Ebert has posted the second part of his review of Birth of a Nation. I think he makes some good points about why it’s worthwhile to study art that is considered objectionable by today’s audiences. In Griffith’s time, people glossed over the racism and gasped at his cinematic innovations. Nowadays it’s the reverse, but that doesn’t mean the film shouldn’t be studied and understood within context.
Important Note
This site features content going all the way back to 2000. The posts you’ll read reflect my views and writing style at the time. While I have gone back to clean up a few of them, I think it’s important not to sanitise too much. This site is a record of who I am and how I’ve grown. Any blog post written years ago may not reflect who I am today, nor how I would write about the same topic today.