The Birth of a Nation (1915) Review

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(More customer reviews)While it seems that many reviews posted on the DVD site aren't actually for this DVD, this review is specifically a review of Kino's Griffith Masterworks edition. The DVD contains the most complete version of The Birth of a Nation known and available. The film is 187 min. long on this disk. It is a beautiful print, well restored and re-tinted. A beautiful print. The musical score is clever and very entertaining too. I think of any bad thing to say about the disk. I think most know of the story line and its hints of racism. It's there and it can't be argued away. D.W. Griffith was a son of a Civil War soldier and grew up in the South. He used the book The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr. as it jibed with his own viewpoints and many of the day. The hero worship of the Klan actually encouraged its resurgence in late 1910s and 1920s into the 30s. The racism brought Griffith so much grief, he spent his life trying to justify his views and created Intolerance to offset the criticism. What brings The Birth of a Nation is its reliance on story and use of the film camera never tried before in the USA before. It is a cinema powerhouse and actually a pretty moving film. Never before had Americans seen the cinema come to life before. Some French, Italian and German filmmakers created feature films that are quite good and successful, but World War I basically destroyed their film industries and the US reigned supreme. DW Griffith took American film to the next level permanently. No longer were films relegated to the poorer urban areas and Nickelodeons. It was now a popular art form and respectable to attend the cinema. The DVD also includes a making of, and introduction by DW himself made in 1930, and several early versions of his Civil War films. It seems to me that because of the closeness to the time period, the films might indicate a closer idea of how former Confederates actually thought and how they remember the war.

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Based on a play called "The Clansmen," D.W. Griffith's three-hour Civil War epic traces the development of the Civil War itself, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan through the lives of two families.

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The Unforgiven (1960) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've always wondered why this film is never spoken in the same breath with "Shane" or "The Searchers". "Great" Westerns are usually described as being epic in scale, but "The Unforgiven" has an authentic feel to it. From the dusty look everything has, to the sod hut the family lives in, to the realistic period dress, this movie has a look that is unlike any other I have seen. The DVD has the best print and sound I have seen and heard since the film was released in 1960, with sharper definition and bolder colors than before (obviously better than the VHS tape). Some viewers may find tiny faults here and there, but overall this film needs to be viewed by any lover of Western movies.

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Legendary director John Huston is "at the top of his form" (Time) with this "powerful, exciting" (The Film Daily) tale of forbidden love set against America's most rugged and ruthless frontier. Starring Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn and Lillian Gish, and featuring a script by Ben Maddow (The Way West), The Unforgiven is a "tough Texas saga filled with pride, prejudiceand passion" (Video Movie Guide)! Indian by birth, but secretly adopted by whites, Rachel Zachary (Hepburn) soon becomes the target of lawless racism and brutality when her true identity is revealed. The Indians want her back, the local whites want her dead, and her only hope for survival is a man (Lancaster) who must face the most terrifying fight of his lifeto save the woman he loves!

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Birth of a Nation Silent Film Plus Bo Review

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(More customer reviews)D. W. Griffith's film "Birth of a Nation" ranks as a significant piece of myth-making activity on behalf of "The Cause" of the Southern Cofederacy, of (caucasian) national unity as the Great War was underway in Europe, and of perpetuating hideous stereotypes of African Americans. Every North American will profit from watching the film and thus coming to understand how their forebears had been propagandized concerning "the race question" in the not-so-distant past.
The edition under review here does pose some problems. The attending musical background to the film is often annoying, in that it does not correspond to the actions on the screen. Further, gaps in the film exist that, while they do not rob the film of continuity, distract the viewer and leave him/her wondering what was missed. Perhaps that is why this edition is inexpensive.

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Item Name: Birth of a Nation Silent Film Plus Bo; Studio:Alpha Video

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