Griffith’s Modification of The Clansman
By Heather Camperson, with comments by Andrew Tye, Kelley Higgins, and Tom Bianchi
[1] D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) is a silent film set during and after the Civil War that has emerged as one the most controversial movies in modern culture. Although inspired by Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman (1905), Griffith’s artistic interpretation differs from the scenes in the novel. In The Clansman, Dixon attempts to emphasize the heroism of the Ku Klux Klan and blames the African American race for the disunity of the nation. In The Birth of a Nation, Griffith follows Dixon’s intent but also focuses on the Southern way of life and the importance of the Southern woman as the center of the household. In order to preserve the target of the movie, Griffith opts to delete and/or edit specific scenes from the novel. For example, in chapters 11 and 12 of The Clansman, a white mother and her daughter Marion are viciously attacked and raped by a gang of African American men. As a result, both the mother and daughter commit suicide to end their humiliation. In The Birth of a Nation, Griffith alters this scene, in which he includes Gus, a solitary African American man—as opposed to a gang of men—in pursuit of a white woman, Flora. Ultimately, Flora jumps off a cliff and falls to her death. The rape scene in Dixon’s The Clansman, which Griffith chooses to alter in The Birth of a Nation, demonstrates how Griffith molds The Birth of a Nation into his own work while still maintaining the same focus as Dixon.
[2] In chapters 11 and 12, Dixon attempts to evoke extreme anger and hatred towards the African American race through the helplessness and fragility of the two women: “the door flew open with a crash, and four black brutes leaped into the room, Gus in the lead, with a revolver in his hand, his yellow teeth grinning through his thick lips†(309). Essentially, Dixon makes it appear as though the men are savage animals by stating that they “leaped into the room†and by describing Gus’s gang as “flour black brutes.†He further stresses the idea that the men resemble animals by giving details of the rape, stating, “the black claws of the beast sank into the soft white throat and [Marion] was still†(304). He juxtaposes the image of “black claws†with that of Marion’s “soft white throat,†highlighting the idea that she has angel-like features compared to the demon-monster Gus. Dixon wants Southern white men to see Southern women vulnerable to attacks by African American males. Griffith, however, omits this particular scene and replaces it with a much more toned-down version in which Gus chases Flora to the top of a cliff. Although the scene differs from the source, the focal point remains similar. In the film scene Flora is desperately trying to get away from Gus, who does not stop his pursuit despite Flora’s clear terror, calling attention to the same idea in The Clansman that African American males pose a threat to helpless women in the South.
[3] Griffith further emphasizes the threat of African American men through theatrical advances in the film industry that have more of an effect than just reading a scene in a novel. Although Griffith eliminates the violent rape scene, he utilizes such techniques as black face and musical emphasis to stress that the “Negro†should still be feared. Dixon describes Gus approaching Marion “with an ugly leer, his flat nose dilated, his sinister bead-eyes wide apart gleaming ape-like†(309). Dixon purposely touches on stereotypes of African Americans and associates the labels with the idea that all men who have those features should be feared. By describing Gus’s eyes as “ape-like,†he not only instills terror in all his readers but also emphasizes physical features of African Americans that set them apart from Caucasians. On the other hand, Griffith does not rely on stereotypes but rather uses black face and music to create a sense of alarm in his audience members. (see comment by Andrew Tye) The use of makeup compared to the a real African American actor creates a more intimidating appearance. Black face exaggerates Gus’s eyes and his bright white teeth, making him look quite crazy. Furthermore, Gus runs after Flora hunched over with his arms flailing, which makes him literally appear “ape-like†as Dixon describes him. Additionally, the scene is accompanied with slow and ominous music, generating suspense and anxiety within the audience. Although Griffith uses different techniques than Dixon in creating this scene in the film, he still has the same focus on African American men as monsters to be feared by all.
[4] Although throughout the film Griffith alters what Dixon originally writes, there is one part that he does not modify. After Marion is raped, she decides to jump off a cliff with her mother in order to end their humiliation. Marion says to her mother, “No one must ever know. We will hide quickly every trace of crime. They will think we strolled to Lover’s Leap and fell over the cliff, and my name will always be sweet and clean†(309). To Marion, being touched by an African American is the ultimate embarrassment, and she is afraid of feeling ashamed knowing what had happened to her. Similarly, Flora thinks the only way for her to end her fear and the dishonor she may bring to herself is to leap to her death. This is a very dramatic part of the scene and illustrates how desperate Flora is to end her disgrace. By keeping this part of the novel, Griffith emphasizes that African Americans have the ability of literally scaring anyone to death.
[5] Despite Griffith’s alterations in The Birth of a Nation, he still stresses Dixon’s basic idea that African Americans are fearful. Rather than highlighting vicious scenes like rape, however, Griffith tones down the brutality while holding on to the message. He does so by integrating such innovations as black face and thematic music with the climactic suicide. Ultimately, Griffith’s decision for deleting and editing scenes proved to be a success because The Birth of a Nation received admiring reviews and was considered a masterpiece of its time. While Griffith calls attention to the value of Southern life and Southern belles, he also emphasizes white supremacy by likening African American males to animals. In this scene in particular, Griffith effectively conveys the message that, especially after emancipation, the “Negro†should still be feared, but he does so without showing the cruelty of rape.
Comments
The almost ironic use of blackface in The Birth of a Nation is a controversial issue throughout the movie. As Camperson points out here--this scene is one of many instances in which Griffith chooses to stray from the original plot of The Clansman by Thomas Dixon, Jr. Blackface looks blatantly "off" when watching the movie and serves to further separate the African Americans. The racism is magnified by the appearance of these African Americans who don't even look human. After watching the movie twice, this provided two impressions. The first time around, I saw this depiction as incredibly racist. However, the over-the-top black face almost trivialized the racism as too farfetched to be taken seriously. As mentioned on the RAH site: "Let us rejoice in that the Stonemans of Washington were magnanimous, but let us not dishonor ourselves by calling into question their great merit by presenting them as paramours of quadroon mistresses, moved by petty spite. It is insulting to every man of Southern birth to assume that he is pleased by misrepresentation so colossal." In retrospect the blackface at points made the movie too racist to be taken seriously and further shows the disgusting attitudes held by people of that era. (see comment by Tom Bianchi) (see comment by Kelley Higgins)
The biggest victim of the racist over-the-top blackface in the movie is the character Gus. I think his character is the best example of how racist this movie really is. When we see him chasing after the little girl, he looks the part of a true villain. The little girl tries to lose him, but she cannot and would rather jump off a cliff to her death than fall into the hands of a scary black man. We understand Gus playing the part of an inferior black man not only through his black face but his actions as well. When he tries to hide in the bar, the owner of the mill comes in and suddenly begins taking out the blacks there as if they were no challenge for him. I think it was literally five Blacks fighting against him, and he held his own long enough for a legitimate chance. The fact that one White man had a chance fighting against five black men is extremely questionable. Black face was just another way Birth of a Nation attacked Africans after the controversial Reconstruction period post Civil war.
The use of blackface throughout the film, though controversial, serves to distance our reel portrayal of history from real American history. The easily noticeable blackface pokes fun at whites' racist view of blacks in an attempt to maintain white innocence and shift the blame to someone else. While I do believe that the blackface is extremely disrespectful, I am relieved that such an embarrassing film portraying the justification of the KKK and white supremacy comes at the responsibility of white men and not blacks who were forced to fill specific roles. Because the film is so clearly biased to defend the white folk's perspective of history, I feel that it is only fair that whites be the ones to communicate their uniquely white viewpoints. In doing so, this technique emphasizes Griffith's very one-sided opinion, discrediting the film as being historically accurate. To counter Griffith's portrayal of history, it would be really interesting to see a film about the Reconstruction era made by blacks and played solely by blacks to give them an equal opportunity to communicate their biased perspectives as well.
