released in 1915 DW Griffith's a birth of the nation is one of the most important films in cinema history and is considered to be the birth of the American film industry it's hard to overstate the impact this film had both on the medium of film itself and on culture as a whole the film was responsible for some major leaps in film technology including the first scene shot at night by use of phosphorus lung along with new developments in editing technique and camera movements were culturally however the film carries somewhat of the darker legacy even in 1915 the film was met with controversy showing that the films were protested by the newly formed National Association for the Advancement of good people for his betrayal of black people executive secretary of the n-double a-c-p Mary childs Nerney wrote the harm that it is doing to cold people cannot be estimated I hear echoes of it everywhere I go and I have no doubt that this was in the mind of the people who are producing it the film's portrayal of black people was so terrible that it was still being used as a recruitment tool for the Klu Klux Klan as late as the 1970s with a runtime of just over three hours the film is split two hearts separated by an intermission the first half is set at the outbreak of the Civil War it follows two families the northern Stallman's and the southern Cameron's it shows us their intertwined lives as they fight throughout the war it's filled with spectacular battle scenes and ends with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and a defeated self having to face harsh treatment at the hands of a victorious North the second half of the film focuses on the reconstruction of the south after the war and the glorious origin of the film's supposed heroes the clue called Klan the film shows South Carolina just after the war being occupied by black Union soldiers who push white people off sidewalks and a sexually aggressive towards white women in one scene a young white girl jumps to her death to avoid being pursued by a black man who is looking to force her into marriage black supremacist rigged an election by intimidating white voters and stuffing ballot boxes and the newly elected black legislators are depicted barefoot in the State House of Representatives drinking whiskey and eating fried chicken meanwhile our hero Ben Cameron sees a group of white children putting on sheets to pretend to be ghosts in order to scare black children as inspired to form the Klan to fight back by the end of the film the Klan regained control of their town in the black oppressors and on the next election day they form a line to intimidate black voters and finally restore power despite the film's overall message of overt racism it was still incredibly popular he remained the highest-grossing movie of all time until it was replaced by Gone with the Wind in 1939 he was even the first film to be shown in the White House the President Woodrow Wilson on a technical level the film surpassed anything else that came before it by making use of new editing techniques like parallel editing cutting between two different scenes that were happening at the same time the film managed to show a huge scope of story cutting from the battleground to families praying at home and then back to the battle this wasn't just something was happening to spawn group of people this was happening to the whole country Griffith found new uses for close-ups putting tights – an actor's face to show their emotion lending depth and pay folks to be acting with clever editing and camerawork griffith managed to make a few hundred extras look like an army of thousands for epic battle scenes by moving the cameras around the battleground griffith was able to produce a sense of space that seemed to span for miles and his pioneering use of long panoramic shots lent a sense of scale to the action the audiences had never seen before and helped cement the film's enduring popularity as well as technical innovations griffith also brought innovations to story and narrative unlike the films which preceded it bertha the nation told multiple stories at once cross-cutting told the audience how one event affected multiple people and the first use of flashbacks gave context to story the whole film tied interweaving narratives into one rousing climax in a way that had never been done in film before birth of the nation changed film history and also set the template for the modern motion picture griffith was able to produce epic battle sequences unlike anything people had ever seen before his use of close-up and intermixed narrative produce powerful drama that captured the audience it showed a generation of filmmakers what was possible to capture on film that you could tell ground stories on an epic scale and it remains to this day one of the most influential films ever made but its overall message is one of racial bigotry in which black people are painted not just as lazy and unintelligent but also as criminals who sexually assault women so what do you think can you call a movie bad just because it's message and implications are morally abhorrent or is it the technical skill within a film its beauty and the talent and artistry that went into it that's more important how should we view birth of the nation today let me know what you think in the comments and be sure to subscribe as we travel through the history of film together