re: #219 Slap

He’s such a Dipshit.

That quote actually mitigates the idea that Wilson “loved” it — the fact that he acknowledges the truth of the depicted horror, and was saddened by that truth.

Besides that — Birth of a Nation, technically speaking, was the pre-1920 equivalent of something along the lines of Avatar. Cinema wasn’t exactly advanced, and that film must have seemed like sorcery of sorts to audiences at the time. It had to have been almost overwhelming.

The late Roger Ebert, who can hardly be called “racist” by any sane human being, has it listed on his website in the ‘Great Movies’ category.

rogerebert.com

As slavery is the great sin of America, so “The Birth of a Nation” is Griffith’s sin, for which he tried to atone all the rest of his life. So instinctive were the prejudices he was raised with as a 19th century Southerner that the offenses in his film actually had to be explained to him. To his credit, his next film, “Intolerance,” was an attempt at apology. He also once edited a version of the film that cut out all of the Klan material, but that is not the answer. If we are to see this film, we must see it all, and deal with it all.