The Birth Of A Nation And Greed :: essays research papers

The progress of the film industry was remarkably fast in the first quarter of this century. I have chosen ii films videlicet The have got of a Nation (1915) and avariciousness (1924) for comparison and contrast to evidence how much the industry had evolved within the victimize span of nine years. These two films are chosen for the short time span between them. This short time span will enable us to evaluate the education of the film industry in terms of the mental build-up of the plot and the characters, cinematic qualities and the gradual acceptance of ironies in the films on the part of the American audience.D.W Griffiths The Birth of a Nation and Erich Von Stroheims Greed are both films adapted from novels scripted by Thomas Dixon and Frank Norris respectively. However one of the differences between these two films lies in the humans characters visualized. In The Birth of a Nation, the characters are portrayed as both all told good or evil. One could slowly distingu ish between the heroes and villains in the film. For example, the hero in the film, Ben Stoneman is portrayed as courageous, loving and righteous as opposed to the villains Lynch (the false reformer) and Gus (the dusky soldier), who are portrayed as sharp and lustful. This lopsided deliver show of human nature is not legitimateistic, as humans cannot be either wholly good or wholly evil. This is an example of idealism with clear influences from Pollyanna stories, which was comfortably accepted by the audience then. Thus a realistic depiction of humans should be that of portraying their strengths and weaknesses. The characters in Von Stroheims Greed, on the other hand, be in possession of this practical depiction of humans. In this film the characters are a real portrayal of real human beings with imperfections and weaknesses. McTeague for instance, is portrayed as kind and agreeable towards animals yet violent by nature. Marcus, McTeagues friend and later his foe, is portray ed as a humorous, witty but at the same time scheming and harbors grudges against McTeague. Comparing these characters to the ones in The Birth of a Nation, clearly the characters in Greed are much more realistic, painting a true picture of the complexity of human nature. It is also a break from the then frequent norm in Hollywoods films of showing only one-sided nature of the characters, which is either wholly good or wholly bad.In addition to that, Von Stroheim also showed the psychological development of his characters.