Film: Birth of a Nation

Film: Birth of a Nation

The presentation of the first motion pictures had left the audience speechless, as their concept of a story had been limited until that time. The first motion picture directors had the difficult task of presenting the public with a movie that they would enjoy. The reason for why their task was difficult was due to their dealing with something that had not been done before and required a lot of ingenuity D.W. Griffith, the director of "The Birth of a Nation" is one of the early pioneers involved in the motion picture business. The movie has raised a lot of controversy and it is one of the most valued films from the period.

Griffith's movie expresses explicit racist behavior and is most probably a result of white people rejecting the thought that the African-Americans had been set free by the Civil War. The movie quickly received recognition around the U.S. And it made the director rich.

The plot is divided into two distinct parts where the two families around which the actions revolve are being put through several incidents happening in the Civil War period. In the first part we are presented with the two families: the Stonemans and the Camerons. Austin Stoneman is the head of the Stonemans and a convinced abolitionist. Austin has a daughter named Elsie and two other sons. The Cameron family (a slave-holder family) has five children, daughters Margret and Flora, and three sons, including Ben Cameron, the main character.

The Stoneman boys visit the Cameron boys, with whom they are friends, and a Stoneman boy falls for Margret Cameron while Ben Cameron develops a crush on Elsie Stoneman who he sees in a picture. The episode ends quickly as the Civil War begins and all of the boys join the military.

The Cameron house is soon captured by a group of black men, but the situation is saved by a Confederate unit. One of the Stoneman boys is killed and so are two boys from the Cameron family. Ben Cameron is wounded and attends a hospital where he receives medical assistance and where Elsie is a nurse. The first part ends with Lincoln's assassination and with influential abolitionists wanting to punish the Southern states.

The second part of the movie presents the characters after the end of the war as they attempt to reach their goals. Austin travels south with the intention of taking care that blacks are being set free and that they receive their basic rights. Ben Cameron is disappointed that his people now have to treat blacks as equals and decided to form the Ku Klux Klan.

Flora Cameron commits suicide after being chased by Gus, a former slave that tried to convince her to marry him. Ben quickly apprehends Gus, hangs him, and leaves his body in front of Lieutenant Governor Silas Lynch's house. Lynch responds by ordering the executions of all those part of the Klan. The Camerons manage to escape Lynch's people and they take refuge in a country home.

As Austin is not in town Lynch tries to force Elsie to marry him, but she refuses and screams for help. Members of the Klan quickly arrive and save her. Also, the Klan chases all the influential black people from the town and save the Cameron family.