American Racist: The Life and Films of Thomas Dixon

5. The Fall of a Nation

THE FALL OF A NATION 89 5 The Fall of a Nation Thomas Dixon must have been very much cognizant of his contribution to the success of The Birth of a Nation. Without his storyline, there would have been no film. As a novelist, Dixon knew the value of the script as much as any modern screenwriter. At the same time, he was aware that it was Griffith who was receiving the public acclamation, and only in the condemnation from African American and liberal voices was Dixon awarded equal prominence. From a modern perspective, it is perhaps difficult to believe, but it would seem somewhat obvious that, among contemporary filmmakers, Dixon was to a considerable extent responsible for the success of The Birth of a Nation. Cecil B. DeMille, who was at the beginning of his career at this time, felt that Dixon’s literary contribution to the film was highly important. In his autobiography, he writes: “Griffith was not a dramatist. He could take Thomas Dixon’s story of The Clansman and, through the magic of his direction and camera work, make it into the still thrilling Birth of a Nation. But when he followed that with his own original story of Intolerance, magnificent in conception and studded with unforgettable scenes, audiences left the theater simply bewildered.”1 The notion that Intolerance does not work as a motion picture is as incredible as AMERICAN RACIST 90 the suggestion that Griffith was not a dramatist, but what DeMille writes is, in all probability, what the majority of his fellow filmmakers believed at the time. Dixon had proved his worth to Griffith as a promoter. He was now determined to demonstrate that he could be equally as important a producer and director as the creator of The Birth of a Nation . D.W. Griffith was at best only a partial auteur. As screenwriter, producer, and director of a new film, Thomas Dixon would truly warrant such a description. Following completion of The Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith embarked on what was to be his most ambitious production, Intolerance , an epic drama on the theme of the title, with stories drawn from four periods of history. It was, and is, suggested by some critics that Intolerance was its director’s attempt at atonement for perceived racial intolerance in The Birth of a Nation. However, neither Griffith nor Thomas Dixon was aware of anything for which they needed to atone. As Griffith wrote to the British film journal Sight and Sound (spring 1947), “My picturization of history as it happens requires . . . no apology, no defence, no ‘explanations.’” Griffith’s new film preached peace. For his first production, Dixon seized on a major political theme of the day, “preparedness.” The majority of Americans were opposed to any intervention in the war in Europe, but a small and growing group of prominent citizens, including most notably Theodore Roosevelt, argued that what was happening across the Atlantic was a wake-up call for the country. Armed intervention in favor of Britain and her allies was one point of view, but more explicitly, Roosevelt and his supporters believed strongly that the United States was underprepared for war, that there was a need to get ready for an attack on the United States by Germany . The most influential book on the subject was Hudson Maxim’s Defenseless America, published by Hearst’s International Library in 1915, and it became the basis for a major motion picture, The Battle Cry of Peace, produced by J. Stuart Blackton, cofounder of the Vitagraph Company of America and, coincidentally, an Oyster Bay neighbor of Theodore Roosevelt. THE FALL OF A NATION 91 The Battle Cry of Peace was first shown publicly at New York’s Vitagraph Theatre on August 6, 1915, and among those applauding the epic along with a speech denouncing the popular song “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier,” by Captain Jack Crawford, poet scout of the Grand Army of the Republic, was Thomas Dixon. The latter was obviously a strong supporter of the preparedness movement, and he was certainly influenced by The Battle Cry of Peace, elements of which can be found in his first production. Once he had determined the theme of his first independent film, Dixon considered it only appropriate to advise President Wilson of his plans and to elicit his support. The president, a strong advocate of neutrality...