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Mammy. The faithful servant to the Camerons. A large, rotund housekeeper, Mammy moans loudly and makes broad gestures. A list of all the characters in Birth of a Nation. Characters include: Colonel Ben Cameron, Elsie Stoneman, The Honorable Austin Stoneman , Silas Lynch, Flora Cameron and more.
- Plot Overview
The plot of The Birth of a Nation revolves around two...
- Quiz
Test your knowledge on all of Birth of a Nation. Perfect...
- Themes
The Birth of a Nation features a number of developing...
- Context
David Wark (D.W.) Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) is...
- The “Language” of The Cinema Summary & Analysis
Griffith invented what today is called the flashback, though...
- Suggestions for Further Reading
A suggested list of literary criticism on D. W. Griffith,...
- Plot Overview
Box office. $50–100 million [4] The Birth of a Nation (full film) The Birth of a Nation, originally called The Clansman, [5] is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr. 's 1905 novel and play The Clansman. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with ...
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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.)
Britannica Quiz
Pop Culture Quiz
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)
See a complete list of the characters in Birth of a Nation and in-depth analyses of Colonel Ben Cameron, Elsie Stoneman, Flora Cameron, The Honorable Austin Stoneman, and Silas Lynch. Character List. Colonel Ben Cameron. Elsie Stoneman. Flora Cameron.
Phil Stoneman and Margaret Cameron. Phil and Margaret are essentially the mirror image of Elsie and Ben. The son of the firebrand abolitionist falling in love with the sister of the found of the KKK. And yet, somehow, both sets of siblings manages to over their difficulties to marry the other set of siblings in a double wedding that becomes the ...
- D. W. Griffith
Mar 30, 2003 · That is worth knowing. Blacks already knew that, had known it for a long time, witnessed it painfully again every day, but "The Birth of a Nation" demonstrated it in clear view, and the importance of the film includes the clarity of its demonstration. That it is a mirror of its time is, sadly, one of its values.
