Griffith, a director who loves and hates, a director who has a profound influence on the development of film art but is accompanied by dissent.
This film not only caused a huge influence at the time, but also affected the development of later film art. In this film, Griffith uses a parallel montage of simultaneous and different space to narrate two families that had deep friendship during the American Civil War. These two families are one north and one south, one is the capitalist of the north, and the other is the plantation owner of the south. , In terms of political opinions, it is completely in opposition.
The plots of the North and South families are now listed and gradually developed. The last two branches are brought together. This does not seem to be extraordinary today, and we can see such expressions even in the rough production of TV dramas. , But it can be described as a pioneering work in 1915. If I remember correctly, there was also a film called "King of Kings" (King of Kings) at that time. Although this film is equally good, its influence on the development of film art is far inferior to this film.
The best use of parallel montage in this film is undoubtedly the two war scenes, namely "One-Minute Rescue" and "3K Party Rescue". In these two clips, Griffith uses alternate cuts to draw. Showing the situation of both sides undoubtedly added a lot of tension to the film, which was unmatched by the common narrative montages at the time. Even today, many film and television works have been using Griffith's technique. It can be seen that Griffith What a precious artistic "treasure" has been brought to future generations.
At the same time, I noticed that Griffith adopted a very special technique in this film. Some shots of the film use unexposed areas of the film to form a circle to highlight the phenomenon of focus. For example, in a large panorama, he will slowly The film's exposure area is reduced, and in the end there is only a small circle of exposure area, and that area circle is what Griffith wants everyone to notice. I guess this was the earliest method to replace focus, and now we basically can’t see such a picture. It is entirely possible to highlight someone or something by focusing. It can be seen that he was able to use this method to express at the time. His artistic talent.
Let’s leave Griffith aside for now, let’s take a look at the German female documentary Riefenstahl. Although her influence may not be as profound as the former or other directors, her documentary "The Triumph of Will" "Has left numerous strokes in the history of film, but one thing must be said, her work carries a strong Nazi ideology, which makes her always criticized by the outside world.
Focusing on Griffith, I have been very uncomfortable while watching this film, because I found that Griffith is constantly vilifying the black race, and black people are described as hateful and inhumane most of the time in the film. Inferior race, they are scheming, burning, killing, looting, and doing nothing. At the same time, everyone can see that "nigger"-nigger, an extreme derogatory term for black people, appears in the subtitle card of the film many times. In the second half of the film, the KKK even appeared. Griffith portrayed them as a group of righteous knights, devout believers, and represented the justice of the trial, while also beautifying the purpose of the creation of the KKK. Anyone who knows a little about the KKK will know that they are extremely radical racists, their methods are extremely cruel, and they are opposed by the majority of white people. The ideology that Griffith showed in this film undoubtedly showed his tendency to chauvinism. This kind of extreme racism thought filled the whole film and had a huge impact on American society at that time.
Masters of art are those who can find a perfect fulcrum between reason and sensibility, and Griffith’s approach is almost the same as that of Reven Starrell. Although their outstanding achievements in art are admirable, they are Ideologically, it is impossible for future generations to identify with it. Griffith will be an outstanding artist in my eyes, and will never be a master of art.
Griffith is not the god of art, he is just Satan with a smile on his face.
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