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Entertainment > Entertainment

"BIRTH OF A NATION" ON TCM...WTF???(143)

Discussion started on 05/02/2006 07:30:35 PM by

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To : All

Date: 05/02/2006 07:30:35 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.1

First Post in this Discussion

TCM is showing what is possibly the most racist film ever made - the 1915 silent movie "Birth of a Nation" by famed director D.W. Griffith (tonight at 8 EST).

My question is WHY??? Why would they drag this movie out of the gutter and show it in this day and age??? It serves no purpose other than to inflame racial insensitivity and promote the KKK...it is only film that can think of, that I would like to see banned FOREVER!

What's your opinion? (And no, I don't plan to see it - I had to stomach that piece of filth when I was in college, in one of my film studies classes...and that was in the era of "Roots!" I REALLY did not like white people for a LONG time...NONE of 'em!) WTF is TCM's problem???

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The Birth of a Nation

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The Birth of a Nation
Directed by	D.W. Griffith
Produced by	D.W. Griffith
Written by	Thomas F. Dixon Jr.
Starring	Lilian Gish
Music by	Joseph Carl Breil
Released	February 8, 1915 (Los Angeles)
Running time	124-207 min (different video versions)
Country	United States
Language	Silent
Budget	$110,000 USD (est.)
IMDb profile

The Birth of a Nation—one of the most popular films of the silent era—is technically important as a silent film for its innovative techniques. However, the film attempts to provides historical justification for segregation. In the sympathetic depiction of the lynching of a black man by a white mob, the film affirms and promotes the cultural milieu for the rise of the Ku Klux Klan which led mobs of white people wearing white sheets and hoods over their faces in the lynching of African American people.

The highly controversial film was directed by D. W. Griffith, based on Thomas Dixon's novels The Clansman and The Leopard's Spots. The film was released in 1915 and has been credited with securing the future of feature length films (any film over an hour in length) as well as solidifying the codes of film language. The film premiered on February 8, 1915 in Los Angeles, California under the title The Clansman, but was retitled at its world premiere in New York

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To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:34:38 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.2

in Reply To :

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:35:41 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.3

in Reply To :

A few years ago I thought TCM said they would not play that movie again..... Oh well, I have not seen, even though I know of it.....I want to see it....

The reason they are playing it is because All month in May (actually only Tuesdays and Thursdays) TCM will be playing movies with blacks (the negative and the positive). Although all of the black characters are actually just whites in black face, the point is to show how hollywood showed blacks in movies.

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To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:37:17 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.4

in Reply To :

Pardon?

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:38:11 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.5

in Reply To :

I think they could've withheld THAT one, though.

*Sigh*

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:39:02 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.6

in Reply To :

It's part of their kickoff for "Race & Hollywood." Here's the information from the TCM website:

Introduction to Race & Hollywood

With this month-long programming event, TCM examines the varied concepts, stereotypes and imagery of African-Americans as represented in classic Hollywood cinema. Film historian Donald Bogle serves as special consultant and will appear on-air to introduce and discuss the films in the series, which range from D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) to Spike Lee's Get on the Bus (1996, TCM premiere). Reflecting changing attitudes over the decades are such landmark movies as The Jazz Singer (1927), Gone With the Wind (1939), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Bright Road (1953), and Shaft (1971, TCM premiere). TCM will also be airing interviews with notable African-American actors and film industry professionals who will share their perspectives.

The series represents a study of how African-Americans have been portrayed by Hollywood, and the cultural impact of this depiction upon American society. Its goals include tracking the history of the movies' relationship with African-Americans, and provoking thoughtful discussion and debate about how this relationship has evolved and where it stands today. In this festival, TCM puts this aspect of film history into academic context. Donald Bogle will take each film and dissect it, providing viewers with his insight. For example, Bogle will discuss films like Cabin in the Sky and why the film was important to black and white audiences during World War II.

Bogle is one of the foremost authorities on African-Americans in film and the author of prize-winning books including Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films; Blacks in American Films and Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia; Primetime Blues: African-Americans on Network Television; the biography Dorothy Dandridge, which became the basis for the TV movie starring Halle Berry; and Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, which recounts what happened before the cameras rolled and after performers left the studio. Bogle adapted his book Brown Sugar: Eighty Years of America's Black Female Superstars into a four-part documentary series for PBS. He has taught and lectured at universities and museums around the country and contributed to such publications as Essence, Film Comment, Spin, Ebony and Freedomways.

by Roger Fristoe

For additional photos and video on TCM's "Race and Hollywood" Festival, visit AOLBlackVoices.com.

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:40:49 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.7

in Reply To :

What? All I get is a pardon.

.I thought you were going to cut me up...lol

This message has been deleted

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:42:16 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.9

in Reply To :

At first I was offended, but I always wanted to see the movie.... it is the most racist movie and the movie's technology was quite advanced for its time.... I believe it won an oscar --- I want to see what the fuss is all about....

Was it creepy watching it???

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To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:44:42 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.10

in Reply To :

Thank you for that information - I had no idea. In that case, since they're presenting it in an historical framework - and with explanations - I'll reluctantly accept its being aired.

But I still won't watch it.

I do look forward to some of the others, though.

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:45:18 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.11

in Reply To :

I didn't know what you were trying to imply, so I just wanted to know.

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:47:52 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.12

in Reply To :

There was no Donald Bogle to explain this film when I saw it...we did have to come to our own conclusions, and write a paper about it...don't remember what I said in my paper, but the overwhelming emotion among our class (all Black) was complete and total outrage...

But I do understand the need to put the film into a context that explains how it came to be, and what it meant.

Without knowing about TCM's Blacks in Film series, I was just floored to see it on the schedule...

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:48:07 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.13

in Reply To :

Oh...How Come you seem down? I needed one of your sarcastic jokes and you aren't giving in...

Sorry I didnt know it was so serious to you..

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:49:35 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.14

in Reply To :

You have to remember that "Roots" had just been shown (I think that's why our prof decided to screen BoAN THEN...), and I don't know which was worse...my outrage over the attitudes of the time, or the fact that I had to sit through it.

Don't remember it being creepy (this was 30 years ago)...but I'm sure it is.

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:49:55 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.15

in Reply To :

"What's your opinion?"

Its actually a good film (from a technical standpoint)....so its worth watching/studying

...its the subject matter and angeda of the movie that is contreversial and offensive to many.

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WTC Building 7

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:50:18 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.16

in Reply To :

This is really not funny to me, Blu...

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:51:49 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.17

in Reply To :

I know, thats why I apologized I didnt even read your post I read the title...

Sorry..

This message has been deleted

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:52:46 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.19

in Reply To :

I agree.

I also saw this movie on my own accord a few years ago. I wanted to stare into the face of the murky history of race in this country.

Here's a little fact for ya'll: Did you know that Birth of a Nation was the first film that was screened in the White House? (not the premiere of the film, but it was the first film they ever watched in the white house)

That's a disturbing (and telling) fact about the administration at that time.

To :

Date: 05/02/2006 07:53:02 PM
Total Posts: Msg 150608.20

in Reply To :

It's cool...I'll get'cha in another thread... :o)

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