Oversight Marathon: The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Yesterday, I watched The Birth of a Nation.  It’s a 1915 film about the Civil War, and the creation of the Ku Klux Klan as a result of the war.  It’s not a particularly good film but has the potential to be something great.  Let me show you what I mean by this through describing what was done and how, and then get into what could be done and how to relieve some of the issues.  This is not an “I could make a better movie” thing because I am no filmmaker.   I have never made an actual movie, so this is coming from someone who probably couldn’t make a movie at this point.  However, I do have an opinion that I would like to wield.

The Birth of a Nation does have a lot of potential to be an epic film about the creation of one of the biggest figures of racism in the history of the United States of America.  The Ku Klux Klan is something that should not be glorified, yet this film glorified it.  The Birth of a Nation made the Ku Klux Klan out to be the heroes.  The African-Americans were made out to be (mostly) unintelligent, always horny, and violent people.  There were also a very many stereotypes used in the film against them.  This is rewriting history in a way that is inaccurate, to say the least.

Also taking away from The Birth of a Nation is the technical limitations of the time in which it was made.  I’m not sure that a silent film can completely grasp the material that is being presented.  Colour would help as well.  There are great silent films and great black and white films, of course, but in this case, I think the technical limitations within those two areas greatly took away from the potential that this story has.

Now, before I get into what I would change, I would like to once again state that this is my opinion and I am not a filmmaker so what I say might be bullshit that couldn’t work in a movie.  But I think it could so I am sharing for the sake of sharing.

I think that The Birth of a Nation should be remade.  That may sound weird, considering it is known solely as being one of the most racist movies in existence.  I think it could actually turn out to be a rather good film, with a few changes, most notably the racism.  Get rid of the racism.

The African-American characters don’t need to be portrayed by white people in blackface.  I know that was common at the time and there is nothing that could be done to avoid that because of segregation, but now there could be people playing their own race.  The stereotypes can be removed altogether.  Why were they in the movie to begin with?  Some characters can be dumb, but don’t generalize an entire race as dumb, horny, and violent.  You can’t generalize people like that.  It’s not the truth.

That’s my next point.  Bring in a bit more realism.  Sure, it’s nice to have the story of a family from the north and a family from the south, and tell how they interact pre-war, during war, and post-war.  That’s nice and it’s okay to add that to the story.  But if you’re going to tell a story about the KKK and you want it to be taken seriously, you should probably get it accurate from both points of view.  I think this could make for a gripping tale of the creation of the KKK if you show why they were created, then show their descent into becoming the monster that they are known as now.

As long as it’s an accurate representation of all sides, the story could work.  Then you add in the technological advancements over the past 97 years and it could vastly improve the aesthetic of the movie.  You can accentuate darkness, the reds, do whatever with the colour of the movie because you can actually use colour.  Instead of numerous moments where you see characters conversing but don’t know what they’re saying, you can hear what they’re saying.  Camerawork has also had advancements that can allow for better movement, longer takes, better exposure and such.

All of this is how I think this movie could be remade today into a better film.  This is in no way an endorsement of The Birth of a Nation as it is in 1915.  This is basically just me wanting a better film representation of the creation of the KKK because it could be quite a fascinating and horrific movie.  The Birth of a Nation showed me that there is potential to create a movie about this material.  The problem is that The Birth of a Nation went about presenting this material in the wrong manner.  I hope somebody in the future has the balls to tackle this subject matter.