D. W. Griffith’s 1915 Civil War/Reconstruction saga remains controversial after ninety years because of its accuracy. Not as history, but as cultural/social marker for some of the deepest and most repellent feelings and attitudes we hold on to. As film, it remains riveting, effortlessly holding us over its three hour running time. Part One holds the less objectionable material, though there’s plenty to go around!, and the film peaks with Griffith ’s almost sadistic display of his powers in the Lincoln assassination sequence. Part Two is all Reconstruction & Ku Klux Klan and though studded with legendary episodes, everyone seems to be off the rails. Even Lillian Gish loses acting control and it becomes clear that the condescension toward the sympathetic blacks may be even more mind-warpingly dangerous than the displays of outright villainy. What could the actual African-Americans in the cast have been thinking during production? Note must be taken of two unconscious(?) sexual epiphanies: a full blown male-to-male liebestod adieux for Bobby Harron (in Blue) and playmate/deathmate George Andre Berenger (in Grey). And then there’s Lillian’s amazing encounter with her bedpost after a first kiss from H. B. Walthall’s "Little Colonel." (He’s great, by the way.) She kisses the post and then wistfully fondles the finial. Freud lives!
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