treadwaywrites

The Birth of a Nation is a 1915 silent film. The movie is based on two of Thomas Dixon's novels The Clansman and The Leopard's Spots. This early film is noted for its innovative technical and narrative achievements and is studied in virtually every Film History 101 class in colleges and universities. Of course it also provokes controversy due to its treatment of white supremacy and its positive portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan.

Originally this film would have been presented in two sections with an intermission in the middle. The first half depicts a before Civil War America and introduces two families, the Northern Stonemans and the Southern Camerons. The Stonemans visit the Camerons at their South Carolina estate. The elder Stoneman boy falls in love with Margaret Cameron and one of the Cameron sons, Ben (Henry B. Walthall), pines for one of the Stoneman daughters, Elise. Of course the Civil War breaks out and the young men join their respective armies. A black militia (with a white leader) ransacks the Cameron house. The Cameron women are rescued when Confederate soldiers rout the militia. Meanwhile, the youngest Stoneman and two Cameron boys are killed in the war. Ben Cameron is wounded after a heroic battle in which he gains the nickname, "the Little Colonel," by which he is referred for the rest of the film. The Little Colonel is taken to a Northern hospital where he meets Elsie, who is working there as a nurse. The war ends and Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theater, allowing Austin Stoneman (meant to parody real life Congressman Thaddeus Stevens) and other radical congressmen to punish the South for secession using radical measures supposedly typical of this period of the Reconstruction era.

The second part depicts Reconstruction. Stoneman and his "mulatto" follower, Silas Lynch, go to South Carolina to observe their agenda of empowering Southern blacks via election fraud. Meanwhile, Ben, inspired by observing white children pretending to be ghosts to scare off black children, devises a plan to reverse perceived powerlessness of Southern whites by forming the Ku Klux Klan, although his membership in the group angers Elsie. Shockingly a former slave proposes marriage to the other Cameron daughter, Flora. She is scared by the former slave, Gus (Walter Long), and runs off into the forest pursued by him. Eventually she is trapped and then leaps to her death. The Klan hunts down Gus and lynches him. A crackdown on the Klan is then ordered by Silas Lynch (George Siegmann). The Camerons flee fro the black militia and hide out in a small hut which is home to two former Union soldiers who agree to assist the Camerons.

Meanwhile Lynch tries to force Elsie to marry him. Disguised Klansmen discover her situation and leave to get reinforcements. The Klan, now at full strength, rides to her rescue and takes the opportunity to disperse the rioting "crazed Negroes." Just then Lynch's militia surrounds and attacks the hut where the Camerons are hiding, but the Klan saves them just in time. Victorious, the Klansmen celebrate in the streets, and the film cuts to the next election where the Klan successfully disenfranchises black voters and disarms the blacks. The film concludes with a double honeymoon of Phil Stoneman with Margaret Cameron (Miriam Cooper) and Ben Cameron with Elsie Stoneman. The final frame shows masses oppressed by a mythical god of war suddenly finding themselves at peace under the image of Christ. The final title rhetorically asks: "Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more? But instead-the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace."

D.W. Griffith, the film's director, agreed to pay Thomas Dixon $10,000 for the rights to his play The Clansman. Since he ran out of money and could afford only $2,500 of the original option, Griffith offered Dixon 25 percent interest in the picture. Dixon reluctantly agreed. The film's unprecedented success made him rich. Dixon's proceeds were the largest sum any author had received for a motion picture story and amounted to several million dollars. The film is estimated to have cost Griffith a total of $112,000 causing him to seek out many different investors. At the film's premiere in Los Angeles the title was The Clansman but it was later changed to The Birth of a Nation to reflect Griffith's belief that the United States emerged out of the Civil War and Reconstruction, ended by the Klan, as a unified nation.

The films stars Lillian Gish as Elsie Stoneman and Mae Marsh as Flora Cameron. They must be credited for causing some of the stir that arose when the film was released. Not only is the film polarizing, but as the black men in the film are being portrayed as sex crazed and violent men after these so innocent white women had to bring about a response. To stir up this type of emotion in 1915 is an impressive undertaking by D.W. Griffith.

As you watch the film you can't help be confused by part one and two as they look and appear to be two separate movies spliced together. Part two is the section with all of the disturbing material and does not match up with part one which has more cinema techniques. Watching the film without keeping history and film history in the back of your mind, one can easily find the film tedious and hard to keep your attention. It is like eating aged cheese, it takes a refined pallet. If you have an interest in film history and how we got from there to here with styles then this film is a must watch.

By far Star Trek is the greatest movie adventure of all time. The story of Star Trek and its Enterprise crew should be well known by now, but in case you were hiding in a cave... The Enterprise is a starship from Earth's 25 century and the crew's mission is to seek out new life and to boldly go where no man has gone before. Way back in the day, 1966, came the Star Trek television series. Then in 1979 came Star Trek The Motion Picture. Now in 2009 we have Star Trek which follows those original characters of Captain Kirk and the Vulcan Spock, only this time we're getting a fresh new batch of actors.

This film allows us to explore Kirk and Spock before they have become their legendary selves. We meet James Kirk and learn how he was challenged from his home in Iowa into joining Starfleet, equivalent to our NASA today. We meet Spock who is tortured between his Vulcan heritage and his human nature and emotions. The other characters also come into our view for "the first time" and even though the actors faces are fresh the characters are very familiar. This is quite a challenge to the actors playing them and an equal challenge to real fans of the series who have embedded themselves and love of the characters with those original actors.

For Trek fans you're going to love this movie. It is fresh yet familiar. There is lots of new material here to keep you going for two hours. It is great to see this reboot of the characters and see them unfold from the beginning again. You'll love seeing Spock and Kirk save the galaxy for the first time. However, also for Trek fans the reboot isn't going to be able to follow every reference or look and act the same as it did in 1966 or 1979. When the series first rebooted itself with the 1979 release, little was thought about making everything match the t.v. series – thank god. It worked great. So hopefully Trek fans will see the choices made in 2009 as reasonable ones.

For normal movie goers this film is a marvel of modern CGI and everything looks so real that it is hard to believe that it is not real. It is a gorgeous looking film and that is hard to argue. J.J. Abrams, the film's director has done a remarkable job in getting this project off the ground and also pulling this movie together considering the special effects. It's almost like pulling a movie out of thin air. Just as the model making was incredible in the earlier films it is the computer imaging that makes this movie look breathtaking.

The acting in the film is a bit uneven and unbalanced. The actors certainly had enough reference material to pull from and while I wasn't looking for any type of impersonations from the actors, the characters are pretty much set in stone from the books and previous movies. This might be where Trek fans are most critical. From a non Trek point of view, the development could have been much deeper that it was. One of the surprise performances comes from Simon Pegg who plays Scotty, the ship's engineer. His delivery and skill takes many of the scenes that he is in.

As fir Chris Pine (James Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock), their chemistry together has a certain flair, but the spark never ignites fully. They play their parts very light without letting themselves go too deep into these characters. The tension of friendship is there but at times I just wasn't convinced that these guys had the bravado necessary to save the galaxy. If their chemistry doesn't do it for you, don't worry. There is still some sexiness to this geeky film. Just like its predecessors, this film finds a way to work in some sex appeal.

I am forced to admit that I am a Trek fan. Therefor I like the movie. I think I'm able to be unbiased enough though to say that non-Trek fans will like this movie too. It is a great sci- fi ride with some awesome graphics, great fighting, some twists and turns and all around good fun. If you're not a fan this movie just might make a fan of you.

I don't think it should be any surprise that this movie is merely a quick vehicle to get Zac Ephron in a movie and making money as fast as possible before, god forbid, he becomes a flash in the pan. If you have seen a trailer for the film then you've pretty darn near seen the film aside from the juicy bits that all the tween girls in America are frothing to see.

Basically this is about a guy named Mike O'Donnell (Mathew Perry) who is having a rough time in his life. His wife is wanting a divorce, his kids are remote at best, he didn't get the big office promotion and let's just say his life has been going down the drain since his life at 17 when he was the big basketball star. And, let's cue the body swap movie.

In order to get us, the audience, where we need to be which is watching Zac play out this 17 again life while maintaining his middle aged knowledge, Mike (Perry) falls into a Twilight Zone type of vortex where the switch happens. Switch? Instead of being 17 again he should have asked to go back in time 20 years. Think of movies like Big (in reverse) or Freaky Friday, only in a good way. Perhaps Like Father, Like Son comes to mind. Maybe even a dash of It's A Wonderful Life is even thrown in.

Whatever movies you think of, and there are plenty to think of here, writer Jason FIlardi is responsible for the premise being rammed down our throat. I use the word writer loosely as do I also the word responsible. Filardi has brought us Drum and Bringing Down The House. As for responsible, well that should go to the executives that were determined on creating a Zac Efron project rather than looking for a project for Zac Efron.

The real question was why I was even attending a screening of this movie. Well, I have a just turned teen daughter who had to see this trifle so when the passes came up I had to take them. In attendance was also another 100 teenage girls sans boyfriends. Just as contrived as the movie itself is shirtless Zac, who when he took off his T-shirt, my hearing failed from the squeals that only teenage girls can make. And why does he have to play basketball again!!

I can tell you that this is harmless entertainment. We've seen actors stoop much lower than this though I can't tell you how we ended up with Matthew Perry cast as adult Efrom. I also can't tell you why we need to have Brian Doyle Murray as the janitor that just happens to have the magical ability to make vortexes appear at his whim. Seems like he could do better than the janitor gig.

Overall, I didn't throw up. I actually found a couple of the scenes funny and fresh. There was a lot that I didn't like that with a little work could have been made much better, but Hollywood is lazy that way and if they don't have to do the work, they won't.