Birth of A Nation: Art or Propaganda
Mankind, engaging in war, driven by whatever instincts guide him, seeks
to keep the defeats and victories of battle in his memory and on his conscience.
To accomplish this men have used paint and canvas, ink and paper, or instrument
and song in their effort to communicate the tragedy and glory of war. Never,
before the career of D.W. Griffith had anyone attempted to bring the subject to
film. The result of his efforts, weaknesses aside, mark a change in attitude
towards film as a media. Perhaps audiences previously going to a picture
expected emotional manipulation. After all, years before the film Birth of a
nation, makers of film employed techniques to evoke 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 symbolism, 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 art
and propaganda.
To present and explore a theme, symbolism is used everywhere in
literature. Whether the image is subtle or obvious 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 works
with his own visual works. For instance, the parched corn symbol in the scene
where the southern army is eating symbolizes their desperation in the face of
defeat. This imagery proves that Griffith wasn't just presenting actors and a
plot, he intended to dig far deeper than that, into the realm of a clever
storyteller.
Another example of his unique style 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 are talking, and as the camera pans... [continues]
Mankind, engaging in war, driven by whatever instincts guide him, seeks
to keep the defeats and victories of battle in his memory and on his conscience.
To accomplish this men have used paint and canvas, ink and paper, or instrument
and song in their effort to communicate the tragedy and glory of war. Never,
before the career of D.W. Griffith had anyone attempted to bring the subject to
film. The result of his efforts, weaknesses aside, mark a change in attitude
towards film as a media. Perhaps audiences previously going to a picture
expected emotional manipulation. After all, years before the film Birth of a
nation, makers of film employed techniques to evoke 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 symbolism, 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 art
and propaganda.
To present and explore a theme, symbolism is used everywhere in
literature. Whether the image is subtle or obvious 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 works
with his own visual works. For instance, the parched corn symbol in the scene
where the southern army is eating symbolizes their desperation in the face of
defeat. This imagery proves that Griffith wasn't just presenting actors and a
plot, he intended to dig far deeper than that, into the realm of a clever
storyteller.
Another example of his unique style 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 are talking, and as the camera pans... [continues]
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