:
Henry Walthall,
Henry Walthall,
Miriam Cooper,
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:
D.W. Griffith,
D.W. Griffith
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: Not Rated
: Kino
: Classics, Silent, Civil War
: English
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The most successful and artistically advanced film of its time, The Birth of a Nation has also sparked protests, riots, and divisiveness since its first release. The film tells the story of the Civil War and its aftermath, as seen through the eyes of two families. The Stonemans hail from the North, the Camerons from the South. When war breaks out, the Stonemans cast their lot with the Union, while the Camerons are loyal to Dixie. After the war, Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall), distressed that his beloved south is now under the rule of blacks and carpetbaggers, organizes several like-minded Southerners into a secret vigilante group called the Ku Klux Klan. When Cameron's beloved younger sister Flora (Mae Marsh) leaps to her death rather than surrender to the lustful advances of renegade slave Gus (Walter Long), the Klan wages war on the new Northern-inspired government and ultimately restores "order" to the South. In the original prints, Griffith suggested that the black population be shipped to Liberia, citing Abraham Lincoln as the inspiration for this ethnic cleansing. Showings of Birth of a Nation were picketed and boycotted from the start, and as recently as 1995, Turner Classic Movies cancelled a showing of a restored print in the wake of the racial tensions around the O.J. Simpson trial verdict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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| The Birth of a Nation (Bonus Disc: The Civil War Films of D.W. Griffith) (1915) |
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| The true American Dream
by SBarnett
June 5, 2006 - 9:22 AM PDT
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5 out of 5 members found this review helpful
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| Every American should watch this film. Not only is it the first masterpiece in the history of cinema, it remains the most vivid presentation of the enduring subconscious of America. If you think the racism, misogyny, and Christian fanaticism rampant in 1915 have disappeared from America, watch the last 15 minutes of this film and then think about today's Christianists who attack abortion, gay rights, immigration, evolution, sex education, contraception, and "secular humanism." The white male fear of sexuality and a brown planet has never been shown more clearly, nor the path to Nazism laid out in more chilling detail (Griffith uses Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie" as background music for the horseback charge of the Ku Klux Klan). Yet the film is an absolute marvel to watch. Many of the elements of visual storytelling we take for granted today were created here, from the chase scene to the montage and beyond. "Battleship Potemkin" and "Citizen Kane" could not exist without it, not to mention "Crash" or "The Lord of the Rings." But "Triumph of the Will" is this film's closest kin: a masterpiece that advocates evil. Griffith tried to atone for this by making "Intolerance" in 1916, a less-watchable work of genius. Today, watching "Birth of a Nation" is to plunge completely into the depths of the true American Dream. |
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