[Editors Note]
I wrote this essay myself. It is an original work by me. I feel the need to point this out since I get so much traffic to it from Google (probably because students need an essay on this topic or whatever). I would not have posted it in its entirety if I did not want people to read it. However, I did not include the bibliography or works cited page (I still get them confused) because I don't want out and out theft of this paper. Instead, use it to give yourself a starting point, to get you watching films you didn't know existed, or discussing films or the topics in the paper. A simple google search by an instructor will lead them to this website and many, not all but most, professors will do this basic task. Heck, they have software that does it automatically for them. Ever wonder why they want an electronic version and a hard copy? So, don't be stupid and pass this crappy paper off as your own. Use my quotes, double back on my sources, or, hell, cite me and this dumb website, but don't pretend you did the research and wrote this paper. And, if you want to be a real pal, leave a comment to let me know what you ended up doing with this essay after you found it. Thanks!
When examining African American film, or any aspect of film, it is usually necessary to start at the beginning with D.W. Griffith’s 1915 opus The Birth of a Nation. Back during its premier, then President Woodrow Wilson praised the film with the declaration that it was “like writing history with lightning” (Greatest Films). The film sparked much controversy during its day, and resulted in at least 1 riot that left a young African American man killed (Greatest Films). Today, much of the controversy remains. The popular Web site IMDb accept user reviews ranging from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best possible score given to a movie. The Birth of a Nation averages at a 7.6/10 rating, with 26.5% giving it a 10 and a surprising 10.7% giving it a 1 (IMDb). In more prolific circles, The Birth of a Nation falls victim to divisiveness as well. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked The Birth of a Nation as the 44th best motion picture ever (Greatest Films). However, in 2007, the list was recompiled and the influential film was not on the list, replaced by another work of D.W. Griffith, Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Through the Ages, an apologetica released after the success and criticism of The Birth of a Nation(Greatest Films). Entertainment Weekly listed the film as the sixth most controversial movie ever made. As a result, before discussing African Americans and the portrayal of African American religion in film, it is important to consider the origins of some of the racist stereotypes that shaped such portrayals in film.
The primary reason for the need to start film criticism, especially African American film criticism, with The Birth of a Nation is because of how wildly revolutionary and influential it was for film both artistically and commercially. While experimental and silent films existed long before D.W. Griffith’s masterpiece from the late 19th century, many of today’s common aspects of film are found in The Birth of a Nation. For starters, many films prior to the release of The Birth of a Nation were considerably shorter than today’s films (Greatest Films). The film was an impressive and successful three hour epic. Many common elements in the grammar of film, from the different uses of closeup shots to the inclusion of parallel action, that is a scene where to disjointed events take place at the same time, were all included (Jozajtis). It is true that many of these devices and motifs of film existed prior to The Birth of the Nation, but it was among the first to use them all in one film and to a high level of greatness (Greatest Films).
However, the film’s impressive quality and craftsmanship isn’t the only important thing about the film itself. Rather, the film’s overt racism and its box office success are just as, if arguably more, noteworthy (Weisenfeld 17). The Birth of a Nationis based off of a popular novel of the time called The Clansman written by Thomas Dixon (Weisenfeld 19). The story, in great summation, is that of the South during The Civil War and its immediate Reconstruction. Many of the film’s “black” actors are White men in blackface, which is the act of applying a copious amount of dark makeup to a pale actor to give the appearance that the actor is an African American or a dark-skinned minority (Greatest Films). But, despicable as blackface is, the most racist section of the film occurs at the climax (Griffith). Rioting African Americans are attempting to break into the home of a proper Southern family (Griffith). Help is sent to the Ku Klux Klan, and in heroic fashion, the Klan arrives in time to stop the rioters, disarm them, and disenfranchise the black vote, and ends with an image of the cross of Christ (Griffith).
The then newly formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP, attempted to protest the film in various cities across the United States, but to little effect (Jozajtis 168). The film premiered and set records for ticket sales until 22 years later with the release of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Jozajtis 168). African Americans detested the film, and two directors, Emmett Scott and Oscar Micheaux filmed their own rebuttals, The Birth of a Race and Within Our Gates, respectively, but with no approval from critics, them being White, and much smaller financial success (Rhodes 38). The damage had already been done, and coupling the racist imagery with the financial success of the film catapulted gross racial stereotypes into film for decades to come with “the cumulative effect of constant picturization of this kind [being] tremendously effective in shaping racial attitudes” (Weisenfeld 4). Despite the great amounts of racism existing throughout the film, it is still a technical masterwork and should not suffer any diminishment in its craft because of its racism. It would not only be unfair, but untrue, and such historical reverse analysis, such as the current diminishing of the work of the great American filmmaker John Ford, does a disservice to film analysis and discussion.
Among these stereotypes is the thread of bigotry. The brute or buck “sole aim was raping white women” (Rhodes 36). This stereotype is the one found at the ending climax of Birth of a Nation with the rioting African Americans trying to break into the house where the virtuous Southern women dwell (Jozajtis). Women received a similar stereotype, the scheming Jezebel who would cast a “spell over vulnerable men” (Rhodes 36). What we see in these early films are two sexualized African American stereotypes that “fueled the practice of lynching, which rose to epidemic proportions in the early twentieth century” (Rhodes 36). Moreover, these two stereotypes, among all of the very first African American film stereotypes, was devoid of religion. Highlighting this lack of religion in African American film caricatures is in the name of the sexual woman stereotype “Jezebel.” The name Jezebel comes from the Bible. In Revelation, it is remarked that “You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” (Revelation). The African American Jezebel as such then not only is devoid of religious character herself, but is an openly threatening creature to pious practicing religious people, particularly Southerners. These anti-religious, deviant stereotypes “illustrated whites’ irrational fears of miscegenation and black liberation, and were employed liberally in early motion pictures” (Rhodes 37).
It is ironic then that African American audiences clamored for Christian, religious films. The great silent filmmaker Cecile B. DeMille’s 1928 religious classic The King of Kings played in African American theaters in Baltimore. The movie was so packed with patrons that “the theater booked it for a return engagement“ (Weisenfeld 2). The audience was “ecstatic, emotional” and “overcome by religious ecstasy” (Weisenfeld 2). As evident by the reaction, “Black audiences clearly appreciated The King of Kings” and it is with great distress that despite the love of religious films, the earlier stereotypes of African Americans in film being devoid of religion, or trivialized in “newsreels that poke fun at Negro revivals or baptisms” (Weisenfeld 2).
African Americans in film are often caricatured and stereotyped even when not maliciously intended. One of the most notorious examples is Imitation of Life, a 1934 film based on the novel by Fannie Hurst and nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Picture (it lost to It Happened One Night). Here is a film that tries earnestly to address the concept of race and its impact on society, but falls to the trappings of many race films before it. The film’s African American characters remain stereotypes. The young woman, Peola, is a “tragic mulatto,” who is ashamed of her mixed blood and tries repeatedly to pass herself off as white (Stahl). She is in a constant state of disconnection from society because of her lighter complexion (Stahl). The mother of Peola, Delilah, embodies the caricature of the “mammy” (Stahl). Delilah is overtly religious, overweight, and full of unembridled optimism in the face of any adversity (Stahl). Without any want, she aids her white female friend in making millions, and always remains a lower-income woman (Stahl). Delilah exists only to serve whites, not to be seen, and ask nothing in return. She is a gross envisioning of the ideal Black person and presented as the model of behavior to solve racial issues.
The aspect of religion underwent a transformation in the film, at least. In older films of the twentieth century, African Americans in film are portrayed as barbarous and primitive in their concept of religion (Rhodes 36). This misconception can be traced to religious and philosophical examination of Africans in general (Mbiti 10). European scholars, through a Western heliocentric perspective, viewed African religion as a simple, primordial run of religion on an evolutionary ladder (Mbiti 10). Africans would exist in a stage where their religious beliefs would be viewed as “polytheistic”, and not yet matured to the “superior” form of monotheism (Mbiti 10). Africans, according to some scholars, had many gods that existed in all forms of life, from rocks to trees to animals to humans (Mbiti 10).
This notion, however, was incorrect and Africans, much like the Europeans, believed in a centralized concept of God (Mbiti 34). To the Africans, God existed beyond any concrete definitions of time and space, and was the creator of all (Mbiti 34). God was omniscient and all-seeing. However, one of the central differences was the pervasiveness of religion in the life of Africans. For Africans, religion and spirituality is inseparatable from daily life (Mbiti 35). It is in this aspect that Europeans misinformed values became to being. What European scholars saw as worshiping of inanimate objects and many gods, Africans regarded as carrying their religious beliefs into their work and everyday life (Mbiti 35).
It is no surprise that in these misconceptions that African religion in film is often trivialized and reduced to caricatures. Africans are reduced to dancing around fires, singing, and pagan worshipers. For its benefit, in Imitation of Life, Delilah is at least a Christian with no “lesser” form of religion than those of the white counterparts in the film. Her death in the film is treated with a massive funeral with much song and love and joy. Nevertheless, her religion is used to present her as an idealized form of the African American to white audiences looking for docile interaction between the races.
This is akin to the use of religion by slave masters during slavery. Once, slave masters were reluctant to bring religion to their slaves fearing insurrection (McDowell). By teaching them the tenets of Christianity, as well as sharing stories of slave rebellion as notable in Exodus, masters feared their slaves would rise up and revolt (McDowell). Once Christianity did enter the lives of the slaves, masters would manipulate the teachings to suit their needs (McDowell). Masters would instruct slaves that it would be goodly Christian to be docile and obey commands, and that while they may have a hard life, they shall be rewarded in the afterlife (McDowell). Frederick Douglass would remark that even the most religious slave owners were the cruelest to their slaves (McDowell).
Another example of African American religion in film can be traced to the 1943 William Wellman classic The Ox Bow Incident. In this film, the African American character is presented as weak by cause of his religion (Wellman). The African American is marginalized and de-empowered by his religion for resisting a lynching of a white man accused of stealing cattle (Wellman). The African American is the only religious person in the crowd and is the only one calling for a pardon, however he is not presented as pious or a model of behavior, but weak for asserting the notion of religious resistance (Wellman).
Not all Hollywood films stereotype and demagogue African American religion. Spike Lee’s Malcolm X demonstrates the transformational power of religion. In the film, Malcolm Little is a thief and despot womanizer until his arrest (Lee). He exists as a criminal and a scoundrel for the first part of the film. After his arrest and incarceration, Malcolm is introduced to religion, specifically Islam. After his conversion, he becomes a wholly new individual (Lee). No longer a liar, Malcolm seeks truth (Lee). No longer submissive to his white oppressors, Malcolm is resilient and proactive (Lee).
It is during this transformation that he champions the cause of Black equality through the teachings of the Nation of Islam. A tireless worker within the church, Malcolm struggles to help the people around him. However, the film, being based on actual events, does not exist in only such simplistic terms. Rather, Malcolm observes the Nation of Islam to be corrupt (Lee). Blacks and whites, Islam and Christianity, are both fallible and susceptible to evil (Lee). Malcolm leaves the church to find a more purse sense of being religious and spiritual free from the chains of the organized Nation of Islam (Lee).
When he returns from his pilgrimage to the Middle East, Malcolm is changed once again. He is willing to be a martyr for his cause. During his trip, Malcolm learns new levels of tolerance, finding that both Black and white men can believe in similar goals and ideals; both can be members of the same religion and church (Lee). As such, the audience has seen the power of religion to transform a criminal into a crusader, the danger of religion in corrupting its church officials as in The Nation of Islam, and the salvation for those that look deeper into the meaning of a religion to learn tolerance of others (Lee).
Following this idea of connectivity through religion, the movie Glory continues the portrayal of African American religion in film. Heading the all Black military regiment, 54th Massachusetts Regiment, Thomas Searles enlists, and as a result, is not allowed to fraternize with his once friend and now commanding officer Robert Shaw (Zwick). However, the timid Shaw warms up to his position and historical chance of equality at Christmas when Thomas says “Merry Christmas” one listless night (Zwick).
Some criticism has been lobbied against Glory. Mainly among the complaints is the fact that the film, a story about the first all Black military regiment, is told through the eyes of a white protagonist. While it is true that a radically different story would arise from the same scenario being told by an African American director with a main African American character, one could argue that the intent of the film is to show the transformation that the regiment had on white people, specifically Robert Shaw. It is in this respect that such a criticism should not weigh down an otherwise sound movie. To make this point through another example, the movie Schindler’s List can be examined. Not an African American film, the Academy Award winning opus of Steven Speilberg entrenches itself in the midst of the Holocaust with the jewish quote from the Talmud "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire" (Speilberg). Rather than tell the story completely form the point of view of a Jew, it is important to have the righteous man, Itzhak Stern, save the one life, the moral life of Oskar Schindler, who saves the world entire, the Schindler Jews, while at the same time showing Schindler’s failure to save the moral life of the Nazi Goeth (Speilberg). Both examples show the criticism against Glory for its outsider protagonist as trivial.
The practice of music with African American religion is also explored within the film Glory. A pivotal scene in the film takes place near the final battle. On its eve, the African American soldiers gather around a fire to sing spirituals (Zwick). Song has been a great part of the African American religious experience (McDowell). During slavery, Africans communicated through song and expressed their discontent lyrically most notably because of the lack of reading skills (McDowell). The film examines this issue, and among the singing and spirituality, the African American soldier most resilient to his situation, played by Denzel Washington, breaks down. Music and spirituality is linked for African Americans, as evident in Gloryand also in the original theatrical runs of classic Bible films. Choirs were sometimes brought in to theater halls to sing while The King of Kings played “in recognition of some general sense among its patrons that the event was a religious one” (Weisenfeld 2). “Music is an integral part of the film’s insistence upon African Americans’ conflation of religion” and is essential in film and religious context (Weisenfeld 2).
Movies have the power to shape attitudes and change nations. Much has been written about Leni Riefenstahl and Triumph of the Will shaping attitudes of Germans toward the Third Reich, as well as the reach the film had on other nations resulting in the deliberate effort of the United States to start engaging in propaganda film production. The harmonious coupling of the Three Mile Island incident and The China Syndrome resulted in public outcry toward nuclear power and set back the nuclear power industry. Lastly, as discussed in this paper, The Birth of a Nation and its handling of race cemented stereotypes for African Americans in film. Because film has such a power, it is important to monitor and discuss its tropes, and with African Americans and religion in film, the journey away from The Birth of a Nation to today is long, laborious, but not yet complete.
]]>
