BackThe Birth of a Nation
(book in English)
by Robert Lang
- Type
- Studies
- Subject
- One Film > The Birth of a Nation
- David W. Griffith, silent cinema, movie script
- Publishing Date
- 1994
- Publisher
- Rutgers University Press
- Collection
- Rutgers Films in Print
- Language
- English
Dimensions
- Physical desc.
- Paperback • 324 pages • 17,70 €
6 x 8.75 inches (15 x 22.5 cm) - ISBN-10
ISBN-13 - 0-8135-2027-4
978-0-8135-2027-8 - User Ratings
(0 vote)Average rating:
0 rating 
= We can do without0 rating 
= Good book0 rating 
= Excellent book0 rating 
= Unique / a referenceYour rating: -
Book Presentation:
The Birth of a Nation (1915) remains the most controversial American film ever made, and its director, D. W. Griffith, one of the most extraordinary figures in film history. It was the first true feature film and did more than any other to launch Hollywood both as an industry and as an idea. The film consolidated a trend in cinematic technique and an approach to dramatic narrative that define American cinema to this day. As a great but ideologically troubled film that offers us a reflection of ourselves as Americans, The Birth of a Nation continues to intrigue, challenge, infuriate, and awe. Robert Lang's introduction to this volume explores in fascinating detail the warped view of history that this great film presents. Griffith, a Southerner, was intent on resurrecting, idealizing, and justifying the South. In The Birth of a Nation, it is racism that unites the white North and South; the protection or abolition of slavery is not the divisive issue. In a powerful synthesis of spectacle and narrative, Griffith seeks to give the Southern cause a sense of glamour and high purpose. Lang considers the film as a historical melodrama, and by examining Griffith's "historiography as ideological practice," he traces the way in which the bloody, traumatic reality of the Civil War and Reconstruction becomes melodramatic myth. This unparalleled guide to The Birth of a Nation offers a shot-by-shot continuity script; a biographical sketch of the director; a sampling of contemporary reviews; a series of essays by distinguished critics including James Chandler, Michael Rogin, Janet Staiger, and Mimi White; and a filmography and bibliography.
See the publisher website: Rutgers University Press
> From the same author:
> Books with the same or similar title:
> On a related topic:
D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (2008)
A History of 'The Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time'
by Melvyn Stokes
(in English)
Subject: One Film > The Birth of a Nation
D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (2002)
Its Genesis and Its Vision
by William M. Drew
(in English)
Subject: One Film > Intolerance
Le Cinéma, l'art d'une civilisation 1920-1960 (2011)
Collective dir. Daniel Banda and José Moure
Subject: History of Cinema
Le Cinéma, naissance d'un art (2008)
Premiers écrits 1895-1920
Collective dir. José Moure and Daniel Banda
Subject: Silent Cinema
Mary Pickford rediscovered (1999)
Rare pictures of a Hollywood legend
by Kevin Brownlow
(in English)
Subject: Actor > Mary Pickford
D.W. Griffith (1996)
An American Life
by Richard Schickel
(in English)
Subject: Director > David W. Griffith
Note: A book on a slightly gray background is a book that is no longer currently published or that may be difficult to find in bookstores. The shown price is that of the book at its release, the price on the second-hand market may be very different.
A book on a beige background is a book published in a language other than French.