Media influences the cultures of centuries-spanning generations, with a primary example through film beng the tainting of how some Americans view the history of a postwar South.
Amazingly even very great filmmakers were seduced by Griffith's skill into believing the narrative he presented.
Take William Friedkin, who you think would really know better:
"It shows that in the... Restoration Period there was a lot of black crime... the rise of the Ku Klux Klan came about because there was a lot of rapes and pillaging done by the newly-freed slaves."
Wow, thanks for sending that along. His thoughts are… interesting, to say the least. Friedkin’s always been an outspoken, "my way or the highway" type of guy, but I really didn’t expect for him to just flat-out say that the KKK had to come about because of “black crime” in postwar America. And it’s disappointing to say the least that this magazine didn’t even bother to put a disclaimer of some sort clarifying that Friedkin was misled by the film. I'm not saying he supports the Klan but the way he worded stuff like him saying that you couldn't do that in today's PC culture is... uh... a choice.
Amazingly even very great filmmakers were seduced by Griffith's skill into believing the narrative he presented.
Take William Friedkin, who you think would really know better:
"It shows that in the... Restoration Period there was a lot of black crime... the rise of the Ku Klux Klan came about because there was a lot of rapes and pillaging done by the newly-freed slaves."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-APzEjrklc
His discussion of Birth of a Nation starts at 6:45 on this video.
Wow, thanks for sending that along. His thoughts are… interesting, to say the least. Friedkin’s always been an outspoken, "my way or the highway" type of guy, but I really didn’t expect for him to just flat-out say that the KKK had to come about because of “black crime” in postwar America. And it’s disappointing to say the least that this magazine didn’t even bother to put a disclaimer of some sort clarifying that Friedkin was misled by the film. I'm not saying he supports the Klan but the way he worded stuff like him saying that you couldn't do that in today's PC culture is... uh... a choice.