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- Based on Thomas Dixon's 1905 novel The Clansman, The Birth of a Nation begins as the South marches into battle to defend a way of life the North wants to eradicate. The second half finds a defeated South at the mercy of Northern carpetbaggers, vengeful Union politicians, and easily manipulated freed slaves.
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Stoneman, a champion of black equality in the South, forces Senator Charles Sumner (a historical figure) to acknowledge the legitimacy of Stoneman’s mulatto protégé, Silas Lynch, who secretly lusts after Elsie and is sent down to organize the emancipated slaves.
- Context
David Wark (D.W.) Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) is...
- Important Quotes Explained
“A Plea For The Art of the Motion Picture: We do not fear...
- Character List
Colonel Ben Cameron. Played by Henry Walthall. The noble...
- Context
- Overview
- Production notes and credits
- Cast
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)
Devastated, Ben gets the idea to form a new organization dedicated to white supremacy and general oppression. Its name is the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan's first order of business is to kill Gus and drop his dead body on Lynch's doorstep. This sparks a mini-war between the two factions.
History. Culture magazines. The Birth of a Nation. views 2,487,888 updated. THE BIRTH OF A NATION. The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. (David Wark) Griffith (1875–1948) in 1914 and released the following year, may be the most controversial feature film ever released in the United States.
Jun 23, 2019 · Summary: 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.
Plot. The Birth of a Nation. Jump to Edit. Summaries. The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
Birth of a Nation argued that white Americans from the North and South, represented by the two main families in the film, could mend their wounds and reunite through the shared recognition of the inferiority of blacks.
