Birth Of A Nation: Art Or Propaganda Essay -- essays research papers

Birth of A Nation Art or PropagandaMankind, engaging in war, driven by whatever instincts guide him, seeksto keep the defeats and victories of battle in his memory and on his conscience.To accomplish this men have workd paint and canvas, ink and paper, or instrumentand song in their effort to communicate the tragedy and celebrity of war. Never,before the career of D.W. Griffith had anyone attempted to bring the subject to plastic film. The result of his efforts, weaknesses aside, homer a change in attitudetowards film as a media. Perhaps audiences previously going to a pictureexpected ruttish manipulation. After all, years before the film Birth of anation, makers of film employed techniques to evoke pathos from viewers whetherthrough the use of a sobbing mother, a frightened child or what have you. Inthis respect the film was not a ground-breaker However, through its effectiveuse of devices such as symbolism, foreshadowing and allusions, as well as twist on and arguably perfecti ng film techniques such as continuity editing,intercutting and close-ups, he transformed film from mere entertainment to artand propaganda.To present and search a theme, symbolism is used everywhere inliterature. Whether the image is problematical or obvious it is regardless a sign ofconsiderable deliberateness and effort. In Birth of a nation Griffith placessymbols everywhere, in doing this he merges literary devices of written workswi...