D. W. Griffith's The Birth Of A Nation

Introduction:

“whoever controls the film industry controls the most powerful medium of influence over the public”, a powerful quote by the late Thomas Edison, described as Americas greatest inventor. This quote is the basis of my essay, the way the media is so powerful it can spread propaganda to the masses, its created by a select couple people and screened to millions.

The film which changed the thoughts of millions through an extremely historic yet extremely racist means, D.W Griffith’s Feature film The Birth Of A Nation, this was a monumental time in the history of filmmaking as this film was the first of its kind, it was the first film which ran 3 hours longer than the silent films at that time, Griffith used revolutionary cinematic

The film did not show the segregation which started in 1955 as this was after the film was released but was the segregation and the racism that followed the 1920s influenced by what the whites saw in The Birth Of A Nation? which displayed unruly amounts of racism and propaganda, did this effect how blacks were treated in society and in the past and present film

This film was not just praised for its cinematic brilliance but was critiqued for its extreme racist theme and for the portrayal of black stereotypical characteristics. Griffith refused that his intent was to be racist and declared it as art. Griffith’s film was promoting pure propaganda and hate, it was written to play on every fear that the ignorant Whites could have about blacks in the US. Unfortunately, the effect of the film was so profound that it served to reinforce negative stereotypes that persist to this day. Griffith depicted slaves as immoral, lazy, unintelligent and overly sexualized. Whites were portrayed with morality, intelligence, love for God, and