About this movie
Cast & Crew
Cast
-
Lillian Gish
Elsie Stoneman
-
Mae Marsh
Flora Cameron, the Little Sister
-
Henry B. Walthall
Ben Cameron, the Little Colonel
-
Miriam Cooper
Margaret Cameron
-
Mary Alden
Lydia Brown, Stoneman's Mulatto Housekeeper
-
Ralph Lewis
The Honorable Austin Stoneman, Leader of the House
-
George Siegmann
Silas Lynch
- Walter Long
-
Robert Harron
Ted Stoneman
-
Wallace Reid
Jeff, the blacksmith
- Joseph Henabery
- Elmer Clifton
-
Spottiswood Aitken
Dr. Cameron
- Monte Blue
-
Josephine Crowell
Mrs. Cameron
-
Sam de Grasse
Sen. Charles Sumner
-
William de Vaull
Jake
-
William Freeman
Sentry
-
Howard Gaye
Gen. Robert E. Lee
- Gibson Gowland
Directors
- D.W. Griffith
Producers
- D.W. Griffith
- H.E. Aitken
Writers
- Thomas F. Dixon Jr.
- D.W. Griffith
- Frank E. Woods
The Birth of a Nation
The most successful and artistically advanced film of its time, The Birth of a Nation has also sparked protests, riots, and divisiveness since its first release. The film tells the story of the Civil War and its aftermath, as seen through the eyes of two families. The Stonemans hail from the North, the Camerons from the South. When war breaks out, the Stonemans cast their lot with the Union, while the Camerons are loyal to Dixie. After the war, Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall), distressed that his beloved south is now under the rule of blacks and carpetbaggers, organizes several like-minded Southerners into a secret vigilante group called the Ku Klux Klan. When Cameron's beloved younger sister Flora (Mae Marsh) leaps to her death rather than surrender to the lustful advances of renegade slave Gus (Walter Long), the Klan wages war on the new Northern-inspired government and ultimately restores "order" to the South. In the original prints, Griffith suggested that the black population be shipped to Liberia, citing Abraham Lincoln as the inspiration for this ethnic cleansing. Showings of Birth of a Nation were picketed and boycotted from the start, and as recently as 1995, Turner Classic Movies cancelled a showing of a restored print in the wake of the racial tensions around the O.J. Simpson trial verdict.
Reviews by Rotten Tomatoes
100%
percent positive reviews
-
Variety Staff, VarietyBirth 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.
– Full review
-
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
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.
– Full review
-
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
It is an unavoidable fact of American movie history, and must be dealt with.
– Full review
You might also like...
-
Intolerance
2:57:44 1916Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted...
Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, F.A. Turner, Sam De Grasse
96%
Free
-
God's Gun
1:36:40 1975One of two 1976 Italian-Israeli co-productions starring Lee Van Cleef and Leif Garrett (Joseph Manduke's Kid Vengeance was the other), this spaghetti Western stars Van Cleef in a dual role as twin brothers. One of the brothers, Father John, is gunned down by the ruthless Sam Clayton (Jack Palance), allowing Sam's gang to take over Juno City. You...
Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance, Richard Boone, Sybil Danning, Leif Garrett, Robe...
-
Hell Town
55:26 1937Paramount borrowed John Wayne from Republic Pictures for the studio's second screen version of Zane Grey's Born to the West, which was also the Western's original release title. A couple of drifters, Dare Rudd (Wayne) and Dinkie Hooley (Sid Saylor), arrive in a Wyoming town hoping for a handout from Dare's rancher cousin, Tom Fillmore (Johnny Ma...
John Wayne, Marsha Hunt, Johnny Mack Brown, John Patterson, Monte Blue, Lucie...
-
East Side Kids
1:00:14 1940Police detective Pat O'Day (Leon Ames) involves himself with a gang of slum kids led by Dutch Kuhn (Hally Chester) and Danny Dolan (Harris Berger). He tries to keep them from getting into trouble and to help out Danny, whose brother, Knuckles Dolan (Dave "Tex" O'Brien), is about to be executed for a murder allegedly committed as part of his invo...
Leon Ames, Dennis Moore, Joyce Bryant
-
Borderline
1:28:11 1950This crime melodrama with humorous undertones involves the investigation of dope smugglers on the Mexican border. Americans Fred MacMurray and Claire Trevor enter the scene and find themselves embroiled in the illicit activities. Both are government agents, but each one thinks the other is a crook. The real bad guy is Raymond Burr, head of the s...
-
In Old Santa Fe
1:03:47 1934Having recently left Universal Pictures in a huff, mercurial cowboy star Ken Maynard stopped briefly at Mascot Studios for a brace of films. The first was In Old Santa Fe, a modern story set at a dude ranch where Maynard (playing himself) is employed. The villain is dude sharpshooter Chandler (Kenneth Thomson), who makes a play for Maynard's swe...
Ken Maynard, Tarzan, Evalyn Knapp, H.B. Warner, Kenneth Thomson, Wheeler Oakm...
Staff Picks
-
Take This Waltz
Watch Now Before It's In Theaters. Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman star in this funny, sexy and moving drama about a young woman torn betwe...
Take This Waltz
1:56:24 2012Watch Now Before It's In Theaters. Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman star in this funny, sexy and moving drama about a young woman torn between a husband that she loves and a new man in her life who she's unable to ignore.
Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman
-
Rampart
Director Oren Moverman reteams with Woody Harrelson for Rampart, a brutally honest portrait of a corrupt Los Angeles police officer. Dave Brown (Harrelson) i...
Rampart
1:47:55 2011Director Oren Moverman reteams with Woody Harrelson for Rampart, a brutally honest portrait of a corrupt Los Angeles police officer. Dave Brown (Harrelson) is already the focus of much internal investigation when he's caught on tape beating a black man, sending his already unstable career into a further tailspin. Dave lives with his wife and his...
Woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi, Ben Foster, B...
76%
$3.99
-
The Woman in Black
A widowed lawyer travels to a secluded village on an important assignment, and encounters a vengeful ghost with mysterious motives. After losing his beloved ...
The Woman in Black
1:35:21 2012A widowed lawyer travels to a secluded village on an important assignment, and encounters a vengeful ghost with mysterious motives. After losing his beloved wife in childbirth, young barrister Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) was nearly consumed by grief. A haunted widower father, he raises his young son with the help of his devoted nanny. Arthur...
Daniel Radcliffe, Elizabeth White, Janet Mcteer, Ciaran Hinds