I should go to bed, but I'm rather enthralled by "The Birth of a Nation" on Netflix, which I've been meaning to watch for years.
It's upsetting on a few different levels (obviously the "hurray for the KKK!" bullshit would be at the WAY top of the "upsetting stuff" list). But it's also fascinating from the perspective that I've never really watched a (full-length) silent film before and there's so much to take in: from the story to the acting to the "technology" to the sets and the music to the actors themselves (blackface? really?! Holy crap. Also: the female actors are refreshing. They're NORMAL-looking and fully clothed and some are old and some are fat. . . you know, like PEOPLE. I love that. Also: civil war mustaches are incredibly stupid-looking). And it's a pretty epic story that's being told in such a limited (to us modern folks, anyway) medium.
But let's not skip over the MAIN point of the stupid movie: Thank God for the KKK. No, really. That's the gist of it. It's strange and hard to watch. And it should be talked about. Still, almost 100 years after it was made.
Anyone else seen this? Hmmm. . . I should start a classic film discussion group. Some movies just need to be hashed out before they can be properly digested. Kind of wish this movie was tackled in that film course I took in college. It beats the shit out of "Tender Mercies" (barf).
