Korrigeringer

The film I’m going to talk about here is quite similar to “Glory” and “Mississippi Burning”: here, a black detective from the North of the United States, Virgil Tibbs, is arrested for a murder during a visit in Mississippi, which is considered as the most discriminated and segregated state in the US.

After Tibbs is released, he is forced by his chief to stay and help the investigation.

We really see that in 1967, black people were really marginalized: Tibbs is arrested because of his colour, he is slapped by a suspect, and a waiter even refused to serve him.

But there is also a great evolution of the relation between the police Chief, Gillepsie and Tibbs: if at first, Gillepsie is really doubtful about Tibbs’ capacities, he will realise that Tibbs is a great detective, with excellent reasoning skills, and that his colour doesn’t change anything.

It’s what he is inside that is really important.

______________________ My last study will be about a film that is really shocking: The Birth of a Nation.

It is shocking for the belief it advocates.

If in the previous movies studied, racism and segregation are trying to be abolished; here it is the complete opposite: Whites are great, smart and superior people, whereas Blacks are aggressive, stupid and sexually obsessed by white women, and Ku-Klux-Klan is a heroic organisation greatly defending the honour and the glory of white people.

Actually, this movie became a recruiting tool for the KKK.

Here, black men are portrayed as brute, who are constantly trying to rape the lovely and genuine white girls.

Black are also robber, and merciless.

The director, D.W.

Griffith, even refused to let black actors play in his movie, choosing to paint in black white actors’ face.

As an example, we can take the Flora and Gus scene: Gus is a black soldier, and Flora is a Southern girl, from a rich family.

Gus tells her he wants to marry her, and her reaction is to jump from a bridge, as if she was so disgusted by his colour that death would be more peaceful.

The intertitle emphasizes it even more: “For her who had learned the stern lesson of honor, we should not grieve that she found sweeter the opal gates of death.” It clearly shows the writer opinions toward Black people.