Birth of a Nation in Essay

There is the problem with the scene where the African-American named "Gus" attacks and chases the youngest Cameron daughter, resulting in her jumping off a cliff. It portrays African-Americans as vicious animals and could not be included in a modern remake. However, it is the death of this white woman that causes the KKK to act in what they describe as "self-defense," but is really vengeance against the former slaves. Any remake would need to have a stimulus for the actions of the KKK, and since the KKK is a racially focused group, it would have to be some sort of racial incident, possibly an accident or inadvertent interaction between an African-American man and a white woman.

It would be extremely difficult to remake D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" in the modern world. The film was not intended as a historic film about the events after the Civil War, but as a commentary on the, then current racial controversy surrounding the fighter Jack Johnson and his interracial relationship.(Courtney, 50) Modern audiences would not tolerate such a theme in a modern work of film, and would not react positively to a film that attempted to portray interracial relationship as an "evil." However, the film could be remade if the problems of Reconstruction were not blamed on the former slaves and their ignorant, avaricious ways. If a more realistic portrayal of the events which occurred during Reconstruction, and the KKK were more accurately portrayed as vengeful, intolerant, racist, ex-Confederate soldiers with a chip on their shoulder, then a remake may be successful in the modern world. However, as it is, The Birth of a Nation is a racist attempt to portray African-Americans as "evil" and white racists as "good," and this would be seen for what it is by a modern audience.

Works Cited

Courtney, Susan. Hollywood Fantasies of Miscegenation: Spectacular Narratives of Gender and Race, 1903-1967. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005. Print.

The Birth of a Nation. Dir. D.W. Griffith.….....