The “First Lady of American Cinema” Lillian Gish has had her name removed from a university theater and it’s not sitting well with many movie buffs. More than 50 film industry leaders ranging from Martin Scorsese to Helen Mirren to James Earl Jones are protesting the decision of Ohio’s Bowling Green State University to remove the name of actress Lillian Gish from a campus theater because she appeared in the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation.
The letter accuses the university of making “a scapegoat in a broader political debate.” Lillian Gish is considered a pioneer of film acting. Her career spanned 75 years, beginning in 1912 in silent film shorts. The Whales of August in 1987 was her last film. She was called the First Lady of American Cinema, and for more than 40 years, the theater at Bowling Green has honored Ohio-born actresses Dorothy and Lillian Gish with its name.
Ed Driscoll – [I]if we’re going to banish all the bad people of the past because of hurt feelings, when does early “Progressive” Woodrow Wilson face the memory hole, given that he was an enthusiastic proponent of Birth of a Nation, including screening it in the White House and proclaiming the film “is like writing history with lightning.”
Censorship of images was widespread in the Soviet Union. Visual censorship was exploited in a political context, particularly during the political purges of Joseph Stalin, where the Soviet government attempted to erase some purged figures from Soviet history, and took measures which included altering images and destroying film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_images_in_the_Soviet_Union
Many of the characters in the cell devoted to black stereotypes are drawn to resemble characters from Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (Bucky and Weird Harold in particular);
The stupidest thing about that is that those characters derive from Cosby’s standup comedy, which is based on the actual children he grew up with. Most of those characters were written and voiced by Cosby himself.
How many millions or should I billions of words have been written about the continuing demise of our society and culture? We keyboard warriors can identify most of the problems that beset our respective societies yet we are totally unable to lift a finger to stop the invasion and destruction of our country. Is it simply because we really don’t care, I believe that is the reason, we, don’t, care. When all has been flushed away by the social justice fools, socialists who think freedom is not necessary, and our people are even more enslaved to the government and immigrants, I wonder who the fools will complain to?
How much of this is the work of the tribe???
Soros, of course. But also Bloomberg and Zucker and Zuckerberg and MANY others…
What about all those blacks that portray gangstas in a positive light? And they don’t even need movies to do it.
What about the exploits of Martin Luther King, who is reported to have a rather lurid background and some pretty poor behaviour? Why isn’t that mentioned?
The screen has the effect to stir up emotions. Was it the intent that “Birth of A Nation” serve as a propaganda piece or was the film a historical depiction of how some people were post civil war south? Per the story line, the protagonist (Gish) is opposed to the KKK.
Same can be said of the Roots mini series and the recent Roots remake for these Black Lives Matter times. There are historical inaccuracies/omissions, the depicted violence is over the top and the scenes are emotionally charged. The effect is that some black viewers see a white person walking down the street and make a connection with what they saw on a TV screen. After Roots aired, there was an increase in black on white assaults. And today the BLM SJWs are emboldened to protest the arrest of fellow blacks for assaulting a white person after stealing from the premises.
https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/morningjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/ca/ccac02cf-3b40-5aef-9cbe-996cfd2c6993/5ba56ae298a18.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C900
“The letter [from Martin Scorsese, Helen Mirren, James Earl Jones et al.] accuses the university of making ‘a scapegoat in a broader political debate.'”
Hoist with their own petard, I’d say. Film “luvvies” represent the very forefront of “progressive” trends these days.
A few years ago, Turner Classic Movies showed that film, and, just for a lark, I watched it. Something like that would never be made nowadays. I found it insufferably boring, partly because it’s over 4 hours long.
As for Gish’s last movies The Whales of August, TCM showed it a while back as well, and I found it to be quite entertaining.
Yes, in my posting I had been tempted to add a sarcastic comment about how everyone I know has watched Birth of a Nation a hundred times or more and can’t wait to get home and watch it again.
Statues may be torn down, and names removed, but the Freemasonic phallic obelisk in DC will remain.
It takes some kind of special retard to blame an actor for the character they play. Do we send TV murderers to jail?
Lillian Gish is now persona non grata.
far out.
that wisp of a girl, that 80 pounds of expression and gift.
hit with an artillery shell. NO ONE is safe.
check out her CV:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001273/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
until ‘birth of a nation’ it’s all ‘short, short, short, uncredited, short’ soooooooooooo wtFCUK was the lady supposed to DO?
turn down the role that got recognition and set her career on the right path? she was supposed to discern that 100+ YEARS later it would ‘bite her in da ass mama’? hmmm?
so who’s next? all actors in the 1700s and 1800s who were in oh, say, Merchant of Venice? or mebbe the ones in the Al Pacino version?
oh. wait. no, Merchant of Venice is anti-Semitic so they all get a pass . . . . .
jeezuz murphy, what I wanna know is WHO is caving in to all this progressive blather and finger pointing?
My grandfather once walked past a cinema where this film was showing and therefore should be dug up, tarred and feathered, paraded around campus and then reburied without a tombstone.
I find it ironic how little interest these woke commies have in the history of their own theme parks, the USSR, China etc.
Guessing the narratives would not be quite as comforting.
Lets not forget St. FDR himself.