Delayed Reaction: The Birth of a Nation

The Pitch: The train coming at the screen was great, but it's time we make a big movie. And what better topic is there than the noble KKK?

The story of America from slavery to the Civil War to the KKK.

The Birth of a Nation is a vile, significant, hateful, revolutionary movie. There's no easy way to talk about it. Compared to what came before it, it's as important a movie as you will find in the evolution of filmmaking. In terms of content, it's repugnant. I'm trying be a better student of film history, so The Birth of a Nation was required at some point, sadly. The staging of a number of sequences is pretty impressive, and it blows my mind to think that I'm watching something that's over 100 years old. That was a punishing three hours though. I lost count of the number of times when I thought "they can't say that" or "they can't do that" while watching it. I'm not one to feel guilty for things that my ancestors did, but I sure was embarrassed to see that  this existed. The only reassuring thing was I found out when I was reading up on it later that it was heavily protested even when it was first released.

Thankfully, my verdict doesn't leave room for historic significance, so I can be emphatic about my opinion. The movie is too long and is punishingly racist. I can't recommend it at all for entertainment value.

Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend