Richard David
Art 114, Visual Persuasion
9/20/15
Comparison of Griffith’s and Micheaux’s Characters.
In order to capture racial differences, Oscar Micheaux’s and D.W Griffith both use racial relations as a metaphor, but in a completely different way for different reasons. In Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, the race war is due to the misconduct of proper order of society. Society being whites over blacks with its political connotations. In Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, the KKK are restoring order and bringing upon righteous retribution. Oscar Micheaux on the other hand, has a completely different view of how Griffith portrayed his message. Micheaux uses a naturalistic dialogue, which is written in a style to mimic real life conversations
In the article “Twoness in the style of Oscar Micheaux” by J. Ronald Green critiques the common theme of twoness which was a common debilitating dilemma for black film in America concerning American Social Codes. African Americans face the possibility of two identities at the same time but somehow resolve individually for her or himself. The point is made that African Americans are American citizens, but are hindered by the color line which sets them up to be positioned to understand two sides to the American hegemony. Hegemony consists of leadership or domination, either by one country or social group over others. American black cinema acquiesced in segregation, placed white cupidity off limits as theme, rehashed white Hollywood stereotypes
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
Most viewers cannot spot metaphors after watching a movie once, but when analyzed the true details are revealed. Berlatsky’s example of “Starship Troopers” simplified what a metaphor meant in locating race in a movie. In “Starship Troopers,” the audience is cheering for the humans to defeat the alien insects the whole time, but after analyzing that the bugs represent Native American Indians, the viewer’s entire perception is changed. The movie was practically a history lesson of when America colonized all the Native American territory with brute force. Race was depicted by changing a different race into a whole different species, and it really made a difference knowing what the hidden message of race stood for. Another intelligent example brought up by the author to make his reasoning more effective is when he used “District 11” from “The Hunger Games.” Berlatsky strengthens his argument by analyzing his example in, “District 11, the home of Rue and Thresh, is presented as a segregated black city or region, subject to familiar prejudices and inequities—it's the poorest region, and its inhabitants experience especially vicious policing and persecution.” (Berlatsky) The direct approach is straight to the point and simple. “The Hunger Games,” actually used African American actors, and that was probably the best way to introduce race in the story, because all the other districts in the movie contain white
Race shouldn’t be the way how people are seen and treated. In the book “Dutchman and The slave” by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) demonstrates the racial problems of how people with different color see each other. The Dutchman and The slave misjudgement of race that all race with same color are the same. This judgement shows how the world see other people with different ethnicity, culture, and race different from them. This misunderstanding cause big wars and fights between people of different race. Dutchman and The Slave has a huge meaning surrounding the racial problems within the book which draws readers intention to refer with the world outside and how it 's the same and different. These two plays gives the diversity of the world and its inception.
The Birth of a Nation (1915) is one of the most controversial movies ever made in Hollywood, some people even consider it the most controversial movie in the long history of Hollywood. Birth of a Nation focuses on the Stoneman family and their friendship with the Cameron’s which is put into question due to the Civil War, and both families being on different sides. The whole dysfunction between the families is carried out through important political events such as: Lincoln’s assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Kan. D.W. Griffith is the director of the movie, and him being born into a confederate family in the South, the movie portrays the South as noble and righteous men, who are fighting against the evil Yankees from the North, who have black union soldiers among them, whom overtake the town of Piedmont, which leads the KKK to take action and according to the movie become the savior of white supremacy. During this essay, I would focus on the themes of racial inequality, racism, and the archetypical portrayal of black people in the movie, which are significant especially during the era when the film was released.
The similarities that the filmmaker kept were substantial in order to relate the movie to the story. The overall main ideal of both was vital to keeping the flow between the film and the movie. In keeping the main ideal the filmmaker must’ve kept same sequence of events and the same time period. If this was change or omitted out of the movie it would’ve threw the whole story off. This help the viewer attentive by giving the movie a futuristic view . The most vital element that filmmaker kept when he made the film was the theme ; living in a society where everything is made equal, literally . The entire United States was “made equal “ by suppressing any attribute of a person that gave anyone advantage over another person . If this was altered in anyway the whole purpose would have been destroyed. Equality was shown throughout the entire passage and film .
Superheroes are typically perceived as those who persevere through conflict by acting compassionately and courageously to save society. In reality, however, conflict reveals the adverse behaviours of individuals, including the use of selfish and violent means to protect oneself. The Wars, by Timothy Findley, shows that the worst aspects of humanity are exploited during war and are the cause of the destruction of all forms of life. First, the corruption of the pure elements highlights how individuals lose their innocence and act carelessly and viciously when faced with conflict. Second, the foil and mirror characters accentuate how it is impossible to hang onto purity, since humanity’s wicked tendencies result in a hopeless devastation for
Being one of the few black students to attend Tisch School of the Arts, the aspiring filmmaker’s first year at New York University was a particularly difficult one. Lee’s experiences, race, and upbringing have all led him to create controversial films to provide audiences with an insight into racial issues. Spike Lee’s first student production, The Answer, was a short ten minute film which told of a young black screenwriter who rewrote D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. The film was not well accepted among the faculty at New York University, stating Lee had not yet mastered “film grammar.” Lee went on to believe the faculty took offense to his criticisms towards the respected director’s stereotypical portrayals of black characters (1).
The first social issue portrayed through the film is racial inequality. The audience witnesses the inequality in the film when justice is not properly served to the police officer who executed Oscar Grant. As shown through the film, the ind...
In 1915 the American film industry was forever changed as it took its first step toward modern filmmaking. It was the year D.W. Griffith’s A The Birth of a Nation was released, a racially insensitive film depicting life during the Civil War and Reconstruction in America. It is arguably first major success in American cinema as it was the highest grossing film of its time. It is no accident that the film destine to redefine the film industry in the United States would inevitable be a national historical epic, for the film was a response to the growing presents of foreign films dominating American cinema. Though ultimately The Birth of a Nation and D.W. Griffith were a product of circumstances created by corporate attempts to industrialize filmmaking.
The portrayal of difficult topics such as slavery can either cause a movie public backlash or lasting critical praise. This reigns true for 12 Years a Slave, a 2013 Academy Award winning movie directed by Steve McQueen depicting the real life events of Solomon Northup, a man who was born free but is kidnapped and sold into slavery. This film was well received for its unforgiving depiction of slavery and for its message of anti-racism and racial struggle. Despite these accolades, many people believe that the film inadvertently hinders race progress as it is more visible than films about racism today, thus allowing people to believe that race issues are no longer prevalent in America. This phenomenon has been studied and captured by many academics, including Miriam Thaggert in her scholarly review “12 Years a Slave: Jasper’s Look.”
The White Savior Complex is a damaging subconscious underlay of the Hollywood system, and more broadly all of western society. It is used to further separate the notions of “us” and “other” by creating a firm separation fueled by self-righteousness, and a sense of entitlement. Hollywood attempts to address race relations, but fails because of this trope. Kingsle, from the article “Does My Hero Look White In This?” described that both racism and colonialism are acknowledged, but not without reassuring that not only were white people against the system of racist power dynamics, but also were actively fighting against it in leadership roles (2013). In the remainder of my essay I will be commenting on many modern films and their use on this trope, and why subscribing to this filmmaking strategy is problematic.
We can relate the discrimination and the prejudice to the color discrimination and prejudice in our reality. When some people say black skin people are not good and treat them bad and without respect. The difference between the movie and the realty was that in the movie the invalid was normal people and the valid was people created in laboratories without sickness of birth defects. The similarity was the way of one group sees another. The way the invalid looked to the valid as perfect and they never will be like them or have jobs like they had, and also the discriminatory way that the valid sees the invalid in the movie as degenerated
The movies I decided to watch and write about is Lincoln, which is directed by Steven Spielberg. This movie is based on the life of Abraham Lincoln and his efforts to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Lincoln would have to be the primary leader of this film because he went against what many others thought was right to have the Thirteenth Amendment passed, which would abolished slavery completely. In 1864, the US was in the middle of the Civil War and slavery was much a part of everyday Southern life. Lincoln became a leader by fighting for the all people to be treated equally. Lincoln’s motivation to be a leader was to see people of all colors treated equally. Throughout the movie Lincoln struggles with
The famous film The Birth of a Nation (1915) is considered a landmark and the most extraordinary achievement in the history of American Cinema. The film was directed by D.W Griffith, and it presents a distorted depiction of the South after the Civil War, it praises the Ku Klux Klan as a courageous troop, and it belittles blacks in a very hateful way. Such an influential, and controversial film had everyone speculating about it, and until today, as one critic put it, “the film brings all different types of emotions before peoples’ eyes” (Green, 179). While many people were in favor of the film, “the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attempted to mount boycott of the film , but it failed to stir significant white