Civilization

Civilization is a 1916 American pacifist drama film produced by Thomas H. Ince, written by C. Gardner Sullivan and Edward Sloman, and directed by Ince, Reginald Barker and Raymond B. West. The story involves a submarine commander who refuses to fire at a civilian ocean liner supposedly carrying ammunition for his country's enemies. The film was a big-budget spectacle that was compared to both The Birth of a Nation and the paintings of Jean-François Millet. The film was a popular success and was credited by the Democratic National Committee with helping to re-elect Woodrow Wilson as the U.S. president in 1916. The film was one of the early movies to depict Jesus Christ as a character, leading some to criticize the depiction as in "poor taste." Civilization is sometimes viewed as one of the first anti-war films. In 1999, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Prologue The film opened with a lengthy prologue. In some theaters, the prologue was performed by live actors and an orchestra. It included music composed by Victor Schertzinger and depicted a peaceful country home, with hills in the distance, a stream and clouds floating peacefully through the sky. Suddenly, the boom of a cannon is heard, artillery guns belch fire, and a Zeppelin flies over the city dropping bombs. In the smoke, "Civilization" is depicted kneeling pleadingly at the feet of a menacing "God of War." Soldiers are seen retreating before deadly gas. Against these scenes, the film's title cards express the film's anti-war message, concluding with the following comments: Today, the great sorrowful eyes of this same Son of God gaze down upon blackened fields, where the mangled bodies of men are strewn as grains of wheat, upon flaming shattered hamlets and stricken firesides. As He listens to the screaming of the shells, the crashing of monstrous guns, all the ghastly symphony of the reddest war mankind has ever known, His heart must recognize the bitter truth in the statement of one of the world's foremost educators— That in nineteen centuries Civilization has failed to accept honestly the teachings of Jesus Christ. This is an allegorical story of a war that has laughed at the world's flaunting boast of a higher progress.