The Birth of a Nation
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.
8 February 1882, New York, USA
1880, England, UK
12 April 1893, New York City, New York, USA
March 16, 1889 in New York City, New York, USA
11 January 1887, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
16 March 1878, Shelby City, Alabama, USA
11 March 1887, New York City, New York, USA
15 January 1888, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
18 June 1883, New York City, New York, USA
4 September 1848, Sacramento, California, USA
9 November 1894, Madrid, New Mexico Territory, USA
28 October 1872, Englewood, Illinois, USA
September 21, 2014
D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is as much a part of film history as the Civil War is a part of American history.
August 19, 2013
A towering milestone in the history of cinema. Asentimentalised, reactionary slab of racism. Can a film be both? In the case of D.W. Griffith's silent-era classic The Birth Of A Nation, unfortunately it can.
February 06, 2008
Griffith's later films are unquestionably superior. But here, in a very real sense, is where the movies began, both as an art and as a business.
August 19, 2013
This is an impressive spectacle, rightfully lauded for its myriad innovations. But the sentiments it expresses are pretty damn ugly.
February 09, 2006
The biggest challenge the film provided for its audiences is perhaps to decide when 'ground-breaking, dedicated, serious cinematic art' must be reviled as politically reprehensible.
February 06, 2008
Birth of a Nation is a great epoch in picture making; it's great for pictures and it's great for the name and fame of David Wark Griffith. When a man like Griffith in a new field can do what he has done, he may as well be hailed while he is living.
April 20, 2003
It is an unavoidable fact of American movie history, and must be dealt with.
March 25, 2006
The civil war battle pictures, taken in panorama, represent enormous effort and achieve a striking degree of success.
August 19, 2013
The quasi-Victorian Griffith was in so many respects way ahead of his time even if his philosophy and mind-set could often be said to be behind it.
August 19, 2013
It's hard to applaud a film where the Ku Klux Klan rides triumphantly to the rescue, and this, alas, undoes all the sterling work put in earlier and the wonderful performances from Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B Walthall and especially Robert Harron.
August 19, 2013
Problematically, Birth of a Nation wasn't just a seminal commercial spectacle but also a decisively original work of art -- in effect, the founding work of cinematic realism, albeit a work that was developed to pass lies off as reality.
August 19, 2013
The Birth of a Nation has become a staple of any film studies course, for its excellent performances, thrilling action sequences and epic landscapes. However it's subject matter is much more controversial now.

