Movie Review: The Birth of a Nation (2016) and Gone With The Wind (1939)

Both The Birth of a Nation (2016) and Gone With The Wind (1939) have been called out for having racist sentiment and being problematic. The Birth of a Nation pushed racial stereotypes that were heavily criticized by many, including the stereotype of the black rapist man who goes after white women only. This only served to play into that very racially based fear at the time that many people, especially women, unfairly had and expressed freely whether they blatantly avoided black men or lied about being assaulted by one when they weren’t. This man in the movie is later lynched in a fashion that sent the message that black people were almost worthy enough to be lynched, which was also later criticized by viewers. Even more criticized is the film’s use of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) and depicting them as saviors to the mistake that was giving black people rights. This film production actually refounded the KKK and pushed stereotypes that were held for a significant period of time past the film production, hindering the progression for black people towards equal rights that they fought hard for and deserved. Gone With The Wind is another film that warranted a lot of criticism due to its glorification of the antebellum South. This film whitewashes slavery and the true evils of it. This film also pushes stereotypes of dutiful, loyal slaves who stand more with their masters than their fellow slaves, even being against leaving the plantation post war. As The Birth of a Nation is also guilty of, this film also depicted freed slaves after the war as the typical stereotypes of dangerous, naive, and unable to handle rights of their own. 

Whether or not these movies should be removed from live-streaming or wide availability is strongly debated. Having these movies up for viewing at any time is seen by some as extremely harmful and detrimental to furthering stereotypes of an entire race that aren’t accurate. However, these movies can be used as a great learning tool for the harm of stereotypes and how to avoid them for the viewers. With that said, I believe that these movies should still be accessible but should have warnings, background contexts, and statements in the beginning before the movie actually begins. There should be trigger warnings of different harmful things found in the movie, background context of the truth of slavery and the Civil War, and statements from critics of what is inaccurate and harmful in these movies. This way the viewers then can go into the movies knowing the truth and understanding where the movies employ racist and inaccurate sentiment. The viewers then can identify problematic implements and learn from them to then identify bias and racially motivated agendas later in other works they may come across.