D. W. Griffith's The birth of a nation : a history of "the most controversial motion picture of all time" / Melvyn Stokes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stokes, Melvyn.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Birth of a nation (Motion picture).

Physical Description:

viii, 413 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

In this deeply researched and fascinating study, Melvyn Stokes illuminates the origins, production, reception, and continuing history of D. W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation. The 1915 film introduced many new conventions that would soon come to define American cinema, while it also drew large numbers of middle-class patrons to moviegoing for the first time. Though the film was a landmark aesthetic work, it was also a spectacle of unfettered racism, with a storyline that would inspire both bigotry and distrust. This indispensable account sheds light on both its groundbreaking formal qualities and its long shadow, twin sides to one of the twentieth century's most powerful works of art.

Contents:

1 Premiere in Los Angeles 15

2 Thomas Dixon Jr. 27

3 David Wark Griffith 55

4 Making The Birth of a Nation 81

5 Transforming the American Movie Audience 111

6 Fighting a Vicious Film 129

7 Griffith's View of History 171

8 After Birth 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-393) and index.

ISBN:

9780195336788

019533678X

9780195336795

0195336798

OCLC:

137305930