Points of prejudice

To suggest that showing “Birth of a Nation� at an insignificant little theater in Hollywood is somehow tied to the greater racial climate of this country is ludicrous at best. To not allow this film to be shown at all is tantamount to burning copies of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin� or destroying DVD copies of Alex Haley’s “Roots.� Long past its copyrights, long after the death of its filmmakers and actors, “Birth of a Nation� can barely draw a profit, if at all. It can only teach us about filmmaking techniques and a portion of America’s dark history.

Giacomo Knox

North Hollywood

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DIRECTOR D.W. Griffith was born in 1875 (10 years after the Civil War) in Kentucky. One can imagine the passionate anti-establishment rhetoric he was exposed to while growing up.

The power of the film lies not in the history portrayed but in the universality of the theme. It’s easy to see the same symbols used with other exteriors. In Hitler’s time it was the defeat in World War I -- blacks were the Communists, the federals were the Jewish left and the KKK was the Nazis coming to the rescue of the nation. One can reuse the themes in any cultural setting, thus the power and one-dimensionality that depend on stereotyping and demonizing the opposition.

Richard La Motte

Valencia

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PROFESSOR Dubois’ observation that audiences should see the Riefenstahl film “Triumph of the Will� because it “helps us to understand anti-Semitism� is specious. This 1934 classic does not show anti-Semitism. Riefenstahl portrays Hitler as a Teutonic god descending out of the clouds of German myth and legend. It was Hitler’s ability to unify the German people that Riefenstahl documented.

Professor Dubois would be better served to have mentioned the 1937 Goebbels film, “The Eternal Jew.� Now that’s anti-Semitic!

Joseph A. Lea

Mission Viejo