ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1916, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS.

GREAT PHOTO SPECTACLE."THE BIRTH OF A NATION" ''T\v. Birth of a Nation," D. W. Griffith's great masterpiece pJ film art which will be screened at the Empire Theatre under the J. C. Williamson. Ltd.. direction next Thursday and Friday, has occasioned more wonder among theatre and picture patrons than anything that has yet been produced. It is a gigantic subject bandied in a big way! The' Story runs clearly along—and it is powerfully told and convincing theme—with a background of violent happenings. Civil war is perhaps the most disastrous evil that can afflict a people, and D. W. Griffith depicts it with terrible directness. But to the average spectator the period of reconstruction is even more thrillingly illustrated. Here black and white arc in conflict, and the blacks arc the | animating force. They have the legislature in their command. By an overwhelming majority they can pass laws, which makes the white man regarding them grit his tecthjevon at this late date. One of the bills enacted was file legalising of marriage betwfcon blacks and whites; another, that the whites should salute negro officers in the streets.. One generation removed from savagey, the power wielded by the negroes went U their heads. The organisation of the Ku Klux Klan, of Scottish origin, resulted. D. W. Griffith shows the heroic doings of this body of whites banded to gether, assuming "the white man's burden." The clansmen headed by Colonel Cameron, a young Scot, leads iiis forces against the negroes who have instituted a ivign of terror. The way the clansmen clean up the job is one of the most inspiring sights ever shown on Thousands of horsemen.- clad '.n ghostly garments, race to tho dangerous rescip-. work, and vindicate the superiority of the white man, over the black. It ia an historical facfi that there were 40f),000 Ku Klux clansmen. Tn "The Birth oj a Nation," Griffith uses 4000 night riders and there is a. thrill fn their dashing horsemanship every time they make their appearance. The above 'incident represents only one of the innumerable sensational and historical incidents in the production. Specally composed music w s ll he played by a grand operatic orchestra. The picture cost over £IOO,000 to produce. It rancor 802 performthe.Liberty theatre. New York, with prices ranging from 0s down. At the Drury Lane theatre, London, it is now in its Sth month of consecutive screening with prices from 10s (id down. In Sydney it ran for 132 performances 'inrl n-. tow paying a return visit there, the prices ranged from fls down. 7 ln Melbourne its success was so phenomenal that it had to be transferred from the Theatre Royal and the Town Hall and thence to the Auditorium, in each case the seasons proving too short. Adelaide ar.d Brisbane have also been visited with magnificent results. But notwithstanding the prices charged.- elsewhere th"; 'J. 0. Williamson management .have Bccided to charge popular prices here, which will range from 3s. down. The boy plan is now opeii at Collier's. |