I hope you all enjoyed Birth of a Nation. This week we do not have the time to have an alternate film screening after school, but they will be on Tuesday evenings in the future. Remember that your note should be a synthesis of the reading (below), the film we watched in class (Birth of a Nation), and one of the other films that you watched on your own outside of class from the theme (Hero; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Seven Samurai). These should not be a synopsis of plot elements, but an attempt to bridge the works together in some thematic way. You can bring our attention to the way the films are shot, or the narrative elements, or visual language cues, or music, etc. After writing your note, make sure to write a response to two other students – this does form part of your grade on the rubric.
1 Sorlin – Historical Film – Landy
Your reading this week is a wonderful primer on our task this class. It is a touch on the long side (at 26 pages in total) and a little dated but all of it merits reading. For the purposes of our discussion, focus on the sections below:
- Every Film Has Its Own “History” (pgs. 38-40)
- Filmmaking and Film Analysis (pgs. 42-45)
- History in Historical Films (pgs. 45-47)
Your supplemental reading treats with the national myth engendered by the soundtrack of one of the supplemental films, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
How T Bone Burnett Plays Hollywood
We will watch the visual essay below as an example of your Quarter 3 project.
OHS Film & History 
In the readings, it focuses on more than just the film itself. It talks about how it affected history, how History affected it, and how they were made. It also focused on the process of editing a film. One example was “Birth of a Nation”: the original version wasn’t shown because of how badly they portray African Americans. They cut out 500 feet of reel to appease the crowd. Even though the movie was Griffith’s, more people messed around with it to make it better. By 1930 Griffith did make his own shorter cut of his film. The reading also focuses on other regions like Russia and Germany; it talked about what they did during this period and what new methods they used to make movies.
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Film is mostly used now for entertainment and as distractions, but there was a time where films were mostly used to influence people to think in a certain manner. National Myth is an example on how film was used to influence people. Movies in this genre, like Birth of a Nation (1915) and Seven Samurai (1956) were used to promote nationalism. In Birth of a Nation it shows how the Nation came to be in a glorious and meaningful way; of course this isn’t quite true to history, but the purpose of it was to influence people. In Seven Samurai the same thing in general was done, but Akira Kurosawa did something a bit different. In his film, you could see consequences; in every action scene you would see the death of the antagonist. The camera wouldn’t cut away to show you the weight of what just happened. While the film does glorify Japan at a certain extent, it also shows you the other side. In Birth of a Nation shows how violence is horrible but creates heroes from it. The film is mostly one-sided focusing on the Southern side of America during the Civil War era. What this film does well is show the affect of war on individuals and families. Most of the film focused on a family in the South and it slowly showed how the family got smaller. Both movies showed how a Nation came to be and why it’s great. Both films were also revolutionary when it came to just filmmaking itself. Birth of a Nation was the first feature film ever and was the first movie to focus on a group of people for at least two hours. Also there were filming techniques that were used to make the experience more authentic; as an example they made night scenes by changing the tint on the film. This would give off the illusion of night. In Seven Samurai slow motion shots were used to emphasize
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emotion and drama. Film was first used to make you feel a certain way and to change your view on the world.
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The Birth of a Nation successfully hurled the film industry into relevance in the minds of Americans, sometimes referred to as “The Birth of an Industry”. This film, although viewed as lacking in historical accuracy and quite racist today, used revolutionary filming and story-telling techniques to become one of America’s favorite films at the time. In it, D.W. Griffith, the movie’s director, offered the public a glimpse of what great cinema could look like, showcasing scenes and effects unattainable via theatre. Rarely before seen camera angles, special effects, interchanging shots, and great scenery highlighted the story’s classic war and post-war love-triangle plot.
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Birth of a Nation,
O’ Brother Where Art Thou,
Gods and Generals, which was critically panned on release for portraying the confederacy as heroic saviors.
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Birth of a Nation
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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