From 1908 to 1913, Griffith filmed more than 450 short feature films, such as "Hoarding Wheat" (1909), "Swordsman in Poor Alley" (1912), etc., and accumulated rich experience to create this huge film for him. Laid a solid foundation. From an artistic point of view, this is indeed a masterpiece.
(1) Narrative structure: The film has a rigorous structure, a clear idea, a clear narrative, strong logic, and a sense of rhythm. It is very easy to understand and accept by ordinary audiences. Griffiths admired Dickens, a 19th-century British critical realist writer. He once said: "Dickens's writing method is the method I use now. The only difference is that my story is narrated in images." Traces of Dickensian narrative structure can always be found in the films filmed by Griffith. But his works are not illustrations of literary works, but greatly enrich the possibilities of film as a narrative art.
Griffith was a troupe actor and stage playwright for many years before becoming a film director. He knew the difference between literature, theater and film. Therefore, when the structure and materials of the original "Family People" are used, their visual and emotional charm is strengthened, thereby enhancing the effect. However, the film narration he created is mainly a plot method with strong emotional appeal and lack of ideological depth.
The infancy films were rough in production and simple in plot. Most of them were single films. They were screened in the rudimentary "Nickel Cinema". The patrons were mainly immigrants, laborers and unemployed people from the bottom of society. "The Birth of a Country" created a precedent for modern film narratives. It is no exaggeration to say that later film narratives drew precious nourishment from this film and other films he shot.
(2) Film editing: The advent of this film finally made the film enter the palace of art from a vulgar and superficial variety of entertainment, becoming the most popular and popular art form. Rudolf Einham, a famous German film theorist, wrote: "Montage only appeared when the film developed into a kind of art... Montage is a first-class creative method, which can help film artists emphasize or enrich their work. The meaning of the events depicted."
According to French film historian George Sadour, the earliest example of using parallel montage is Griffith's "Hoarding Wheat". Griffith's use of parallel montage in this film has been further developed. In order to create excitement and suspense, he used cross-editing techniques, which greatly exceeded the expressiveness of drama in the performance of a series of actions in the film. He is good at creating a tense atmosphere of chase and rescue through parallel montages, which has become a famous "Griffith Last Minute Rescue" scene in film history. Flora was chased by the black Gus, and the little colonel was unable to rescue him as the most classic example. The end of the film also provides an example of successful rescue. Cameron’s family was trapped in a lonely wooden house surrounded by black soldiers in the wilderness, and the Ku Klux Klan members went to rescue after hearing the news. The Cameron family resisted desperately and was anxious. The black soldiers like a mob besieging the hut, the long-term attack and the KKK white horse team galloping to rescue alternately appeared on the screen, forming a magnificent and intense rescue. scene. In the end, the white man was saved and the black soldier was disarmed.
Griffith is also good at using constantly changing scenes to increase the image of expression to gradually deepen the audience's impression. In the film, Griffith first uses a distant view to show a lonely wooden house, then uses the middle shot to show the outside view seen from the window, then uses the middle and close shots to portray the protagonist's face, and finally uses close-ups to highlight the indoor objects. This method is still one of the methods commonly used by contemporary directors. Close-up shots were not the first to be used by Griffith, but he was very expressive, creative and symbolic when using this type of lens. Just give two examples to illustrate: one is that the southern army is about to be defeated and the supply of rations is tight. At this time, a close-up of a hand appears on the screen, which is distributing the last food (scorched corn) of the southern army; the other is a black congressman. A close-up shot of a black congressman taking off his shoes and putting his bare feet on the table during discussions in the majority conference hall. The former shows the situation where the Southern Army has run out of ammunition and food, while the latter shows the ugly and ignorant black congressmen. If these two lenses are used in isolation, they will confuse the audience and fail to receive the desired effect. Griffith is used in combination with a panoramic (accounting) lens. The former's panoramic lens shows the southern army on the battlefield, and the latter's panoramic lens shows the meeting of the parliament. In this way, the artistic appeal of the (large) close-up shot is very strong. Einham pointed out: "In general, film artists feel that they must never use close-up shots in isolation, but can only be used in combination with panoramic shots, so that the audience can have a necessary understanding of the whole situation." Griffith realized this in 1915.
In order to break the monotony of the rectangular screen similar to the stage, Griffith invented the circle method. In the film, when the circle turns to the battlefield, we see a fierce hand-to-hand battle between the Southern Army and the Northern Army. When the Northern Army finally defeated the Southern Army, Griffith used the circle method to show us the scene of the Northern Army cheering for victory on the battlefield. This technique was widely used in the silent film era, and is now outdated, and it is rarely used by contemporary directors. But it's innovation at the time.
In short, film skills only began to become a rich artistic expression "language" in Griffith's hands.
(3) Characterization: William Everson, a professor of film history at New York University, said: "When Griffith is shooting characters, you can always know who they are, how they feel, and whether they are good or bad. "In the film, the gentleman of the colonel, the innocence and liveliness of Flora, the roughness of Lynch, and the brutality of Gus are all expressed through external actions and exaggeration, allowing the audience to see who is the good and the bad at a glance, especially It is the black Gus's screen image that is very ugly, ugly, brutish, daring, and arouses great resentment from the audience. Of course, judging by today's vision, the characterization in this way is too straightforward and too facial. However, under the historical conditions at that time, a large number of shoddy commercial films flooded the market, and there was no artistic technique and character creation at all, but Griffith consciously used film language to create distinctive characters in his films. , Is a rare innovation. It can be said that Griffith is the first person in the history of film to realize that a good story depends on character shaping.
Griffith is good at shaping characters through animals. When Marguerite appeared on the screen, she was holding a cute little white cat in her arms. In a scene where the little colonel and Elsie went to the woods to have a love affair, the little colonel gave Elsie a white dove, and after returning home, Elsie touched and kissed the white dove affectionately. The description of these details It played a finishing touch to the character and atmosphere. The scene of Flora playing with squirrels in the woods vividly portrays the little sister's innocence, liveliness and cuteness, and kind-heartedness. In addition, Griffith also specially arranged a scene of Cameron's cat and dog fight, and then the word "hostility" appeared on the subtitles. This was obviously a metaphorical montage, suggesting that the Civil War was a family fight. This method of consciously using animals to shape characters and metaphors on the screen was also pioneered by Griffith.
Although the image of President Lincoln portrayed by Joseph Hornaberg was not much inked, it left a very deep impression on the audience. Lincoln's image is not only the same but also similar in spirit, with a strong documentary style and artistic appeal. Lincoln's image is the first leader portrayed on the screen.
(4) Historical blockbuster: This three-hour film is the historical blockbuster that "made the first shot of American cinema". This magnificent film epic was praised by the then U.S. President Wilson as a "historical masterpiece written with light". With the talent and courage of a great artist, Griffith reproduced on the screen a series of major historical events that occurred before and after the Civil War (unfortunately, he reflected these events from the standpoint of Southern racists) , Has left an immortal masterpiece to the world film history.
Griffith completed such a masterpiece in just 9 weeks and $100,000. By 1931, the film's revenue had reached 18 million U.S. dollars. By 1946, the number of viewers exceeded 200 million, and it still holds the highest record of silent film box office revenue. Sadur wrote: "The Birth of a Nation has brought about tremendous changes in the corporate management of American films, enabling Hollywood to produce feature films that are larger and more luxurious than Italian films, thus opening up the path towards super films. And the road of huge rewards... The first time the film was released in the United States was the beginning of Hollywood's rule of the world, and it was also the beginning of Hollywood art's dominance of the world for at least the next few years."
The famous Hungarian film theorist Bella Balaz believes that Griffith "not only created outstanding works of art, but also created a new art." Hitchcock said: “Today, every time you watch a movie, there is always something in it that Griffith created.” Professor Everson said: “The Griffith and Griffith era are like movie history. The "Bible", I mean, the true "Bible" of filmmaking. Until about 1925, every great director either worked with Griffith or learned a lot from Griffith Without him, there would be no movie as we understand it today, or the completion of the movie would be delayed for many years."
In short, the heavy reflection on history, the magnificent war scenes, the huge performance lineup, and the exquisite performance style shown in this film have left an indelible mark not only in the United States but also in the history of world cinema.
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