Birth of a Nation: Art or Propaganda Essay

Mankind, engaging in war, driven by whatever instincts accept him, seeks to keep the defeats and victories of battle in his memory and on his conscience. To accomplish this work force have used paint and canvas, ink and paper, or instrument and stock in their effort to communicate the tragedy and glory of war. Never, before the course of D. W. Griffith had anyone attempted to bring the subject to picture show. The result of his efforts, weaknesses aside, mark a win over in attitude towards deal as a media. Perhaps audiences antecedently going to a picture expected emotional manipulation.After all, long time before the cinema endure of a tribe, makers of film busy techniques to burn pathos from viewers whether through the use of a sobbing mother, a frightened child or what have you. In this respect the film was not a ground-breaker However, through its effective use of devices such as symbolic representation, foreshadowing and allusions, as well as building on and arguably perfecting film techniques such as continuity editing, intercutting and close-ups, he transformed film from mere entertainment to invention and propaganda. To present and explore a theme, symbolism is used everywhere in literature.Whether the moving-picture show is subtle or unambiguous it is regardless a sign of considerable calculation and effort. In Birth of a nation Griffith places symbols everywhere, in doing this he merges literary devices of written working with his own visual works. For instance, the parched corn symbol in the characterization where the southern army is eating symbolizes their desperation in the face of defeat. This imagination proves that Griffith wasnt just presenting actors and a plot, he intended to dig farther deeper than that, into the realm of a clever storyteller.Another example of his unique carriage is the use of foreshadowing, another literary device now commonly employed in film. The most prominent example of this is the scene where two gentlemen be talking, and as the camera pans down, we see a puppy struggling with a kitten. This is another strong example of symbolism however, even more importantly it foreshadows the coming war. It is expertly placed to add to the building tension amid sides which the audience already knows results in confrontation. Its placement reflects Griffiths desire to advance the complexness and diversity of film beyond entertainment to higher levels in society.To make his audiences emotions, he first had to draw them into the story and in turn into the stories underlying theme. He accomplished this by using legion(predicate) virgin film tools, much as an artist uses his own tools to hit a believable painting. Among these tools he uses panoramas to illustrate setting, to paint, if you will a sorrowful picture. To show the swell of heated gunfire on a crowd battlefield i. e. the scene of the battle of Petersburg, or to bring across image of the delicate beauty of his native souther n land to those who had never been in that respect or seen a picture of it.This was the substance that transformed film into a genuine art form. Once he had the attention and anticipation of the audience, as well as their almost guaranteed acceptance of his word, he merely had to use up them a easily grasped, recognizable message to sway their emotions his way. This method of uncorrupted propaganda was used to fuel the audiences already considerable ill-founded iniquity of drears. It comes in the form of a rebel black group who terrorizes the Cameron family, the films main characters. By placing blacks in this position it isnt tough to imagine the reply of an average theatre goer.The film spawned riots, fired up racism, built stronger the negative stereotypes of blacks. It portrayed them as lazy, as illustrated in the black parliament, where a man rests his bare feet on a desk, alluding to uselessness in the employment environment. More horrifyingly than that it portrayed the m as ultimately unholy with the seizing of the Camerons home and the attempted rape of one of their daughters. The taken for granted(predicate) bias presented, although appalling, demonstrates just how effective Griffith was at utilizing film not with the intention to merely entertain, but to spread propaganda and affect the perceptions of society itself.Griffith exploited his audience, he turned them against minorities and themselves. The film Birth of a nation exemplifies ignorance and hate at its worst. Although it stands for something that today is looked on as morally wrong, it proves by this very reaction that the film is not just mere entertainment, but something with a far more serious purpose. Since Griffith was the first to accomplish something of this nature, Birth of a nation therefore marks the transformation of film from pure entertainment into art and propaganda.