I think by watching a movie, it is much easier to feel the elements trying to be depicted by the director even without a script. In this movie specifically, I believe it was groundbreaking because it brought together a seemingly shared white confederate experience even though it was not truly historical. In an era used to reading about these concepts, I believe it had more expansiveness than your typical legislator or scientist. It gave the general public access. Due to this, people do not have to be actually educated on what has happened, they only know what they see and what they feel. This allows Griffith to ploy those cinematic effects. For him to use music that gets the heart rate going or that seemingly appeal to the emotions of any father, brother or great leader. I think he knew people didn’t have access to resources to do the work for themselves and formed an opinion based off of the movie. They got attached to the ideas the movie presented. This is very much so like when an actor or actress plays a bad role in a movie and you can never unsee them in that light. I think people were unable to separate and it worked perfectly for a white supremacist agenda.
The content then becomes more relateable and palpable as a result.
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