The American film industry has long had a fascination with portraying the Old South: that antebellum time put on screen as a world of mansions and magnolias. Hollywood has grossed billions romanticizing the gentility of the southerners and their old ways of living. However, as we now know the Old South was not just beautiful gardens of camellias and sleepy little towns without worry. It was an economy built on the sweat and blood of slaves. Without the labor of slaves, there is no antebellum South. Hollywood hasn’t exactly tried to hide this, in fact there are a great many representations of slavery in film. However, the ways these slaves have been represented has changed very much through history. There are three benchmark films that best …show more content…
In each film some group of people is being attacked, and another portrayed as righteously standing against the attackers. The origins of these conflicts are however very different. In Birth of a Nation we see the whites, particularly white women, as being victims of rape and brutalization at the hands of former slaves. It is clear in this film that race is presented as being intrinsically linked to ones ethics and values and the blacks are incredibly belligerent. 12 Years a Slave also shows the violence between the races, but the conflict could better be described as a battle between the oppressed and their oppressor. The slaves are shown as human beings who pray and worship a Christian god, truly benign souls. Yet the slavers whip and beat them to keep their morale low. The slaves in this movie may best be described as showing meek qualities, quick to help one another but seldom speak against their own persecution at the hands of the planters. Gone With the Wind takes a much different approach. The violence which occurs is war violence which is ideologically based, race is never a factor. The slaves in this film stand with their owners in an almost familial way, all southerners looking after eachother regardless of …show more content…
The most important scenes in Birth of a Nation are the scene where the black drunkards have taken over Congress, and the scene where a white girl is chased by a black man right over a cliff. The scene with the girl is very crucial as it exploits the irrational fear of that period in time that all black men wished to do harm to white women, specifically through the means of rape. Depicting blacks of that era as rapists and drunks is a way of stating they are lacking of self control, and would unquestionably engage in acts of near animal savagery without the authority of the white man. Gone With the Wind takes a much more nuanced approach at the morals of slaves. When Scarlett rides her carriage through a camp of bums, she is attacked by white hobos and begins screaming. One of the O’Haras’ former slaves is living in a camp in close proximity and hears Scarlett screaming. He runs to the scene of the conflict and promptly chases the two assailants away, he then realizes that the woman he’d saved was Scarlett. This is clearly a much different depiction of the relationship between slaves and white women. The black slave is the rescuer in this scene, showing a willingness to help those in need with disregard for his own safety, a truly righteous quality. Due to its format as a story of oppressed versus oppressor, 12 Years a Slave is able to display unique moral qualities that the other films