The Birth of a Nation

011659 / 16 / US / 1915 / Griffith, D.W. / / historical drama

Birth of a Nation, The / Kansakunnan synty. PC: David W. Griffith Corporation. P+D+SC: D.W. Griffith. M: Joseph Carl Breil. CAST: Henry B. Walthall, Robert Harron, Lillian Gish, Miriam Cooper, Mae Marsh. Pordenone, Cinema Verdi, Saturday 11 October 1997. Restored print based on the 1921 re-release by Photoplay Productions (David Gill, Kevin Brownlow, Patrick Stanbury). 3454 m /16 fps/ 187’. Tinted print. Live music based on the original score arranged and conducted by John Lanchbery, performed by Ljubljana Camerata Labacensis Orchestra. Screening dedicated to David Gill (1928 - 1997). **** ??!! The most ambivalent and embarrassing of the film classics has lost none of its power to move or to offend. I was previously familiar only with the 3280 m version of the film’s last Finnish re-release of 1964 which at sound speed ran one hour faster than this screening. To be cherished: the wonderful fluidity, the perfect blend of sound and vision, music marvellously restored and amended by John Lanchbery. It still probably is the highest grossing film of all time, if the value of the dollar is adjusted. And the most influential, besides Citizen Kane: participation in it changed the lives of John Ford, Raoul Walsh, and Erich von Stroheim, among others. For the first time I could really appreciate the majesty of the first part dedicated to the Civil War. The second part focusing on the Ku Klux Klan became more serious, too, because of the high standards of the presentation. Previously, in the Finnish release version, I found the racism merely stupid. Now I found the blood-thirsty aggressiveness as vicious as anything from Nazi Germany. I refused to applaud. No wonder The Birth of a Nation has not been exhibited in public since the 1940s in Anglo-Saxon countries. It may only be shown on special occasions in an anti-racist context.