MJOLNIR AT THE MOVIES EPISODE 22: GONE WITH THE NATION

In this episode of Mjolnir at the Movies, we look at two thematically connected films: D W Griffith's epic masterpiece The Birth of a Nation and the equally majestic Gone with the Wind. Both concern the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era and both have courted their share of controversy, particularly The Birth of a Nation, in which the Ku Klux Klan are portrayed as liberating heroes. The film is rather topical, as last month, Bowling Green State University removed the pioneering star of the silent screen Lillian Gish's name from their theatre after a visit from Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi. The battle for the reinstatement of her name is still ongoing and supported even by actors like Helen Mirren and James Earl Jones. As the film is in the public domain, we have put it on the Mjolnir at the Movies channel for your viewing:

 

 

In the discussion itself, we look at why the film The Birth of a Nation was so revolutionary and pioneering and why the Left cannot throw it down the memory hole, even though they are desperate to do so. We compare and contrast it with Gone with the Wind and how the Ku Klux Klan is still implicitly in Gone with the Wind's plot. We also analyse the differences between the portrayal of Negroes and the focus of plot and narrative, especially as the two films are based on the novels The Clansman by Thomas Dixon and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, which have a masculine and feminine perspective respectively. Thanks to someone in the comments section correcting me, as I made an error: Scarlett O'Hara is in fact half Irish and half French, not half Irish and half Scottish, but the racial argument still applies in the book. I was getting confused with Mitchell herself, who was part Irish, Scottish and French:

 

 

As a bonus, I have posted an interview of film director D W Griffith by actor Walter Huston, which was conducted for the 1930 re-release of The Birth of a Nation. D W Griffith talks about the inspiration for the film, defending the values of the Old South and the necessity of the Ku Klux Klan. Huston starred in Griffith's first talkie released around the same time in 1930, the biopic Abraham Lincoln. The interview is a wonderful glimpse into the noble European creative spirit that once was and can be again:

 

 

Lastly, in a solo effort, I examine the context and legacy of the film The Birth of a Nation, which incorporates the racial politics of America from the Reconstruction Era to the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, interracial violence and (de)segregation, the formation of the NAACP, the reinvigoration of the KKK, and how one great piece of art can change the world: