ENTERTAINMENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9079, 29 August 1917, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS.

"THE BIRTH OF A NATION. 1

All good things are worth repetition. Such is the view held by the management of the great spectacular film, "The Birth of a Nation," and picturegoers will agree with; this, opinion. This film wiil.be screened: at His Mapesty's Theatre to-night and tomorrow night. The picture is a, dramatic spectacle that depicts the post-slavery days, of 'America. They were, the days of;terror and tragedy, and if ever a national lessb'n were ma picture,., it is contained in the -film depicting the/struggle between the white and black manl in the Southern States of the Union. The production is an impressive' statement upon Australia's national policy of race purity," The masterstroke of the white men, following, upon th liberation of tho negro, and his ascendancy in the Legislatures of the .Southern States, was the organisation of the TCn Klux Clan. Griffith seized upon this for his spectacle. Ec took the widely-read story of "Rev.' Thomas Dixon, "The Clansman," as the basis of'his'scenario, and .worked.- upon it to dramatic pitrpo-se, The Ku Klnx ' Clan-saved ' the - whito Southerners from the fear of an African massacre. The story k of com-' polling interest throughout, and Griffiths works mit a great and fitting, cfimax to a- magnificent story. !