10 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 9, 2000
ARTS
DGA retires
Griffith award;
'Simpsons' set for
erscandal during
Ferurysweeps
racist iss
Los Angeles Times
It had been weighing on his mind
for more than a year, ever since sever-
al black directors expressed concern
that the Directors Guild of America's
prestigious life achievement award
was named for D.W. Griffith, whose
l9[5 film, "The Birth of a Nation,"
glorified the Ku Klux Klan and seared
racial stereotypes into the collective
conscience of moviegoers every-
where.
Jack Shea, the president of the
guild, came away from that encounter
unsettled. He had never really thought
of it in those terms, he would later
recall. "The Birth of a Nation," after
aIf, was considered a masterpiece of
the -silent era whose innovative tech-
niques such as cross-cutting and deep
focus are still studied in introductory
film courses.
Yet, Shea also knew there was no
denying the film's racist content.
Based on a popular book and stage
play titled "The Clansman" by the
Rev. Thomas Dixon, Griffith's sweep-
ing film of the Civil War and Recon-
struction contains many degrading
images of blacks and depicts the Ku
Klux Klan riding to the rescue of
white Southerners imperiled by
Northern Negroes and white carpet-
baggers.
When shown in a large theater to
theccompaniment of a live orches-
ta;white audiences of the era often
stood and cheered. It even led to a
revival of the KKK. But the film was
so controversial that it triggered riots
in theaters, was banned in some cities
and became the focus of street
protests by the then-fledging National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, which has been bat-
tling the film ever since.
-In November, Shea went before the
giI1d's national board in New York
asking it to endorse his decision to
;ue key
rename the D.W. Griffith Award. With
little debate and no input from the
guild's nearly 12,000 members, the
board unanimously concurred.
Steven Spielberg, who has won
Oscars for "Schindler's List" and
"Saving Private Ryan" and whose
body of work also includes "Jaws,"
"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," the "Indi-
ana Jones" trilogy and the black-
themed saga, "The Color Purple,"
received the guild's newly renamed
DGA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Indeed, some of the harshest critics
of the guild's decision are respected
film critics, university professors and
authors who abhor the racism con-
tained in "The Birth of a Nation" but
believe Griffith's silent epic is a land-
mark achievement despite its content.
The guild's action was hailed by
many as long overdue and morally
justified. But it also touched a raw
nerve in the film community at large,
leading to a vigorous debate over age-
old questionsabout censorship, intol-
erance and whether great art in the
service of hateful ideology should be
praised or damned.
"It's very childish to start picking
on something somebody did 85 years
ago and say, 'That represents the man
and, therefore, we are not going to use
his name again,' said London-based
film historian Kevin Brownlow. "This
is a man who made 400 films before
he made 'The Birth of a Nation,' let
alone all the films he ;made after-
wards."
The 53-member National Society of
Film Critics issued a statement deplor-
ing the board's action: "The recasting
of this honor, which had been awarded
appropriately in D.W. Griffith's name
since 1953, is a depressing example of
'political correctness' as an erasure,
and rewriting, of American film histo-
ry, causing a grave disservice to the
reputation of a pioneering American
filmmaker."
Courtesy of Oreamworks
Steven Spielberg, Griffith award winner, directs "Saving Private Ryan."
"It's ridiculous to rewrite history
that way," White added, arguing that
the DGA's decision "suggests there is
no more racism today or racism in the,
film industry, when we all know the
problem still exists in the film indus-
try."
But those who defend the board's
action argue that Griffith's pioneering
work behind the camera cannot erase
the racist images flowing from "The
Birth of a Nation."
"There is no question that D.W.
Griffith was a great pioneer and, in
America, the father of the modern
film industry," said black actor and
director LeVar Burton, who starred in
the landmark TV miniseries "Roots"
and is now a DGA board alternate.
"The work for which he is probably
best known - 'The Birth of a Nation'
- is, without question, a powerful
piece of filmmaking, but in terms of
the content, there can be no question
that it is ... a racist tract."
Concerned that one day an African-
American - or a director of any color
- would win the award and refuse to
accept it, Shea conferred with former
guild presidents, Griffith biographer
Richard Schickel and either personal-
ly or by letter with all nine living
recipients of the award, including
Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman,
Sidney Lumet and Robert Wise. All
agreed the time had come to retire the
D.W. Griffith Award.
In December, the guild announced
its decision, praising Griffith as a
"brilliant pioneer filmmaker" but
adding "it is also true that he helped
foster intolerable racial stereotypes."
For Barclay. the decision to retire
the D.W. Griffith Award was sweet
news. Barclay remembered the first
time he ever saw "The Birth of a
Nation" and the powerful, frightening
pull it had on the audience. As an
English major at Harvard University,
Barclay recalled, he had stepped into
a campus theater to attend a screening
of the silent classic.
"I knew it was an important film to
see," Barclay said, "but I was not pre-
pared for what it contained. I did not
know that the KKK would be the
heroes and people in the audience
would be cheerin for the KKK. That
is what is so. scarv about it. (The audi-
ence) found themselves cheering for
the KKK to get those bad black guys
and lynch them."
Still, Barclay stressed that by taking
its action, the DGA board was not
endorsing censorship. "We are not
saving 'The Birth of a Nation' should
be banned and never shown again and
that D.W. Griffith's name be
besmirched," Barclay explained.
"What we are saving is that the DGA
should not name its highest honor
after that particular filmmaker."
Los Angeles Times
As Fox's long-running animated
hit "The Simpsons" gets set to kill
off a character during February
sweeps, the actress who voiced the
role of Maude Flanders is saying
her character's rumored demise is a
case of death-by-corporate-greed.
Maggie Roswell, who played
Maude, wife of Simpsons neighbor
and Christian do-gooder Ned Flan-
ders, said she left the show last
spring because 20th Century Fox
Television, the studio that produces
"The Simpsons," refused to give
her a raise. In previous reports on
Roswell's departure, Fox has said
the actress left the show because
she no longer wanted to commute
to Los Angeles from her Denver
home.
"There's a presence that I helped
create in Springfield," said
Roswell, referring to the show's
hometown. An actress and writer
from Los Angeles, Roswell has
lived the last four years in Denver,
where she and her husband run a
recording studio for voice-over
work. Before leaving the show last
spring, she had been with "The
Simpsons" since its inception as a
prime-time series in 1989.
In addition to Maude Flanders,
Roswell voiced other Springfield
residents, including Helen Lovejoy,
wife of Rev. Lovejoy, and Miss
Hoover, one of Lisa Simpsons'
schoolteachers. This season Maude's
appearances on the show have been
minimal, with another voice actress
filling in.
"Simpsons" producers haven't
revealed who will be rubbed out in
the show's Feb. 13 episode, but the
show's title provides a potential
clue that Maude will be offed. The
episode is called "Alone Again,
Natura-Diddly," a reference to Ned
Flanders' particular way of speak-
ing.
Mike Scully, executive producer
of the show, was in transit and
could not be reached for comment.
Roswell's contract grievance isn't
new to "The Simpsons" - or to
Fox, which has seen squabbles with
actors go public on other shows,-
including "The X-Files." Two years
ago, the five major voice actors op
"The Simpsons" - Dan Castellan-
eta (Homer), Nancy Cartwright
(Bart), Yeardley Smith (Lisa),
Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns,
Smithers) and Hank Azaria (Moe
the bartender, Chief Wiggum, Apu)
- held out for big raises, eventual-
ly winning multimillion-dollar
packages to stay on the show.
Roswell, by contrast, said she
was asking for S6,000 an episode
- an increase from the $1,500 to.
S2,000 an episode she earned the
last three seasons for her recurring
guest voices, she said.
When Fox offered a raise of
S150, she decided to quit, because
the raise didn't even cover the cost
of having to fly to Los Angeles to
record her portions of the scripts,
she said. Pamela Hayden, who voic-
es the role of Bart's friend Mil-
house, threatened a similar walkout
earlier this season before receiving.
a raise.
Roswell's tactics, however, fell,
short, perhaps proving what "Simp-
sons" fans may discover on Feb.
13th that Maude is an expendable
character.
"I was part of the backbone of
'The Simpsons,' and I didn't think
(the requested raise) was exorbi-
tant," Roswell said. "I wasn't ask-
ing for what the other cast members
make. I was just trying to recoup
all the costs I had in travel. If,
they'd flown me in, I'd still be
working."
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