While conducting an intellectual inquiry into the visual premises of films, the four crucial questions that need to be addressed and answered are,
Who is making the film? (politics of writer/director)
Why is the film made? (politics of the narrative)
Where is the origin of the film? (politics of space/geography)
Why is the film made at that particular point of time? (politics of time)
Every film is the baby of its director and writer, shaped by their political interests, affiliations and positions on certain socio-political issues. So it is natural that the political orientation/positionality and ideology of director/writer is reflected in their films. Academic interests revolving around the study of cinema always scrutinize films based on their political inner layers. A generalized privilege position or objective analysis of a film is impossible due to the multiple interpretations that have the backing of different experiences. Often, film criticism is guided by the collective emotion and judgments. The widespread following to those ‘privileged’ criticisms or appreciations marginalizes a ‘not-so-vocal’ minority views on the same text. A ‘classic’ for one majority group of critics might not be so for others. This diverged array of commentaries and analyses on films and accommodating all such voices will only enhance the film criticism to touch upon critical issues.
When a ‘white director’ makes a film about the lives of the black/coloured people, most of the times, the ‘inherent bias’ is visible, either in the way of ‘misrepresentation’ or ‘insult’ or the ‘white savior’ image. When a black director himself/herself makes a film about black/coloured people, though there are exceptions, we get honest and genuine portrayal of their lives. This statement is not a generalization, but it is visible in most of the films. The scenario is similar to the comparison between Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in postcolonial studies.
D.W Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) is a screen adaption of Thomas Dixon Jr.’s novel The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, which is part of Ku Klux Klan trilogy (The Leopard’s Spots and The Traitor are the other two) that romanticizes the ‘KKK’. The silent film is widely recognized as a ‘classic’ film of all time. It was even screened in White House for Woodrow Wilson, the first feature film in US history to achieve such an ‘honour.’ KKK, the American white supremacist hate group, celebrated the film that depicted them heroically. Many actors in the film, who were white people, purposefully darkened their faces to act as blacks. This film largely propagated the ‘sexually aggressive black man’ narrative. Griffith’s film also (mis)represented black people in many ways. The film mainly deals with Civil War period and reconstruction. Among the many other films of that time, the political purpose served was to legitimize the national narrative of the time. The resurgence of KKK outfits in the US and the Boston demonstrations that followed are part of the history
Spike Lee’s 2018 film Blackkklansman criticizes these racist tones in the ‘celebrated classics’ including D.W Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915). In the heart-breaking scene where Jerome Turner speaks about the ‘Lynching of Jesse Washington’ (an incident happened on 15 May 1916 in Waco, Texas, United States) underlines how ‘classics’ can be deceiving.
An excerpt from the original script (Focus Features 2018) written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee (based on the 2014 memoir Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth) – the Jerome Turner speech scene – is given here:
It was a nice spring day, Waco, Texas May 15th, Nineteen Hundred and Sixteen. Jesse Washington was a friend of mine. He was Seventeen, I was Eighteen. He was what they called back then, Slow. Today it’s called Mentally Retarded.
They claim Jesse Raped and Murdered a White Woman named Lucy Fryer. They put Jesse on Trial and he was convicted by an All White Jury after deliberating for Four Minutes. I was working at the Shoe Shine Parlor. After the verdict, a Mob grabbed Jesse, wrapped a Chain around his Neck and dragged him out the Court House.
I knew I had to hide.
The Attic of the Parlor had a Small Window and I watched below as The Mob marched Jesse along Stabbing and Beating him. Finally, they held Jesse down and cut his Testicles off in Front of City Hall. The Police and City Officials were out there just watching like it was a 4th of July Parade. They cut off Jesse’s Fingers and poured Coal Oil over his Bloody Body, lit a Bonfire and for two hours they raised and lowered Jesse into the Flames over and over and over again.
The Mayor had a Photographer by the name of Gildersleeve come and take Pictures of the whole Lynching. The Pictures were sold as Post Cards. They put Jesse’s charred Body in a Bag and dragged it through Town then sold what was left of his remains as Souvenirs. Good White Folks cheered and laughed and had a High Ole’ Time. They estimate close to Fifteen Thousand people watched it. They brought The Children out on Lunch hour from School. All I could do was Watch and Pray they wouldn’t find me. No one Hides their Faces. Everyone is proud to be there.
One of the reasons they did that to Jesse was that Birth of a Nation Movie had come out a year before. It gave The Klan a Rebirth. It was what a Big, Big thing back then was. Today what they call a Blockbuster! Everybody saw it. They say even the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson showed the Movie in the White House, he said “it was History written with Lighting…”
By giving titles like ‘classics,’ ‘movie of the decade,’ ‘movie of the century’ and so on to any films, critics and viewers must always check whether the film is keeping its basic politics. It is hard to define what is basic politics in this largely complicated world. But avoiding hatred towards women, trans-people, men with masculinity issues, minorities, black people, certain communities, race and caste discriminations, constitute the foundational layer of basic politics in visual narratives. Also claiming a ‘privilege position’ in movie over many other interpretations and arguments can also be avoided.
Now if we ask the aforementioned four questions and try to find the answers from Lee’s film, the visual politics will become clearer. The politics of writer/director is to correct a mistake committed by classic films, like Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, that distorted the history and celebrated racism. The answer for the question why the film is being made (or the politics of the narrative) can be traced in the history of United States itself, from civil war to the present white-supremacy rallies. The film narrates one episode of civil rights period that changed the lives of black people in US. The film is made in the United States itself. The politics of time is significant because the film ends with the media coverage of hate speech, racist remarks by Trump, white supremacy protests and so on. In the present time of resurgence of crime against the black people or white-supremacist narratives, the film has a clear stance on the issue. When the same four questions are applied to Griffith’s film, we’ll find the problematic conceptions and narrative building in his film.
The example of BlackKklansman is one among the many films released in 2018 that were set in the background of 1960s. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) and Green Book (2018) were the other films set in the same period, that discussed politics of skin and race. Why the US films are going back to the civil rights period? The answer lies in the tensions between blacks and whites in the present US society. In 2019, the enquiry on multiple aspects of the lives of Black people in US in discussed by films like The Last Black Man in San Francisco. The life of Black people in United States is getting worse in the Trump era. In many places they are stereotyped as criminals and the population of Black people in Guantanamo raises the question of hatred towards them. Writers/Directors are engaging these socially sensitive issues through films and are using the medium as a resistance to the nationalist narratives. Lee’s deconstruction of Griffith’s Birth of Nation through Blackkklansman is one such attempt. We need more such creative interventions in other places where subjugation of minorities is a state priority.
Gokul K S is a PhD Candidate in International Relations at IIT Madras researching on Politics of Visual Narratives and Tibetan Exiles. Gokul contributes to Global South Colloquy, Tibetscapes, Countercurrents, Cinema Paradiso Club and Prathipaksham. He can be reached at ksgokul2015@gmail.com. Research Interests: Visual Politics, Tibetan Studies, Neo-Marxism @https://lanthanbathery.wordpress.com/gokul-k-s/
