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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,...

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. 1915.

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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. 1915.
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