Talk:The Birth of a Race

Expansion

Needs a discussion of the race angle by someone who has, say, actually seen the movie. It's 10 reels but how long is its running time? Tempshill 16:19, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

From what I understand, it is impossible to find. Only a few snippets have survived. M. Frederick 01:36, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The way this article is written is really slanted racially... LENGTHY? Then wartime story? Wasn't the film's emphasis towards the portrayal of blacks in a positive light??

The article does not have sufficient content. It's impossible to know what the film was about, or how it related to Birth of a Nation. --Parkwells 22:27, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Negative sterotypes

This article says:

• It was made as a response to the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, and was meant to discredit the negative stereotypes perpetuated by the film. The Birth of a Race was released following the end of World War I.

Also, in Birth of a Nation, we say:

• In 1918 Emmett J. Scott helped produce and John W. Noble directed The Birth of a Race in response. The film portrayed a positive image of blacks. Although the film was panned by white critics, it was well-received by black critics and moviegoers attending segregated theaters.[citation needed]

Yet the New York Times review of the movie makes no mention of any black characters or content. Instead, it describes it as anti-war and anti-German. IMDB reviewers mention some scenes depicting racial unity, but they are apparently not a core part of the movie's theme or plot. Since we don't have sources that support what we're writing, we should probably trim some of this.   Will Beback  talk  21:36, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

A November 16, 2018, article in the Tampa Bay Times about the film's production in Tampa a hundred years ago sheds light on the muddled plot, which combined the theme of black achievement down through history with the WWI subplot of two white brothers fighting on opposite sides. The article has been expanded with this cite.  JGHowes  ^talk 14:52, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Multiple versions of film?

I tried to post a more extensive explanation here with actual citations but I'm new to editing and it didn't actually post, not sure why...

The "full" movie linked in this article does not match the synopsis, and additionally the article conflates Scott's original screenplay with the final version of the movie. There may be multiple versions of the film, or the linked video (posted by Library of Congress) might be incomplete. Abbey.thorpe

Edit: Important update, I found an active Library of Congress page for the film and it explains that there were in fact multiple versions.

Originally released in 1918 by Gardiner Syndicate. The birth of a race was originally 2:30 hours in length but after two public screenings it was permanently trimmed to sixty minutes. The original idea of the production was to be a response to the racist overtones of The birth of a nation.[1] (talk) 19:54, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

Yay that worked! Okay so, first issue is that the intro wasn't distinguishing between the original screenplay and the final version of the film. I've edited to make it clearer and explain the source of the discrepancy, but this is my first ever wikipedia edit so I am not at all confident about doing it right.

Screenplay vs. Film

Here is the factually incorrect sentence that really confused me:

• When finally released in December 1918, following the end of World War I, The Birth of a Race was a two-hour feature-length film, portraying the achievements of black people through history.

I read this before watching the actual film and was surprised because it did not portray achievements of black people. There are only 3 scenes with people of color (at least, in the linked version from Library of Congress):

1. A few shots with black & Asian extras in the crowd watching Jesus's teachings
2. The Via Dolorosa scene with Simon of Cyrene
3. A black and white man working on a farm and then joining the military

As explained in the 2015 All Things Considered segment, footage depicting achievements of black people was removed from the final film.[2]

Note: I tried to figure out who the actual actor playing Simon of Cyrene was, since he's the only black main cast in the film, but I couldn't find anything. Abbey.thorpe (talk) 20:03, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

The second issue is that the linked film is different from the synopsis and cited run-time, so something is off.

The surviving film

The 2018 Tampa Bay Times article says that it was a nearly 2 hour film but only 10 mins of it have survived. However, the Internet Archive version posted by the Library of Congress in 2020 is 1 hr 30 min.[3] So 1. Either this version of the film is incomplete, or the "nearly 2 hours" was an exaggeration and 2. Either the 2018 article is factually incorrect (maybe they meant 10 reels, not 10 minutes?), the video uploaded in 2020 was a rediscovered copy with more footage, or (scariest but least likely option) the 2020 video is edited in ways I cannot identify since I don't have access to the original version.

The WWI plot

The synopsis & reception sections of this article discuss a whole section of the movie about two brothers fighting in WWI that is not in the supposed complete film being linked. Since this article frequently mixed up the screenplay & final film, and doesn't cite any sources for this synopsis, I'm unsure where the discrepancy is.

Here's a summary of the included references and whether or not they reference this WWI plot:

1. 2012 NYT article, clear yes
2. AFI catalog (2014 capture), clear yes
3. Silent Era listing (last update 2009), yes? (included cast specific to WWI section)
4. 2018 Tampa Bay Times article, yes
5. 2015 NPR segment, no
6. 1999 book, haven't read
7. Library of Congress, dead link

So, I think that the linked video is almost certainly incomplete. Notably, reference #5 is about someone viewing the film at the Library of Congress, which supports the idea that they have an incomplete version, which they then uploaded to Internet Archive. Abbey.thorpe (talk) 20:26, 6 September 2024 (UTC)