Within Our Gates..
I had an interesting experience with Within Our Gates because conveniently enough, an hour or so after we finished watching Within Our Gates, I went to my film history class where we watched The Birth of a Nation (full-length). When comparing the two movies, with the KKK and racism aside, I have to say it was soooo much easier to watch Within Our Gates. The Birth of a Nation was very blunt and in your face about the message it was trying to send with long drawn out scenes that seemed a bit superfluous. In contrast, one of my favorite attributes of Within Our Gates is Micheaux’s attempt at several intertwining plots that subtly and creatively gives different viewpoints (of that time) in scenes that all seemed to ultimately work toward the film’s overall message. This gives the film a much more “real story” element opposed to Birth of a Nation’s glorified, over-the-top, depiction of the civil war and reconstruction. It makes me sad however because I feel like a lot of that is easily overlooked because of the film quality, some parts it was difficult to figure out what was even going on ( for instance when Sylvia is caught with supposedly her father ).
In Within Our Gates there was the good, the bad and the ugly and I loved the fact that it was not specific to one race. There were heroes and villains for both races, for example Sylvia verses Preacher Ned, Larry and Mrs. Warwick verses Gridlestone’s brother and Philip Gridlestone. I also noticed that the media (mainly newspapers) also advocated for voting rights and twists the story against the Landry family. There’s a sort of ying- yang effect where there’s a little bit of good and bad in all people. I’m not sure if that’s the main point in which he was trying to get across but in the end I think that’s the main thing I took away from this movie. I’m curious what did you take away from this movie?
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This is an interesting comparison, Lauren; it's unusual to see both films so close together in time. Your post suggests that Micheaux is maybe aiming for a more thoughtful or less emotion-filled presentation, given the good and bad in each character.
ReplyDeleteI am also in film history and watched "The Birth of a Nation" just after seeing this film. I agree with your thoughts about the portrayals of race in each film. I too thought that Griffith's representations were much more over the top and in your face then Micheaux's. Also, the subtlety Micheaux uses in portraying each the different characters of both the white and African American races made the film more enjoyable as opposed to the blunt representations of the KKK as heroes.
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