10 Most Controversial Films Of The Classical Hollywood Era

10. The Birth Of A Nation (1915)

When The Birth of a Nation was released 100 years ago, the Civil War and Reconstruction-era film became famous for a number of reasons. In addition to making Avatar-levels of money at the time, the film became well-known for clocking in at 3 hours and 10 minutes - which made it the longest feature film ever at the time - the pioneering use of camera techniques, and the ground-breaking use of dramatising history and fiction in order to create a narrative. It is this use of dramatising history that also garnered a heap of controversy when the film was released. The Birth of a Nation was a blatantly racist film in which black men are portrayed as unintelligent and sexually aggressive, the South was a victim to forced integration, integrating black people with white people was seen as a waste of time, and the KKK were gloried as heroes in which their violent actions were viewed as being for the greater good. The inaccurately fictionalised and unsavoury content led to riots and protests upon the film's premiere. Furthermore, race prejudices were ignited further and demands were made to ban the film. Unfortunately, the demands and protests fell on deaf (and predominantly white) ears, and the film became the first bona-fide blockbuster of the silent film era.