“My mother is going to kill me. » “I could eat horse.” “It’s worlds apart.” Hyperbole can shed new light on feelings that are only felt viscerally, such as fear, need, or a tunnel with no light at the other end. This is not to say that hyperboles are the most accurate representations of the situations one finds oneself in, but rather that they are the accuracy of the emotions that muddle one's gut. In the same way, Vidor conveys a viscerality of black American culture through his film “Hallelujah!” ". This essay will examine four responses to the film taken from the "Literary Digest", in conjunction with an excerpt from the picture (The Baptism Scene, Chapter Sixteen) to ask whether these responses separate the fictional from the factual, recognize an analysis of race . in a class system, and how these divisions play out in their interpretations derived from the film. To begin and approach the analysis of fact and fiction, we will turn to the first criticism written by Allen, where he writes angrily about how the Black people have all been generalized. He emphasizes again and again how the film exaggerates the nature of the black view of Christianity and jungle sexuality. Vidor would bounce back and argue that the baptism scene in the film is not a perfect depiction of the baptism process (the film is not a documentary after all). That said, Vidor would challenge Allen in his statement that "the baptism scene...(was) made an occasion for jokes, levity, and comedy (to the detriment of the Negro's religious emotions)," in the sense that by making turning the scene into nothing more than a poorly received joke, Allen fails to separate fact from fiction. Vidor would claim this, however... middle of paper ......h! depicts a striking hyperbole of the black population in the early to mid-20th century in the United States. When we take this method of presentation and overlay the opinions of all the reviews given, we can see that the film conveys the black race quite well. However, whether this describes them correctly or accurately is a matter of debate as Vidor's involvement in hyperbole to produce emotion often blurs the line between what is real and what is is fictitious. Likewise, Vidor's recognition of the plurality of the race can be difficult to detect as hyperbole often leads to directing his attention to the lowest classes of the race. However, if one can look beyond the overly emotional displays and see the impulse behind the emotion and others surrounding it, one can see many different faces within the early 20th century black race..