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- Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship of two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras over the course of several years—the pro- Union (Northern) Stonemans and the pro- Confederacy (Southern) Camerons.
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The plot of The Birth of a Nation revolves around two families living on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line who become friends when their sons board together at school. The Stonemans, the Northern family, live in Washington, D.C., and own a rural getaway in Pennsylvania.
- Context
David Wark (D.W.) Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) is...
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“A Plea For The Art of the Motion Picture: We do not fear...
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Played by George Siegmann The mulatto politician and...
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Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to...
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The Birth of a Nation, landmark silent film starring Lillian Gish, released in 1915, that was the first blockbuster Hollywood hit. It was the longest and most-profitable film then produced and the most artistically advanced film of its day. It secured both the future of feature-length films and the reception of film as a serious medium. An epic about the American Civil War (1861–65) and the Reconstruction era that followed, it has long been hailed for its technical and dramatic innovations but condemned for the racism inherent in the script and its positive portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
(Read Lillian Gish’s 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.)
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Based on the novel The Clansman (1905) by Thomas Dixon, the two-part epic traces the impact of the Civil War on two families: the Stonemans of the North and the Camerons of the South, each on separate sides of the conflict. The first half of the film is set from the outbreak of the war through the assassination of Pres. Abraham Lincoln, and the concluding section deals with the chaos of the Reconstruction period.
Director D.W. Griffith revolutionized the young art of moviemaking with his big-budget ($110,000) and artistically ambitious re-creation of the Civil War years. Shooting on the film began in secrecy in July 1914. Although a script existed, Griffith kept most of the continuity in his head—a remarkable feat considering that the completed film contained 1,544 separate shots at a time when the most-elaborate spectacles, Italian epics such as Cabiria (1914), boasted fewer than 100. Running nearly three hours, The Birth of a Nation was the then longest movie ever released, and its sweeping battle re-creations and large-scale action thrilled audiences. It was also innovative in technique, using special effects, deep-focus photography, jump cuts, and facial close-ups.
•Studio: D.W. Griffith Productions
•Director and producer: D.W. Griffith
•Writers: D.W. Griffith and Frank E. Woods
•Music: Joseph Carl Breil
•Lillian Gish (Elsie Stoneman)
•Mae Marsh (Flora Cameron)
•Henry B. Walthall (Colonel Ben Cameron)
•Miriam Cooper (Margaret Cameron)
•Ralph Lewis (Austin Stoneman)
•George Siegmann (Silas Lynch)
The Birth of a Nation follows two families: the Camerons and the Stonemans. The Camerons are hoity-toity Southern aristocrats, while the Stonemans, headed by U.S. senator Austin Stoneman, are Northern carpetbaggers. Part One. One day, the two Stoneman brothers visit the Camerons in the South for a quick vacay.
Jun 23, 2019 · A US Civil War (1861–65) drama, Birth of a Nation centres on two white families, the Camerons from the South and the Stonemans from the North. Before the war, during a visit of the Stonemans to the Camerons, Ben Cameron falls in love with Elsie Stoneman, and Phil Stoneman with Margaret Cameron.
Feb 23, 2016 · The film focuses on two families: One from the North, the Stonemans, and one from the South, the Camerons. On a superficial level, The Birth of a Nation is a love story concerning the two families. In its portrayal of the Civil War, the film presents a shining view of the Confederacy.
US president Abraham Lincoln for the first time in history calls volunteers to enforce the rule of the coming nation over the individual states during the Civil war. An irregular force of guerrillas raids Piedmont.
Played by George Siegmann The mulatto politician and overseer of day-to-day operations during Reconstruction who becomes South Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor. Portrayed as evil from the start because of his mixed-race parentage, Lynch often spies on Elsie or lusts after other women, giving sideways glances and clutching his hat anxiously.
