a review of The Symbol of the Unconquered

1st Annual Criterion Challenge Week 6: Pioneers of African-American Cinema I was expecting something a bit more fraught with peril given the film's subtitle ("A Story of the Ku Klux Klan"), and apparently there is a sizable part of the film that was ripped out of all existing prints (and it's not hard to imagine why) that shows the film's hero fighting off hooded Klansmen by throwing bricks at them. But by and large this is kind of a quaint melodrama in the Perils of Pauline vein, with an upstanding hero, delicate damsel, and hissable villain. But just the fact that Oscar Micheaux was able to mount a production like this ca. 1920 just goes to show his ingenuity in being able to create as an independent Black filmmaker in the climate of the time.