Race, Class, And Gender In The 1860's
Unit 2 Essay
The 1860’s were a very complex time period for Americans, and because of that there are several films and other cultural aspects that portray the complicated roles of race, class, and gender in the American society. Some of the films such as Birth of a Nation, The Searchers, Lincoln, and Gangs of New York challenge beliefs of race, class, and gender, while others reinforce different components of each.
Throughout the movies The Searchers, Lincoln, and Gangs of New York the conventionally held belief that women are seen as less than men is both challenged and reinforced for this time period. In both John Ford’s The Searchers and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, women are shown to be inferior to men in multiple ways. …show more content…
Griffith’s Birth of a Nation reinforces the conventional belief that there is going to be conflict in an area with multiple races. D.W.’s film has taken a lot of heat for his decisions on screenplay, and for good reason. In this film there were lots of black people, or so it seemed. In reality D.W. had a cast of majority whites playing black people by simply painting their faces and hands black.Throughout the film there are several confrontations between blacks and whites. In fact the main goal of the film Birth of a Nation is to depict black people as the evil guys and the KKK as the heroes. They do this in several ways like when they paint the white people’s face such an extreme shade of black. The color black has a negative connotation and by painting the actor’s face such a heavy shade it makes them seem, naturally, like the bad guys. There was also parallel editing going on in one scene in which the camera switches from the black people to the KKK that’s coming to the rescue. The film The Searchers also shows conflict amongst different races. John Ford’s film is entirely about two different races fighting against each other (Native Americans & Texans). Ethan Edwards in one scene shoots the eyes out of an Indian just so he can’t reach the “other side”. In this scene the screenwriter attempts to show the cowboys as the bad guys. In this film it’s unclear who is good, the cowboys or the Indians. There is a problem because Henry Brandon (Scar) at one point in the film states that for every Indian that was killed he kills trifold, so there’s reasoning backing up his
The 1860’s were a very complex time period for Americans, and because of that there are several films and other cultural aspects that portray the complicated roles of race, class, and gender in the American society. Some of the films such as Birth of a Nation, The Searchers, Lincoln, and Gangs of New York challenge beliefs of race, class, and gender, while others reinforce different components of each.
Throughout the movies The Searchers, Lincoln, and Gangs of New York the conventionally held belief that women are seen as less than men is both challenged and reinforced for this time period. In both John Ford’s The Searchers and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, women are shown to be inferior to men in multiple ways. …show more content…
Griffith’s Birth of a Nation reinforces the conventional belief that there is going to be conflict in an area with multiple races. D.W.’s film has taken a lot of heat for his decisions on screenplay, and for good reason. In this film there were lots of black people, or so it seemed. In reality D.W. had a cast of majority whites playing black people by simply painting their faces and hands black.Throughout the film there are several confrontations between blacks and whites. In fact the main goal of the film Birth of a Nation is to depict black people as the evil guys and the KKK as the heroes. They do this in several ways like when they paint the white people’s face such an extreme shade of black. The color black has a negative connotation and by painting the actor’s face such a heavy shade it makes them seem, naturally, like the bad guys. There was also parallel editing going on in one scene in which the camera switches from the black people to the KKK that’s coming to the rescue. The film The Searchers also shows conflict amongst different races. John Ford’s film is entirely about two different races fighting against each other (Native Americans & Texans). Ethan Edwards in one scene shoots the eyes out of an Indian just so he can’t reach the “other side”. In this scene the screenwriter attempts to show the cowboys as the bad guys. In this film it’s unclear who is good, the cowboys or the Indians. There is a problem because Henry Brandon (Scar) at one point in the film states that for every Indian that was killed he kills trifold, so there’s reasoning backing up his