10 Movies That Don't Deserve Their 100% Rotten Tomatoes Rating
1. The Birth Of A Nation
There are a few films which have earned their 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating by virtue of their lasting legacy to the history of cinema, and D. W. Griffiths' The Birth Of A Nation is one such movie which has a reputation based on its groundbreaking technical achievements which set the stage for the shape of cinema to come. Spanning a period of American history covering the Civil War and the following Reconstruction era, Griffiths demonstrated cinema's potential for a sprawling and epic canvas in which nothing less than the emergence of a country was appropriate subject matter.
Featuring an enormous cast and equally vast action sequences, his mastery of manipulating thousands of extras was unlike anything seen before. Unfortunately, technical and logistical innovation in and of themselves are not enough to warrant a complete lack of criticism in other regards, and it is in Griffiths' historical revisionism and objectionable political and racial ideology that so thoroughly detracts from The Birth Of A Nation's other achievements.
Some might argue that art and politics should be kept separate and that the attitudes and behaviour of an artist aren't a measure of their output - in this respect Salvador Dali's support for fascist dictator Franco or allegations of Woody Allen's child molestation can be said to be irrelevant in the context of their art and movies.
But when such ideologies form the basis of the material it becomes an integral aspect of their work, and just as Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph Of The Will should be viewed within the context of the emergence of Nazism in Germany, so too should The Birth Of A Nation be assessed for its celebration of the Ku Klux Klan as much as for its technical wizardry. In this respect, its legacy is clearly and irreparably tarnished.
What It Probably Deserves: 70%
Do you think the movies on this list deserve their 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating? How would you score them otherwise? Why not let us know in the comments below?