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The Shadow Stage
137
about the same relation to a war plane as the familiar Detroit road obstructor to the latest eight cylinder go-devil. On sea and land, however, the eye is satisfied. Devas tation is not represented merely by shatter ing a rickety shed, and then showing a horde of people rushing pell mell out of a tenement. Nor lias Mr. [nee indulged in thai popular banalit) of showing soldiers pursuing and slaying civilians. He has en deavored t<> approximate, as closely as possible, actual war conditions, and lias not attempted to lend spurious aid to his argU ment by introducing incidents of doubtful authenticity.
When the film was firsi shown to the supersensitive and hypermoral critics on the Pacific Toast, it is reported that a shrill protest arose to the effect that in portraying the Christus Mr. hue had committed sac rilege. Despite the fact that Jesus was .1 historically real man. there is an absurd tradition which has fastened itself upon the stage, that He must not be impersonated. Writers, painters, sculptors, and all other artists, are free to present their visualizations <^( the Man of Sorrows, hut the actor has been barred. There is no good reason why. if the spirit of Christ is one which should be brought before men. any method of achieving this end should be rejected. We believe that if Jesus were on earth today He would gladly employ this farreaching influence. In "Civilization" He is seen moving sadly but majestically about the scenes of carnage, for • tbe purpose of leading men to higher ideals than power. It is a symbolism which appeals to both the artistic and the ethical senses.
What. then, keeps this from being a Master Film? Simply its absence of intimacy. These people are not our people, this king not our king, this war not our war, this flag not our flag. It is a myth of the imagination. True, it all might happen to us, or to any other nation, but to realize this the audience must pause and transpose its allegory into American terms. Note the difference in "The Birth of a Nation." Here was a
struggle th.it me. mi something definite to
\llnl it .111. Ir\ l\ ed alH Hill |Usmi,ii
and flung us back headlong mto that m.icl
strom of tin Civil War. Its scenes left us riven in everj emotion and gasping t"i breath. 1 1 sti u< k deep into th< conscious ness of everj spectator as a visualization of something through which men he had in ('<■ A. k. parades had passed. "Civiliza tion" is addressed to the mentality, and even in its most emotion. il moments never touches the core of our lives. \ el it stands head and shoulders above any other picture drama which has grown out of this war era.
I'hc scenario is by C. Gardner Sullivan, with more than a slight suggestion that he has read or seen the Ueulah Dix piece. "Across the border." The acting is sec ondary. Howard Hickman of the noble brow is a consistent Count Ferdinand, Herschell M.uall an impressive" king; and George Fisher a truly reverent Christus. "Civilization" was more than a year in making. In one scene the U. S. navy co-operated.
George Bcban and Helen
Eddy in "Pasquale."