Birth of a Nation - Movie Review Example

Review: Birth of a nation The film revolves around the American Civil War when two families – the Stonemans and the Camerons – try to deal with the post-conflict situation. The plot is based on a story narrated from the perspective of southerners. The story portrays that freedom for the blacks is causing turmoil in the society thereby forcing the while ruling population to impose laws and restrictions. Each scene strives to have a historical impact on the viewer. In fact, characters are introduced in various scenes only to freeze like a snapshot to suggest as if they were posing for painting.

The director has also taken steps to associate the story with real events of the era by following a strict timeframe and including emotional situations. However, some of the scenes depicting the civil war are unnecessarily lengthy while the death of soldiers is shown in a rather funny manner. The movie can simply be termed as a portrayal of the dark side of the cruel and unjust that progresses towards an imminent controversy. While the message delivered by the film is indeed horrible to imagine, especially under modern times, the most notable aspect is that all the black characters in the film were in fact played by white people.

The movie is worth noting for incredible camerawork and narrative techniques that provides for an easy understanding even without the existence of any audio (it is a silent movie). The locations used to film the scenes are easily recognizable as most of the shots were taken from a single angle thereby helping viewers recollect locations from previous scenes. Much attention was also given to the interiors thereby making them resemble more like rooms rather than filming sets. While the story aims to present a strong opinion of a section of the society, the enactments are too exaggerated at several places throughout the film.

Thus, the movie could have been shorter by many unnecessary and unrelated scenes. For instance, the three-minute scene where the squirrel is shown running away could have been removed as it added no value to the story. Nevertheless, the story is a visual experience that remains filled with ardent support for slavery and racism.