Hello, all, from Joe Bonelli in Mississippi.
Were I not a long-time member of the MOPO and Style-B lists I would hesitate to post on this subject. My unusually "liberal" attitudes (for what and where I am) are pretty well documented in various posts on various subjects on both lists over these many months. So I will try to express myself seriously and sensitively on the subject of "Birth of a Nation" and the cancellation of the showing in L.A.
As a 61-year-old white American Southerner who grew up in the final days of racial segregation in the South of the United States and witnessed (though, shamefully, did not take part in) the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, I have to weigh my words carefully so as not to give the impression that I approve of this magnificent relic's racial insensitivities or of the NAACP's successful campaign that resulted in the cancellation of its showing at the wonderful Silent Cinema in Los Angeles-- one of that city's true treasures-- still on Fairfax, I presume.
I have very mixed feelings about "Birth of a Nation." I first saw the film when it was re-released to theatres in the 1970s (I believe). I found it to be an exciting work-- astonishing in its recreation of the era, of historical moments (e.g., the assasination of Lincoln) from old photographs, and the scourge of war as depicted in the unforgettable photographs of Brady and other Civil War photographers. It is cinematically breathtaking!! I must admit that I found the racial insensitivity-- the boorish black-faced villain, the buffoonish depiction of blacks in general, the ridiculous holding up of the Ku Klux Klan as an heroic organization-- to be laughable.
It was in later viewings of the whole film once and parts a number of times that I began to be embarassed as a white American-- embarassed that, while Griffith and Company were probably only steeped in the mores of their own era, this stuff could be taken seriously for a minute.
For the "racial" moments in the film are truly appalling. They make the worst of "Gone With the Wind" (a favorite of mine-- but beginning to make me feel "uncomfortable" in many parts as well) seem like a Spike Lee Joint--- an assertion that would infuriate that brilliant director (who needs to make more films and talk about them less) who abhors GWTW and the character of "Mammy" (whom I revere) in particular.
The eye-rolling melodrama of the latter half of "Nation" is difficult to take seriously at all and the villainous "half-breed" (oh, the desparate need to condemn the racially-mixed that still exists today on both sides of that fence, folks!) would be funny if he weren't so disgusting!
And the sight of my beloved Lillian Gish- her character rescued and riding at the head of the white-robed horde just horrifies me today! In a wonderful biography of Griffith that I taped from public television several years ago (when Public Television still WAS ..well, that's another story!), Gish demurred that, "Mr. Griffith just loved the colored people." And she was telling the truth as she knew it, for it was all from another time.
(To quickly digress, one of my fondest memories is sitting at Loyola University in New Orleans one evening in the mid-seventies and hearing Gish speak of the silent Griffith days and show scenes from his films--- not "Nation," I might add. She told us of the work they did as a true "ensemble"-- how the actors also directed second-unit things, etc. She showed the famous Ice-floe scene in "Way Down East" and told how it was for real and that after the shoot was finished that Richard Barthelmess whispered to her that even Griffith couldn't get him to EVER do that again!!)
What's sadder than the deficiencies (not technical) of "Nation" is the cancellation of the showing at the Silent Cinema in Los Angeles. Though I can understand the indignation of members of the NAACP I am sad that they succeeded. For this film MUST be seen-- and in the theatrical context-- to understand the impact it had on motion pictures as an art form-- AND on the society of its day. The film deservedly caused race riots in many cities!! It toured and played large venues with full orchestra-- a "media" event of its era!
And it made people think! Even if what they thought about was not what Griffith intended.
By causing the theatre management to abandon plans to show the film in a real theatre with period accompaniment by a justifiably-famous exponent of the style (who won't be around too many more years-- or even months, possibly) and in the intended educational manner, the organization has deprived everyone-- especially themselves and their young people-- of an important experience.
Let's hope that more enlightened members of the African-American community will speak out in favor of a showing-- specifically for the study of the film as an art form and the display of the fact that many of us have racially come so far.
At least, I hope I'm right!
I hope these remarks are taken in proper light. I learned the ugliness of racism first-hand-- as an observer when I was at my most impressionable age. It made me feel sick and I hated it-- just as I hate the continued stupidity of the racist behavior of so many of my fellow Mississippians-- of ALL races, folks-- that continues to this day and keeps so much of the deep south at the bottom of the US pecking order.
In my hometown of Vicksburg, the site of one of the most important campaigns of the American Civil War, there still sits the "Strand Theatre." The box-office is a "segregated" one. It sits out from the entrance (in a porch-type area) and has a front window for ticket dispensing. On the right side is another window. It was for black patrons who would purchase their tickets and go up the stairs that are still there, to the balcony. Should they wish concessions the ticket seller would obtain them for them but they were not allowed to go in the lobby and purchase them.
There is still a sign above that stairway door. It says, "Colored Entrance." It's covered by a "mask." The building's owner was going to paint over it. But wise members of Vicksburg's African-American community asked that it be left as a "reminder." I used to show the ticket booth to school groups as physical proof that "segregation" had existed in fact. When I would say, "YOU had to go up there... and YOU had to go in there... and NEITHER of YOU could go where the other went.." they would just gape in astonishment and laugh. They thought it was silly.
And so it was!! Tragically so.
Perhaps I should suggest that those Vicksburgers who said to leave the sign might go to L.A. and suggest that "Birth of a Nation" be shown.
After all, there's only one way to learn!
Joe Bonelli in Jackson, Ms. USA
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