The Birth of a Nation and Django Unchained

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DATE \@ "d MMMM yyyy" 24 April 2013
THE BIRTH OF A NATION and DJANGO UNCHAINED: A Comparison
Thesis
The release of Quentin Tarantino`s DJANGO UNCHAINED, the characteristic features of D. W. Griffith`s classic feature BIRTH OF A NATION can hardly go unnoticed and therefore lead to a debate on the similarities and contrasts that are reflected in both the films with regard to the agenda of the directors, the use of stylistic devices, art, language and the manner in which some fundamental themes such as race have been tackled in both stories. BIRTH OF A NATION presents racism in a very heroic sense and is largely viewed as a movie that sort to re-establish racism and help perpetrate discriminatory actions against blacks after the civil war. It portrays blacks as people only good under slavery and even lauds the establishment of the KKK and other such like organizations. Furthermore, the director of the film seems to have intended to laud the insubordination of blacks as well as praise the white man`s "justice" against them.
Comparison
DJANGO UNCHAINED has in many instances been compared to THE BIRTH OF A NATION due both movies` striking similarities in the themes and issues addressed by the directors of both movies. It has been noted that Quentin Tarantino`s DJANGO UNCHAINED has receive wide criticism and denunciation as an overly racist film. D.W. Griffith`s 1915 film THE BIRTH OF A NATION on the other hand elicited similar reactions in the early 1900s. It will however be of great value to veer into the depths of the issues the two movies offer to address and the message they convey. Furthermore, the manner in which this message and issue is being conveyed is of great importance as this can be deduced from the audience reaction and film reviews. We also seek to establish whether the goal directors of both movies have achieved what they intended to achieve with the release of the films.
To begin with, we establish a major similarity in the message the two films are conveying. During the Reconstruction Period it was difficult for movie directors to veer off the prototypic stories that often characterized the movies back in the day due to the sensitive nature of material and the possible elicitation of extremist reactions. After all the government of the day could not allow such a thing to go ahead easily in order to keep pushing the agenda of the day that was segregation and marginalization. In the film THE BIRTH OF A NATION, it is easily crosses one`s mind the director`s keen intent on portraying the insidious nature of the cast in daring to exhibit the major discrepancies in the American education system back in the days. This is the same story the director of DJANGO UNCHAINED is conveying in his film a century later and this has been blatantly portrayed in the recruitment of white people in to the Ku Klux Klan around the mid 1800 so as to help stave off advances of black people in predominantly white areas.
Throughout BIRTH OF A NATION, D. W. Griffith seems to pass of lies as reality and it is evident that despite the heavy presence of aesthetics as a stylistic feature, his deeply conservatist ideas are brought to the fore by his depiction of the events surrounding racism at the time. He presents reality in a manner that the audience will tell that it is clearly his opinion. In DJANGO UNCHAINED, the director has focused more on portrayal on a demented life in the earlier years in to a time when everything is totally different and the bizarre fact is that there are several other factors that have become different. This led to a need of a more artistic expression of the scenes compare to when THE BIRTH OF A NATION was released. The directors and...