Language:English
Running time:3:06:32
Partner rating:NO RATING
Released:1915
- Lillian Gish Elsie Stoneman
- Mae Marsh Flora Cameron, the Little Sister
- Henry B. Walthall Ben Cameron, the Little Colonel
- Miriam Cooper Margaret Cameron
- Robert Harron Ted Stoneman
- Ralph Lewis The Honorable Austin Stoneman, Leader of the House
- Wallace Reid Jeff, the blacksmith
- George Siegmann Silas Lynch
- Spottiswood Aitken Dr. Cameron
- Mary Alden Lydia Brown, Stoneman's Mulatto Housekeeper
- Monte Blue
- Josephine Crowell Mrs. Cameron
- Sam de Grasse Sen. Charles Sumner
- William de Vaull Jake
- William Freeman Sentry
- Howard Gaye Gen. Robert E. Lee
- Gibson Gowland
- Olga Grey Laura Keene
- Joseph Henaberry Abraham Lincoln
- Alberta Lee Mrs. Lincoln
Directors D.W. Griffith ; Producers: D.W. Griffith ; Writers: Thomas F Dixon Jr and DW Griffith
Two brothers, Phil and Ted Stoneman, visit their friends in Piedmont,
South Carolina: the family Cameron. This friendship is affected by the
Civil War, as the Stonemans and the Camerons must join up opposite
armies. The consequences of the War in their lives are shown in
connection to major historical events, like the development of the Civil
War itself, Lincoln's assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
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.
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