Lillian Gish
Elsie Stoneman
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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. The Honorable Austin Stoneman, an abolitionist politician, presides over ...
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David Wark (D.W.) Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) is...
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Explanation of the famous quotes in Birth of a Nation,...
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A list of all the characters in Birth of a Nation....
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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
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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)
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 ...
- $100,000+
- Joseph Carl Breil
- February 8, 1915
- D. W. Griffith, Harry Aitken
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There is a riot and the president is murdered. Ben Cameron forms a group of white men, the Ku Klux Klan, who wants to be superior to blacks. The members of Ku Klux Klan kill a black man who shot a white man to defend him and others. Elsie learns her brother has slain a black man in the rescue of Dr. Cameron.
The Birth of a Nation: Directed by D.W. Griffith. With Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper. The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies.
- (26.3K)
- D.W. Griffith
- TV-PG
- Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall
Nat is taken with a "wench" named Cherry (Aja Naomi King) that is being sold off. He convinces Samuel to buy her for $275. On the way home, Nat picks up a toy for a white boy and informs his thankful mother, but her husband smacks Nat with a rod for talking to his wife. He continues to hit Nat until Nat grabs the rod.
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.
