The first blockbuster movie in American history was D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. The movie made its first premiere in theaters in early 1915. It made $18 million in its first few years, which is equal to a shocking $560 million today. It was the most profitable film for over two decades, until Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Griffith pioneered many new filming techniques that improved the quality of film making, which, no doubt, added to its popularity. However, much to the modern man’s surprise, the movie was explicitly racist.
A Brief Overview of the Plot
The movie is set in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. It follows the life and friendship of two families one in the north and one in the south. The first half of the movie is focused on the Civil War and the horrors of war, in general. The two families send their sons off to fight in the war and some do not come back alive. It also portrays the gruesome fact of wartime poverty, as the southern family must sell most of their possessions to fund the war. However, this is not as important, as it is not what makes the movie controversial.
The second half of the movie is focused on the Reconstruction era and the dangers of racial equality. In the movie, blacks are portrayed as lazy, stupid, and morally degenerate. The white politicians from the north (called carpetbaggers) give political control of the south over to the newly freed blacks. The blacks greatly abuse this power especially in their attempts to sully southern women. In response to the tyrannical black control, the Ku Klux Klan was created. The Ku Klux Klan was portrayed as the glorious savior of southern civilization. They saved the south from the tyrannical blacks, by the end of the movie. (As an interesting side note, the movie literally prompted the revival of the KKK after its release. The new Klan even based it’s costumes and symbols off of the movie.) So, why was this explicitly racist movie incredibly popular?
The Origin of The Birth of a Nation’s Success
The Birth of a Nation was very successful largely because of the historical circumstances of the time. Even though the civil war had ended nearly 50 years ago, the population was still largely racist. It was released during the Jim Crow era in the south, which was the period where blacks were greatly segregated against by law. In the north, blacks were technically equal, however they were kept sperate from white society. They had sperate neighborhoods, sperate schools, etc. A total of 28 states out of 45 prohibited interracial marriage. It suffices to say that racism was not gone yet. And as movies catered to white people, as they had most of the money, they followed this trend.
Another major contributing factor was that it was released not long after the end of the reconstruction era. It was essentially a reaction against reconstruction, which was the period where northern politicians and troops forced their policies on whites and blacks in the south. Reconstruction proved to be quite unpopular in both north and south. The north was sick of the expense of keeping military troops in the south to enforce their policies. The south was sick of being bossed around by northern politicians and troops (the carpetbaggers). Reconstruction’s unpopularity was represented in the movie.
Additionally, the movie was released during the height of the eugenics movement, which was inherently racist. This movement has fallen down the memory hole today, but it was widely popular at the time. It arose out of the growing popularity of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Eugenicists believed that humans could be engineered and selectively breaded to improve humanity, just like animals. They believed that the government could manage humans, like a farmer who manages his flock to selectively breed the best animals. Eugenicists thought that white people from the west were the best humanity had to offer, so they wanted to grow this group of humanity at the expense of all others. This is where eugenics gets its racism.
This movement resulted in many things we would think unacceptable today. For example, tens of thousands of people were forcibly sterilized against their will by the government. This is just one of many terrible policies enacted in the name of eugenics. This movement had its strongest supporters among the progressives. However, after the Nazis adopted an extensive eugenics program modeled off the one developed by U.S. progressives it was conveniently forgotten that the progressives ever had any involvement in the movement, but I digress. The eugenics movement and its inherent racism also contributed to the popularity of The Birth of a Nation.
Conclusion
D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation was America’s first blockbuster. It was an explicitly racist movie that portrayed blacks as stupid, lazy, and morally degenerate. The movie catered to the audience of the time, which was still hanging on to racism. Therefore, the movie was popular because it followed the ideology of its audience and Griffith’s talent at creating movies undoubtedly helped too.
I’ll have to watch the movie sometime.