Post by klep on Jan 27, 2020 8:11:04 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/27: Within Our Gates
CIVIL RIGHTS WEEK!
CW: Sexual Assault, Racism, Lynching
Oscar Micheaux insisted that he created Within Our Gates independently of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, but it's not hard to understand why people think it was a response to Griffith's film. Released four years before Micheaux's film, Birth of a Nation portrayed black people as uniformly villainous and/or stupid - monsters who don't deserve a place in our society, and ends with a marriage between a family from the North and from the South - uniting both parts of the country in white supremacy.
Micheaux's film by contrast paints a more realistic portrait of black people. Most of them are good, some are bad, some are in-between. They are, in other words, people; people beset by the prejudice of racist white people no matter where they are. Birth of a Nation's lynching is portrayed as an act of justice - punishing a black man for trying to rape a white woman and driving her to suicide. The final act of Within Our Gates on the other hand features a town's worth of white people lynching a poor black family whose patriarch is accused of murder (Micheaux spares the audience a little by letting the small child escape) cross-cut with the attempted rape of our heroine Sylvia (Evelyn Preer) by a white man - an assault only halted when her assaulter suddenly realizes she's his daughter given up for adoption. The townsfolk even lynch a conveniently available black man during their manhunt because they're frustrated and bored. It's a much more realistic portrayal of conditions in the South than Griffith's racist fantasy.
But Micheaux doesn't stop with the South - the North isn't off the hook. The first intertitle of the film notes that the North doesn't have the South's prejudices, except that somehow that doesn't mean black people are free from lynchings. Within Our Gates later on shows two white men who claim to support black Americans, but not so far as giving them the right to vote. Micheaux is noting that equality doesn't come in half-measures, and that supposedly well-meaning white people who find limits to the rights they're willing to extend to black people are still racist oppressors.
That's one way that Micheaux unites the North and the South, but he doesn't end with bitterness. Instead he has the southern Sylvia marry the northern Dr. V Vivian (Charles D. Lucas), who reminds her (and more importantly the audience) of the contributions black people have made to America and implores her that it's still worth fighting for.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/3: Blue Velvet
AMATEUR SPY WEEK!
For Amateur Spy Week we delve into the mind of David Lynch with his 1986 classic about a man who discovers the twisted underbelly of his suburban community. Come join our discussion of Blue Velvet next week, available for rent in the usual places (and free for Prime members).
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/28: Gallipoli
The next podcast pairing takes us onto the battlefields of World War I, starting with Peter Weir's Gallipoli. Come join our discussion of his film on Wednesday! Gallipoli is available on Kanopy as well as for rent in the usual places.
CIVIL RIGHTS WEEK!
CW: Sexual Assault, Racism, Lynching
Oscar Micheaux insisted that he created Within Our Gates independently of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, but it's not hard to understand why people think it was a response to Griffith's film. Released four years before Micheaux's film, Birth of a Nation portrayed black people as uniformly villainous and/or stupid - monsters who don't deserve a place in our society, and ends with a marriage between a family from the North and from the South - uniting both parts of the country in white supremacy.
Micheaux's film by contrast paints a more realistic portrait of black people. Most of them are good, some are bad, some are in-between. They are, in other words, people; people beset by the prejudice of racist white people no matter where they are. Birth of a Nation's lynching is portrayed as an act of justice - punishing a black man for trying to rape a white woman and driving her to suicide. The final act of Within Our Gates on the other hand features a town's worth of white people lynching a poor black family whose patriarch is accused of murder (Micheaux spares the audience a little by letting the small child escape) cross-cut with the attempted rape of our heroine Sylvia (Evelyn Preer) by a white man - an assault only halted when her assaulter suddenly realizes she's his daughter given up for adoption. The townsfolk even lynch a conveniently available black man during their manhunt because they're frustrated and bored. It's a much more realistic portrayal of conditions in the South than Griffith's racist fantasy.
But Micheaux doesn't stop with the South - the North isn't off the hook. The first intertitle of the film notes that the North doesn't have the South's prejudices, except that somehow that doesn't mean black people are free from lynchings. Within Our Gates later on shows two white men who claim to support black Americans, but not so far as giving them the right to vote. Micheaux is noting that equality doesn't come in half-measures, and that supposedly well-meaning white people who find limits to the rights they're willing to extend to black people are still racist oppressors.
That's one way that Micheaux unites the North and the South, but he doesn't end with bitterness. Instead he has the southern Sylvia marry the northern Dr. V Vivian (Charles D. Lucas), who reminds her (and more importantly the audience) of the contributions black people have made to America and implores her that it's still worth fighting for.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/3: Blue Velvet
AMATEUR SPY WEEK!
For Amateur Spy Week we delve into the mind of David Lynch with his 1986 classic about a man who discovers the twisted underbelly of his suburban community. Come join our discussion of Blue Velvet next week, available for rent in the usual places (and free for Prime members).
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/28: Gallipoli
The next podcast pairing takes us onto the battlefields of World War I, starting with Peter Weir's Gallipoli. Come join our discussion of his film on Wednesday! Gallipoli is available on Kanopy as well as for rent in the usual places.