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[1] This controversial film presents historically oriented narrative from the Civil War through the reconstruction era in the southern United States. The aim of the film, on its surface, appears to be justifying the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan. The Clan is seen as sort of a cavalry riding in to save the whites from an uprising. One of the title cards says to the effect that the film is not directed against any particular race now living. Another claims it is a faithful description of what was. One supposed accident: “At the time of this film’s original premiere, it bore a title card that read something like, ‘This is a depiction of the events of the Civil War and of the formation of the Ku Klux Klan from the point of view of the American South.’ This title card has since been lost [and is not in the film]” (imdb.com, accessed March 2008). Whether this title card would have been sufficient to deflect the racist interpretation of this film is doubtful.

[2] All Quiet on the Western Front is an anti-war film which both won the Academy Award for best picture and was banned from countries going to war for years to come. On the card after opening credits: “This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war …”