comedy with crude humor and because it has a black sheriff as the protagonist. The D. W. Griffith film was considered controversial and is still considered controversial to this day. Basically it paints the story of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Of course the KKK members were the heroes of the story and saved everyone from harm. The film uses white actors painted in black face to portray freed slaves. It also portrays them as savages and rapists. There was not one “black” person in the film that wasn’t considered a villain. During the voting scene, blacks were seen taking over the polls while the whites had their votes taken away. One quote in the movie when talking about a village says, “In the villages the negroes were the office holders, men who knew none of the uses of authority.” The freed slaves were just looked at as all around incompetent in the film and off film. Also, sometimes there would be African Americans in the background. You would assume that they are actors and could be used to star in the film as well.
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I will agree that the film was before its time cinematography wise and even subject wise. The movie was around three hours long, I have to give it credit to be made in 1915. That is impressive. It even had a super impressive budget and made a ton of money at the box