Film Analysis: Birth Of A Nation

Movie Analysis: “Birth of a Nation”
The silent film, “Birth of A Nation”, was directed by D.W. Griffith and was originally a novel and a play, entitled “The Clansman” written by Thomas Dixon, who was a good friend of D.W. Griffith. The film was released on February 8, 1915 and was originally presented in two parts, namely the Civil War and the Reconstruction separated by an intermission and was the first 12-reel film in America. The film focuses on two families, the Stoneman’s who are pro-Union and are from the North and the Cameron’s who are pro-Confederacy from the South. The Stoneman household has two sons and a daughter named Elsie, while the Cameron household has two daughters named Margaret and Flora and three sons, one of which is the

It showed the experiences of the Stoneman’s and the Cameron’s during the war, how even if they were well off, they were also greatly affected by the war. Nowadays, a lot of movies that show wars and battles, but this movie is far more different than what today’s audience is used to, and that it is a silent film. No words or dialogues can be heard, only background music and the over exaggerated actions and gestures of the actors and actresses. This may seem weird and funny for most, but if you try understand and do your best to grasp what the actors are trying to show, you will actually enjoy and be inspired by this film. Also, if you are movie enthusiast, you would notice how well the directors and producers created this film, and how hard it must have been back in the day to create the scenes, especially the war scenes, where hundreds of people were casted to show a chaotic and big war. The editors couldn’t simply use special effects to multiply the people around to look like thousands were present, since technology wasn’t advanced then. And in this film, the war scenes were the most important, since these served as a part of the climax in the film. Furthermore, the actors and actresses were good in expressing their feelings, since they only had their actions/gestures and facial expressions to send their message to the audience, they were able to show their feelings of sadness, mourning, happiness, excitement and