CL 3/26

Posted on by penninjh
  • Based on the limited reading I have accumulated of the time I infer that at least part of the audience, if not most, have been shaped to view the film in a positive light. If the audiences have been inundated with the information from these discourse communities then assuredly they would be sympathetic to the Lost Cause plight even in the northern states. I think there were also inevitably people that were just astounded and amazed by the new technology of the rising film industry but not necessarily as involved with the messages portrayed therein. It would seem to me that the combination of these two groups comprised the vast majority of the audience that received this film positively when it was released. Even today you see many, many films coming out of Hollywood with political and cultural messages reinforcing ideas in the American population that were shaped by the same discourse communities in our time.
  • Griffith appears to want the viewer to feel sympathy and compassion towards the woman and her family. He does so through the decor by portraying them in a pile of rubble whilst overseeing in the distant field the ongoing war that has ravaged their lands and left them in this state of despair and loss. He uses the concepts of iris to pan back and forth on these two focal points initially, highlighting their importance to each other in the scene. By paralleling this with the burning and warring occurring in Atlanta, Griffith depicts the fear and destruction the woman and her family are trying to survive. Also, by showing this white, southern family particularly emphasizes sympathy for the white southerner.
  • The characters of Silas and Lydia are depicted in a manner of what appears to be insinuated as a form of infiltration through their costume. By dressing these characters as well as the whites they’re surrounded by it shows a sort of assimilation. However, in conjunction with some of the facial expressions and actions these characters make in these scenes I felt a sense of manipulation or deceit in them. These facial expressions and actions may be a result of typage but I am not entirely sure about that assessment.

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