# Remake of Birth of a Nation **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2010, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133 "2010-12-06T10:46:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/21 "2010-12-06T22:11:06Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Exactly as with Verhoeven’s _Starship Troopers_. Not a great idea either way ;). I try to refrain from commenting on that movie, as I was too bored with it to finish watching it. See also my silence on AVATAR. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/22 "2010-12-06T22:14:04Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Well, you can’t. I mean, the movie was based on a [novel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clansman) that assumes the White-Southern version of the history of slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, and which glorifies the Klan, or Clan. That’s the story. It would be possible to make a more realistic film about Reconstruction, but it would be a completely different story, not a rebooting/revisioning of _Birth of a Nation._ But what if **Qin** , incensed over the Obama administration’s failure to stop hostilities between North & South Korea leading ot the eventual destruction of the entire peninsula in a nuclear holocaust, stole a time machine and returned to 1864, assassinating Booth before he could assassinate Lincoln, and thus changed the course of history? What THEN? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/23 "2010-12-07T01:45:16Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > But what if **Qin** , incensed over the Obama administration’s failure to stop hostilities between North & South Korea leading ot the eventual destruction of the entire peninsula in a nuclear holocaust, stole a time machine and returned to 1864, assassinating Booth before he could assassinate Lincoln, and thus changed the course of history? What THEN? Ah, then Lincoln is free to fulfill his evil scheme of placing all the states, North and South, under an iron federal dictatorship, and crowning himself Emperor! His will enforced by his fanatically loyal and cruel Negro Praetorians, he suppresses Christianity and ushers in an age of licentious miscegenation! All that stands in his way is that stalwart underground resistance, the Knights of the Golden Circle! ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/24 "2010-12-07T01:55:35Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Ah, then Lincoln is free to fulfill his evil scheme of placing all the states, North and South, under an iron federal dictatorship, and crowning himself Emperor! His will enforced by his fanatically loyal and cruel Negro Praetorians, he suppresses Christianity and ushers in an age of licentious miscegenation! All that stands in his way is that stalwart underground resistance, the Knights of the Golden Circle! I’d so watch that. It’d be nice watching a movie where the white man wins, for once. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/25 "2010-12-07T02:13:27Z")
Reconstruction is a debate in itself, but suffice it to say that the losers of a civil war never have a happy time of it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/26 "2010-12-07T02:33:10Z")
[QUOTE=infinitii] I’m sad because I thought this thread was going to be about DJ Spooky’s brilliant “remix” of Birth of a Nation… [/QUOTE] I thought it was going to be about Harvey Fierstein’s drag persona Bertha Venation and they made a typo. (Though I still prefer Bang Bang LaDeshe to his other drag names.) Hard to believe a famous movie is about to have a centennial celebration isn’t it? (There’s plenty of movies over 100 years old still around of course but this one was such a blockbuster.) No studio exec in their right mind would even think of doing a remake of this unless it was to raise funding ala Max Bialystok. However, I think a HBO miniseries about the making of BoaN could be great. You’d get to see the dawn of Hollywood, Griffith, Gish, the actual Civil War veterans serving as advisors, the white actors playing black characters, a snapshot of race relations when it first appeared (it made millions of jaws drop like the crowd from _The Producers_ even then) and of course the White House screening (when Wilson may or may not have made the “history written with lightning” comment- he may not have said it, though he certainly wouldn’t have corrected anybody who did). Plus silent movies are just a fascinating era and Eve of Blessed Memory could get some money as an advisor on Gish. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/27 "2010-12-07T02:53:07Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I was staying up home late. > > And if Robert Heinlein’s _Starship Troopers_ could be made into anti military/war movie why not this into an anti-racist movie? Thus the KKK would be depicted as a racist organization who murders blacks, Reconstruction would be portrayed more sympathetically and accurately. While you’re at it, why not start all-race branch of the KKK? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/28 "2010-12-07T03:53:42Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > While you’re at it, why not start all-race branch of the KKK? That’s happened to a limited extent. The KKK used to be anti-Catholic along with being anti-black but now it lets virtually all non-Jewish whites in. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/29 "2010-12-07T03:55:59Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > That’s happened to a limited extent. The KKK used to be anti-Catholic along with being anti-black but now it lets virtually all non-Jewish whites in. Why don’t you go look up “race” in the dictionary. While you’re at it, go ahead and look up “sarcasm”, too. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/30 "2010-12-07T04:25:59Z")
Actually Verhoeven doing a remake of Birth of a Nation would probably be something to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/31 "2010-12-07T04:58:46Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > That’s happened to a limited extent. The KKK used to be anti-Catholic along with being anti-black but now it lets virtually all non-Jewish whites in. The KKK. We’ve made a few…changes. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/32 "2010-12-09T03:43:11Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Why don’t you go look up “race” in the dictionary. I thought he just implied they let people of the Italian and Irish races join. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/33 "2010-12-09T18:38:00Z")
The Jew is using the Black as muscle against you! And you are left there helpless! Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/34 "2010-12-09T20:45:42Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > The Jew is using the Black as muscle against you! And you are left there helpless! Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey? I _hate_ Illinois Nazis! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/35 "2010-12-09T20:58:04Z")
Gruppenführer, get that car’s license plate number. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/36 "2010-12-10T03:35:07Z")
I was once a Klansman, the same as your father. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/37 "2010-12-10T16:02:14Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > That’s happened to a limited extent. The KKK used to be anti-Catholic along with being anti-black but now it lets virtually all non-Jewish whites in. Wow, that’s positively _progressive_ of them. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/38 "2010-12-10T16:07:32Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > Wow, that’s positively _progressive_ of them. Oh, no one goes to those KKK meetings anymore. They’re way too crowded. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/39 "2010-12-10T16:36:22Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Oh, no one goes to those KKK meetings anymore. They’re way too crowded. I do like the new motto, though: > [@](#): > > The Klu Klux Klan: Letting the Mackerel Snappers in since 2003. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133/40 "2010-12-10T19:28:49Z")
Anymore, Klan marches seemed to be composed mainly of [undercover reporters](http://www.theonion.com/articles/klan-rally-70-percent-undercover-reporters,96/). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-birth-of-a-nation/563133.md?page=1)