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''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent
epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...
drama film directed by
D. W. Griffith David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the na ...
and starring
Lillian Gish Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...
. The screenplay is adapted from
Thomas Dixon Jr. Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. (January 11, 1864 – April 3, 1946) was an American white supremacist, Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, lecturer, novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Referred to as a "professional racist", Dixon wrote two best ...
's 1905 novel and play ''
The Clansman ''The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan'' is a novel published in 1905, the second work in the Ku Klux Klan trilogy by Thomas Dixon Jr. (the others are ''The Leopard's Spots'' and '' The Traitor''). Chronicling the American Civi ...
''. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with
Frank E. Woods Frank E. Woods (1860 – May 1, 1939) was an American screenwriter of the silent film, silent era. He wrote for 90 films between 1908 till 1925. He first became a writer with the Biograph Company. Woods was also a pioneering film reviewer. As a w ...
and produced the film with
Harry Aitken Harry E. Aitken (1877August 1, 1956) was a film studio Executive producer, executive. Life He was born on 4 October 1877. He grew up on a family farm near Goerke's Corners, Wisconsin. The brothers operated Keystone Studios and eventually Harry ...
. ''The Birth of a Nation'' is a landmark of film history, lauded for its technical virtuosity. It was the first non-serial American 12- reel film ever made. Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play ''Our American Cousin'' at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the hea ...
by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship of two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras over the course of several years—the pro- Union (
Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...
) Stonemans and the pro-
Confederacy Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...
(
Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...
) Camerons. It was originally shown in two parts separated by an intermission, and it was the first
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
-made film to have a musical score for an orchestra. It pioneered
closeup A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long ...
s and fadeouts, and it includes a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras (another first) made to look like thousands. It came with a 13-page "Souvenir Program". It was the first motion picture to be screened inside the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson, his family, and members of his cabinet. The film was controversial even before its release, and it has remained so ever since; it has been called "the most controversial film ever made in the United States" and "the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history". Lincoln is nevertheless portrayed positively, albeit a friend of the South, atypical of a narrative that promotes the Lost Cause ideology. The film has been denounced for its racist depiction of
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
. The film portrays its black characters (many of whom are played by white actors in
blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...
) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive toward white women. The
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
(KKK) is portrayed as a heroic force, necessary to preserve American values, protect white women, and maintain white supremacy. Popular among white audiences nationwide, the film's success was both a consequence of and a contributor to racial segregation throughout the U.S. In response to the film's depictions of black people and Civil War history, African Americans across the U.S. organized and protested. In Boston and other localities, black leaders and the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to have it banned on the basis that it inflamed racial tensions and could incite violence. Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him to produce ''
Intolerance Intolerance may refer to: * Hypersensitivity or intolerance, undesirable reactions produced by the immune system * ''Intolerance'' (film), a 1916 film by D. W. Griffith * ''Intolerance'' (album), the first solo album from Grant Hart, formerly o ...
'' the following year. In spite of its divisiveness, ''The Birth of a Nation'' was a huge commercial success across the nation—grossing more than any previous motion picture—and it profoundly influenced both the film industry and American culture. The film has been acknowledged as an inspiration for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, which took place only a few months after its release. In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.


Plot

The film consists of two parts of similar length. The first part closes with the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play ''Our American Cousin'' at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the hea ...
, after which there is an intermission. At the New York premiere, Dixon spoke on stage between the parts, reminding the audience that the dramatic version of ''The Clansman'' appeared in that venue nine years previously. "Mr. Dixon also observed that he would have allowed none but the son of a Confederate soldier to direct the film version of ''The Clansman.''"


Part 1: Civil War of United States

The film follows two
juxtaposed Juxtaposition is an act or instance of placing two elements close together or side by side. This is often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences, etc. Speech Juxtaposition in literary terms is the showing ...
families. One is the Northern Stonemans: abolitionist U.S. Representative Austin Stoneman (based on the Reconstruction-era Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania), his daughter, and two sons. The other is the Southern Camerons: Dr. Cameron, his wife, their three sons and two daughters. Phil, the elder Stoneman son, falls in love with Margaret Cameron, during the brothers' visit to the Cameron estate in South Carolina, representing the Old South. Meanwhile, young Ben Cameron (modeled after
Leroy McAfee Leroy Magnum McAfee (1837 – 1873) was an American Confederate veteran and politician. He was a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. He later served as the inspiration for the protagonist of his nephew Thomas Dixon Jr.'s infa ...
) idolizes a picture of Elsie Stoneman. When the Civil War arrives, the young men of both families enlist in their respective armies. The younger Stoneman and two of the Cameron brothers are killed in combat. Meanwhile, the Cameron women are rescued by Confederate soldiers who rout a black militia after an attack on the Cameron home. Ben Cameron leads a heroic final charge at the Siege of Petersburg, earning the nickname of "the Little Colonel", but he is also wounded and captured. He is then taken to a Union military hospital in Washington, D.C. During his stay at the hospital, he is told that he will be hanged. Also at the hospital, he meets Elsie Stoneman, whose picture he has been carrying; she is working there as a nurse. Elsie takes Cameron's mother, who had traveled to Washington to tend her son, to see Abraham Lincoln, and Mrs. Cameron persuades the President to pardon Ben. When Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theatre, his conciliatory postwar policy expires with him. In the wake of the president's death, Austin Stoneman and other Radical Republicans are determined to punish the South, employing harsh measures that Griffith depicts as having been typical of the
Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...
.


Part 2: Reconstruction

Stoneman and his protégé Silas Lynch, a psychopathic
mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
(modeled after
Alonzo J. Ransier Alonzo Jacob Ransier (January 3, 1834 – August 17, 1882) was an American politician in South Carolina who served as the state's first black Lieutenant Governor and later was a United States Congressman from 1873 until 1875. He was a Recon ...
and
Richard Howell Gleaves Richard Howell Gleaves (July 4, 1819 – November 1907) was a lawyer, merchant, and politician who served as the 55th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from December 7, 1872 to December 14, 1876. He served under Governors Franklin J. Moses ...
), head to South Carolina to observe the implementation of Reconstruction policies first hand. During the election, in which Lynch is elected
lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
, blacks are observed stuffing the ballot boxes, while many whites are denied the vote. The newly elected, mostly black members of the
South Carolina legislature The South Carolina General Assembly, also called the South Carolina Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of South Carolina. The legislature is bicameral and consists of the lower South Carolina House of Representatives and t ...
are shown at their desks displaying racially stereotypical behavior, such as one member taking off his shoes and putting his feet up on his desk, and others drinking liquor and eating
fried chicken Fried chicken, also known as Southern fried chicken, is a dish consisting of chicken pieces that have been coated with seasoned flour or batter and pan-fried, deep fried, pressure fried, or air fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or ...
. Meanwhile, inspired by observing white children pretending to be ghosts to scare black children, Ben fights back by forming the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
. As a result, Elsie breaks off her relationship with Ben. Later, Flora Cameron goes off alone into the woods to fetch water and is followed by Gus, a
freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...
and soldier who is now a captain. He confronts Flora and tells her that he desires to get married. Uninterested, she rejects him, but Gus refuses to accept the rejection. Frightened, she flees into the forest, pursued by Gus. Trapped on a precipice, Flora warns Gus she will jump if he comes any closer. When he does, she leaps to her death. Having run through the forest looking for her, Ben has seen her jump; he holds her as she dies, then carries her body back to the Cameron home. In response, the Klan hunts down Gus, tries him, finds him guilty, and lynches him. Lynch then orders a crackdown on the Klan after discovering Gus's murder. He also secures the passing of legislation allowing mixed-race marriages. Dr. Cameron is arrested for possessing Ben's Klan regalia, now considered a
capital crime Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
. He is rescued by Phil Stoneman and a few of his black servants. Together with Margaret Cameron, they flee. When their wagon breaks down, they make their way through the woods to a small hut that is home to two sympathetic former Union soldiers who agree to hide them. An intertitle states, "The former enemies of North and South are united again in common defense of their
Aryan Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
birthright." Congressman Stoneman leaves to avoid being connected with Lt. Gov. Lynch's crackdown. Elsie, learning of Dr. Cameron's arrest, goes to Lynch to plead for his release. Lynch, who had been lusting after Elsie, tries to force her to marry him, which causes her to faint. Stoneman returns, causing Elsie to be placed in another room. At first Stoneman is happy when Lynch tells him he wants to marry a white woman, but he is then angered when Lynch tells him that it is Stoneman's own daughter that he wishes to marry (against her will). Undercover Klansman spies go to get help when they discover Elsie's plight after she breaks a window and cries out for help. Elsie falls unconscious again and revives while gagged and being bound. The Klan gathered together, with Ben leading them, ride in to gain control of the town. When news about Elsie reaches Ben, he and others go to her rescue. Elsie frees her mouth and screams for help. Lynch is captured. Victorious, the Klansmen celebrate in the streets. Meanwhile, Lynch's militia surrounds and attacks the hut where the Camerons are hiding. The Klansmen, with Ben at their head, race in to save them just in time. The next election day, blacks find a line of mounted and armed Klansmen just outside their homes and are intimidated into not voting. The film concludes with a double wedding as Margaret Cameron marries Phil Stoneman and Elsie Stoneman marries Ben Cameron. The masses are shown oppressed by a giant warlike figure who gradually fades away. The scene shifts to another group finding peace under the image of Jesus Christ. The penultimate title is: "Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more. But instead—the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace."


Cast

;Credited *
Lillian Gish Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...
as Elsie Stoneman * Mae Marsh as Flora Cameron, the pet sister * Henry B. Walthall as Colonel Benjamin Cameron ("The Little Colonel") *
Miriam Cooper Miriam Cooper (born Marian Cooper; November 7, 1891 – April 12, 1976) was a silent film actress who is best known for her work in early film including ''The Birth of a Nation'' and ''Intolerance'' for D. W. Griffith and ''The Honor System'' a ...
as Margaret Cameron, elder sister *
Mary Alden Mary Maguire Alden (June 18, 1883 – July 2, 1946) was an American motion picture and stage actress. She was one of the first Broadway actresses to work in Hollywood. Life Alden was born in New York City on June 18, 1883. She performed on Br ...
as Lydia Brown, Stoneman's housekeeper * Ralph Lewis as Austin Stoneman, Leader of the House * George Siegmann as Silas Lynch * Walter Long as Gus, the renegade *
Wallace Reid William Wallace Halleck Reid (April 15, 1891 – January 18, 1923) was an American actor in silent film, referred to as "the screen's most perfect lover". He also had a brief career as a racing driver. Early life Reid was born in St. Louis, M ...
as Jeff, the blacksmith *
Joseph Henabery Joseph Henabery (January 15, 1888 – February 18, 1976) of Omaha, Nebraska, was a film actor, screenplay writer, and director in the United States. He is best known for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in D.W. Griffith's controversial 1915 sile ...
as Abraham Lincoln * Elmer Clifton as Phil Stoneman, elder son *
Robert Harron Robert Emmett Harron (April 12, 1893 – September 5, 1920) was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era. Although he acted in over 200 films, he is possibly best recalled for his roles in the D.W. Griffith directed film ...
as Tod Stoneman *
Josephine Crowell Josephine Boneparte Crowell (January 11, 1859 – July 27, 1932) was a Canadian film actress of the silent era. She appeared in more than 90 films between 1912 and 1929. Biography Crowell was born in Nova Scotia. Crowell debuted in the ...
as Mrs. Cameron *
Spottiswoode Aitken Frank Spottiswoode Aitken (16 April 1868 – 26 February 1933) was a Scottish-American actor of the silent era. He played Dr. Cameron in D. W. Griffith's epic drama ''The Birth of a Nation''. Early years Aitken was born 16 April 1868 in Edin ...
as Dr. Cameron * George Beranger as Wade Cameron, second son * Maxfield Stanley as Duke Cameron, youngest son * Jennie Lee as Mammy, the faithful servant * Donald Crisp as General
Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
*
Howard Gaye Howard Gaye (23 May 1878 – 26 December 1955) was a British actor who worked mainly in the United States. He acted in 27 silent films, including D. W. Griffith's epics ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) as Robert E. Lee and ''Intolerance'' (1916 ...
as General
Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nort ...
;Uncredited *
Harry Braham Henry Nathaniel Braham (13 September 1850 – 21 September 1923) was a British music hall comic vocalist and actor. He toured with vaudeville impresario Tony Pastor in the 1870s and was a leading low comedian with American actor-manager William H. ...
as Cameron's faithful servant * Edmund Burns as Klansman * David Butler as Union soldier / Confederate soldier * William Freeman as Jake, a mooning sentry at Federal hospital * Sam De Grasse as Senator Charles Sumner *
Olga Grey Olga Grey (born Anushka Zacsek or Anna Zacsek, November 10, 1896 – April 25, 1973) was an American silent film actress, sometimes billed with the alternate spelling of her last name, Olga Gray. She was born in New York city to Hungarian immig ...
as
Laura Keene Laura Keene (20 July 1826 – 4 November 1873) was a British stage actress and theatre manager. In her twenty-year career, she became known as the first powerful female manager in New York. She is most famous for being the lead actress in ...
*
Russell Hicks Edward Russell Hicks (June 4, 1895 – June 1, 1957) was an American film character actor. Hicks was born in 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army in France. He later became a lieutenant Colonel in the Cali ...
* Elmo Lincoln as ginmill owner / slave auctioneer * Eugene Pallette as Union soldier *
Harry Braham Henry Nathaniel Braham (13 September 1850 – 21 September 1923) was a British music hall comic vocalist and actor. He toured with vaudeville impresario Tony Pastor in the 1870s and was a leading low comedian with American actor-manager William H. ...
as Jake / Nelse * Charles Stevens as volunteer * Madame Sul-Te-Wan as woman with gypsy shawl *
Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He w ...
as John Wilkes Booth * Lenore Cooper as Elsie's maid * Violet Wilkey as young Flora * Tom Wilson as Stoneman's servant * Donna Montran as belles of 1861 *
Alberta Lee Alberta Lee (1860–1928) was an American stage and film actress of the silent era. In 1915, she appeared as Mary Todd Lincoln in ''The Birth of a Nation''.Reinhart p.56 Selected filmography * ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) * ''Reggie Mixes I ...
as Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln * Allan Sears as Klansmen *
Dark Cloud is an action role-playing video game developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. Originally intended as a launch title for the system in March 2000, the game was eventually released in Japan in De ...
as General at Appomattox Surrender * Vester Pegg * Alma Rubens * Mary Wynn *
Jules White Jules White (born Julius Weiss; hu, Weisz Gyula; 17 September 190030 April 1985) was a Hungarian-American film director and producer best known for his short-subject comedies starring The Three Stooges Early years White began working in mo ...
*
Monte Blue Gerard Montgomery Blue (January 11, 1887 – February 18, 1963) was an American film actor who began his career as a romantic lead in the silent era; and for decades after the advent of sound, he continued to perform as a supporting player ...
* Gibson Gowland * Fred Burns * Charles King


Production


1911 version

There was an uncompleted, now
lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
, 1911 version, titled ''The Clansman''. It used Kinemacolor and a new sound process; one reason for this version's failure is the unwillingness of theater owners to purchase the equipment to show it. The director was
William F. Haddock William F. Haddock (November 27, 1877 – June 30, 1969) was one of the earliest film directors of the silent film era. From 1909 to 1919 Haddock directed twenty-four films. Haddock was born William Frederick Haddock in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. ...
, and the producer was George Brennan. Some scenes were filmed on the porches and lawns of Homewood Plantation, in Natchez, Mississippi. One and a half reels were completed. Kinemacolor received a settlement from the producers of ''Birth'' when they proved that they had an earlier right to film the work. The footage was shown to the trade in an attempt to arouse interest. Early movie critic
Frank E. Woods Frank E. Woods (1860 – May 1, 1939) was an American screenwriter of the silent film, silent era. He wrote for 90 films between 1908 till 1925. He first became a writer with the Biograph Company. Woods was also a pioneering film reviewer. As a w ...
attended; Griffith always credited Woods with bringing ''The Clansman'' to his attention.


Development

After the failure of the Kinemacolor project, in which Dixon was willing to invest his own money, he began visiting other studios to see if they were interested. In late 1913, Dixon met the film producer Harry Aitken, who was interested in making a film out of ''The Clansman''; through Aitken, Dixon met Griffith. Like Dixon, Griffith was a Southerner, a fact that Dixon points out; Griffith's father served as a colonel in the Confederate States Army and, like Dixon, viewed Reconstruction negatively. Griffith believed that a passage from ''The Clansman'' where Klansmen ride "to the rescue of persecuted white Southerners" could be adapted into a great cinematic sequence. Griffith first announced his intent to adapt Dixon's play to Gish and Walthall after filming '' Home, Sweet Home'' in 1914. ''Birth of a Nation'' "follows ''The Clansman'' he playnearly scene by scene". While some sources also credit '' The Leopard's Spots'' as source material, Russell Merritt attributes this to "the original 1915 playbills and program for ''Birth'' which, eager to flaunt the film's literary pedigree, cited both ''The Clansman'' and ''The Leopard's Spots'' as sources." According to Karen Crowe, " ere is not a single event, word, character, or circumstance taken from ''The Leopard's Spots''.... Any likenesses between the film and ''The Leopard's Spots'' occur because some similar scenes, circumstances, and characters appear in both books." Griffith agreed to pay Thomas Dixon $10,000 (equivalent to $ in ) for the rights to his play ''The Clansman''. Since he ran out of money and could afford only $2,500 of the original option, Griffith offered Dixon 25 percent interest in the picture. Dixon reluctantly agreed, and the unprecedented success of the film made him rich. Dixon's proceeds were the largest sum any author had received
p to 2007 P, or p, is the sixteenth letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#L ...
for a motion picture story and amounted to several million dollars. The American historian John Hope Franklin suggested that many aspects of the script for ''The Birth of a Nation'' appeared to reflect Dixon's concerns more than Griffith's, as Dixon had an obsession in his novels of describing in loving detail the lynchings of black men, which did not reflect Griffith's interests.


Filming

Griffith began
filming Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of Film, motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (o ...
on July 4, 1914 and was finished by October 1914. Some filming took place in Big Bear Lake, California.
D. W. Griffith David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the na ...
took over the Hollywood studio of Kinemacolor. West Point engineers provided technical advice on the American Civil War battle scenes, providing Griffith with the artillery used in the film. Much of the filming was done on the
Griffith Ranch Griffith Ranch was owned by David Wark Griffith, a pioneer of silent motion pictures. He purchased the ranch in 1912, and is said to have filmed famous movies at the site, such as ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915), '' Broken Blossoms'' (1919), ...
in
San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...
, with the Petersburg scenes being shot at what is today Forest Lawn Memorial Park and other scenes being shot in Whittier and
Ojai Valley Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...
. The film's war scenes were influenced after Robert Underwood Johnson's book ''Battles and Leaders of the Civil War'', ''Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War'', ''The Soldier in Our Civil War'', and
Mathew Brady Mathew B. Brady ( – January 15, 1896) was one of the earliest photographers in American history. Best known for his scenes of the American Civil War, Civil War, he studied under inventor Samuel Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique ...
's photography. Many of the African Americans in the film were portrayed by white actors in blackface. Griffith initially claimed this was deliberate, stating "on careful weighing of every detail concerned, the decision was to have no black blood among the principals; it was only in the legislative scene that Negroes were used, and then only as 'extra people.'" However black extras who had been housed in segregated quarters, including Griffith's acquaintance and frequent collaborator Madame Sul-Te-Wan, can be seen in many other shots of the film. Griffith's budget started at US$40,000 (equivalent to $ in ) but rose to over $100,000 (equivalent to $ in ). By the time he finished filming, Griffith shot approximately 150,000 feet of footage (or about 36 hours worth of film), which he edited down to 13,000 feet (just over 3 hours). The film was edited after early screenings in reaction to audience reception, and existing prints of the film are missing footage from the standard version of the film. Evidence exists that the film originally included scenes of white
slave traders The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions of en ...
seizing blacks from West Africa and detaining them aboard a slave ship, Southern congressmen in the House of Representatives, Northerners reacting to the results of the 1860 presidential election, the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, a Union League meeting, depictions of martial law in South Carolina, and a battle sequence. In addition, several scenes were cut at the insistence of
New York Mayor The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...
John Purroy Mitchel John Purroy Mitchel (July 19, 1879 – July 6, 1918) was the 95th mayor of New York, from 1914 to 1917. At 34, he was the second-youngest mayor and he is sometimes referred to as "The Boy Mayor of New York." Mitchel is remembered for his sho ...
due to their highly racist content before its release in New York City, including a female abolitionist activist recoiling from the
body odor Body odor or body odour (BO) is present in all animals and its intensity can be influenced by many factors (behavioral patterns, survival strategies). Body odor has a strong genetic basis, but can also be strongly influenced by various diseases ...
of a black boy, black men seizing white women on the streets of Piedmont, and deportations of blacks with the title "Lincoln's Solution". It was also long rumored, including by Griffith's biographer Seymour Stern, that the original film included a rape scene between Gus and Flora before her suicide, but in 1974 the cinematographer Karl Brown denied that such a scene had been filmed.


Score

Although ''The Birth of a Nation'' is commonly regarded as a landmark for its dramatic and visual innovations, its use of music was arguably no less revolutionary.Hickman 2006, p. 77. Though film was still silent at the time, it was common practice to distribute musical cue sheets, or less commonly, full scores (usually for
organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...
or piano accompaniment) along with each print of a film. For ''The Birth of a Nation'', composer Joseph Carl Breil created a three-hour-long musical score that combined all three types of music in use at the time: adaptations of existing works by classical composers, new arrangements of well-known melodies, and original composed music. Though it had been specifically composed for the film, Breil's score was not used for the Los Angeles première of the film at
Clune's Auditorium Hazard's Pavilion was a large auditorium in Los Angeles, California, at the intersection of Fifth and Olive Streets. Showman George "Roundhouse" Lehman had planned to construct a large theatre center on the land he purchased at this location, bu ...
; rather, a score compiled by Carli Elinor was performed in its stead, and this score was used exclusively in
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...
showings. Breil's score was not used until the film debuted in New York at the Liberty Theatre but it was the score featured in all showings save those on the West Coast. Outside of original compositions, Breil adapted classical music for use in the film, including passages from '' Der Freischütz'' by Carl Maria von Weber, ''
Leichte Kavallerie ' (''Light Cavalry'') is an operetta in two acts by Franz von Suppé, with a libretto by . It was first performed in the Carltheater, Vienna, on 21 March 1866. The original work is set in a 19th-century Austrian village where several love intrigu ...
'' by Franz von Suppé, Symphony No. 6 by Ludwig van Beethoven, and " Ride of the Valkyries" by
Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
, the latter used as a
leitmotif A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglici ...
during the ride of the KKK. Breil also arranged several traditional and popular tunes that would have been recognizable to audiences at the time, including many Southern melodies; among these songs were "
Maryland, My Maryland "Maryland, My Maryland" was the state song of the U.S. state of Maryland from 1939 until 2021. The song is set to the melody of "Lauriger Horatius" — the same tune "O Tannenbaum" was taken from. The lyrics are from a nine-stanza poem written by ...
", " Dixie", " Old Folks at Home", " The Star-Spangled Banner", " America the Beautiful", " The Battle Hymn of the Republic", "
Auld Lang Syne "Auld Lang Syne" (: note "s" rather than "z") is a popular song, particularly in the English-speaking world. Traditionally, it is sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. By extension, it is also often ...
", and " Where Did You Get That Hat?".
DJ Spooky Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...
has called Breil's score, with its mix of Dixieland songs, classical music and "vernacular heartland music" "an early, pivotal accomplishment in remix culture." He has also cited Breil's use of music by Richard Wagner as influential on subsequent Hollywood films, including ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' (1977) and '' Apocalypse Now'' (1979). In his original compositions for the film, Breil wrote numerous
leitmotif A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglici ...
s to accompany the appearance of specific characters. The principal love theme that was created for the romance between Elsie Stoneman and Ben Cameron was published as "The Perfect Song" and is regarded as the first marketed "theme song" from a film; it was later used as the theme song for the popular radio and television sitcom '' Amos 'n' Andy''.Hickman 2006, p. 78.


Release


Theatrical run

The first public showing of the film, then called ''The Clansman'', was on January 1 and 2, 1915, at the Loring Opera House in Riverside, California. The second night, it was sold out and people were turned away. It was shown on February 8, 1915, to an audience of 3,000 persons at
Clune's Auditorium Hazard's Pavilion was a large auditorium in Los Angeles, California, at the intersection of Fifth and Olive Streets. Showman George "Roundhouse" Lehman had planned to construct a large theatre center on the land he purchased at this location, bu ...
in
downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...
. The film's backers understood that the film needed a massive
publicity campaign In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization (company, charity, etc.). It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) ...
if they were to cover the immense cost of producing it. A major part of this campaign was the release of the film in a roadshow theatrical release. This allowed Griffith to charge premium prices for tickets, sell souvenirs, and build excitement around the film before giving it a wide release. For several months, Griffith's team traveled to various cities to show the film for one or two nights before moving on. This strategy was immensely successful.


Change of title

The title was changed to ''The Birth of a Nation'' before the March 2 New York opening. However, Dixon copyrighted the title ''The Birth of a Nation'' in 1905, and it was used in the press as early as January 2, 1915, while it was still referred to as ''The Clansman'' in October.


Special screenings


White House showing

''The Birth of a Nation'' was the first movie shown in the White House, in the
East Room The East Room is an event and reception room in the Executive Residence, which is a building of the White House complex, the home of the president of the United States. The East Room is the largest room in the Executive Residence; it is used for ...
, on February 18, 1915. (An earlier movie, the Italian '' Cabiria'' (1914), was shown on the lawn.) It was attended by
President Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of P ...
, members of his family, and members of his
Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...
. Both Dixon and Griffith were present. As put by Dixon, not an impartial source, "it repeated the triumph of the first showing". There is dispute about Wilson's attitude toward the movie. A newspaper reported that he "received many letters protesting against his alleged action in Indorsing the pictures ", including a letter from Massachusetts
Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...
Thomas Chandler Thacher. The showing of the movie had caused "several near-riots". When former Assistant Attorney General
William H. Lewis William Henry Lewis (November 28, 1868 – January 1, 1949) was an African-American pioneer in athletics, law and politics. Born in Virginia to freedmen, he graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he had been one of the first Africa ...
and A. Walters, a bishop of the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...
, called at the White House "to add their protests", President Wilson's private secretary, Joseph Tumulty, showed them a letter he had written to Thacher on Wilson's behalf. According to the letter, Wilson had been "entirely unaware of the character of the play oviebefore it was presented and has at no time expressed his approbation of it. Its exhibition at the White House was a courtesy extended to an old acquaintance." Dixon, in his autobiography, quotes Wilson as saying, when Dixon proposed showing the movie at the White House, that "I am pleased to be able to do this little thing for you, because a long time ago you took a day out of your busy life to do something for me." What Dixon had done for Wilson was to suggest him for an honorary degree, which Wilson received, from Dixon's '' alma mater'', Wake Forest College. Dixon had been a fellow graduate student in history with Wilson at Johns Hopkins University and, in 1913, dedicated his historical novel about Lincoln, ''The Southerner'', to "our first Southern-born president since Lincoln, my friend and collegemate Woodrow Wilson". The evidence that Wilson knew "the character of the play" in advance of seeing it is circumstantial but very strong: "Given Dixon's career and the notoriety attached to the play ''The Clansman'', it is not unreasonable to assume that Wilson must have had some idea of at least the general tenor of the film." The movie was based on a best-selling novel and was preceded by a stage version (play) which was received with protests in several cities—in some cities it was prohibited—and received a great deal of news coverage. Wilson issued no protest when the '' Evening Star'', at that time Washington's "newspaper of record", reported in advance of the showing, in language suggesting a press release from Dixon and Griffiths, that Dixon was "a schoolmate of President Wilson and is an intimate friend", and that Wilson's interest in it "is due to the great lesson of peace it teaches". Wilson, and only Wilson, is quoted by name in the movie for his observations on American history, and the title of Wilson's book (''History of the American People'') is mentioned as well. The three title cards with quotations from Wilson's book read:
"Adventurers swarmed out of the North, as much the enemies of one race as of the other, to cozen, beguile and use the negroes.... llipsis in the original.In the villages the negroes were the office holders, men who knew none of the uses of authority, except its insolences." "....The policy of the congressional leaders wrought…a veritable overthrow of civilization in the South.....in their determination to 'put the white South under the heel of the black South.'" llipses and underscore in the original. "The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation.....until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the southern country." llipsis in the original.
In the same book, Wilson has harsh words about the abyss between the original goals of the Klan and that into which it evolved. Dixon has been accused of misquoting Wilson. In 1937, a popular magazine reported that Wilson said of the film, "It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." Wilson over the years had several times used the metaphor of illuminating history as if by lightning and he may well have said it at the time. The accuracy of his saying it was "terribly true" is disputed by historians; there is no contemporary documentation of the remark. Vachel Lindsay, a popular poet of the time, is known to have referred to the film as "art by lightning flash."


Showing in the Raleigh Hotel ballroom

The next day, February 19, 1915, Griffith and Dixon held a showing of the film in the Raleigh Hotel ballroom, which they had hired for the occasion. Early that morning, Dixon called on a North Carolina friend, the white-supremacist
Josephus Daniels Josephus Daniels (May 18, 1862 – January 15, 1948) was an American newspaper editor and publisher from the 1880s until his death, who controlled Raleigh's ''News & Observer'', at the time North Carolina's largest newspaper, for decades. A D ...
, Secretary of the Navy. Daniels set up a meeting that morning for Dixon with Edward Douglass White, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Initially Justice White was not interested in seeing the film, but when Dixon told him it was the "true story" of Reconstruction and the Klan's role in "saving the South", White, recalling his youth in Louisiana, jumped to attention and said: "I was a member of the Klan, sir". With White agreeing to see the film, the rest of the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
followed. In addition to the entire Supreme Court, in the audience were "many members of Congress and members of the diplomatic corps", the Secretary of the Navy, 38 members of the Senate, and about 50 members of the House of Representatives. The audience of 600 "cheered and applauded throughout."


Consequences

In Griffith's words, the showings to the president and the entire Supreme Court conferred an "honor" upon ''Birth of a Nation''. Dixon and Griffith used this commercially. The following day, Griffith and Dixon transported the film to New York City for review by the
National Board of Censorship The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...
. They presented the film as "endorsed" by the President and the cream of Washington society. The Board approved the film by 15 to 8. A warrant to close the theater in which the movie was to open was dismissed after a
long-distance call In telecommunications, a long-distance call (U.S.) or trunk call (also known as a toll call in the U.K. ) is a telephone call made to a location outside a defined local calling area. Long-distance calls are typically charged a higher billing rate ...
to the White House confirmed that the film had been shown there. Justice White was very angry when advertising for the film stated that he approved it, and he threatened to denounce it publicly. Dixon, a racist and white supremacist, clearly was rattled and upset by criticism by African Americans that the movie encouraged hatred against them, and he wanted the endorsement of as many powerful men as possible to offset such criticism. Dixon always vehemently denied having anti-black prejudices—despite the way his books promoted white supremacy—and stated: "My books are hard reading for a Negro, and yet the Negroes, in denouncing them, are unwittingly denouncing one of their greatest friends". In a letter sent on May 1, 1915, to Joseph P. Tumulty, Wilson's secretary, Dixon wrote: "The real purpose of my film was to revolutionize Northern sentiments by a presentation of history that would transform every man in the audience into a good Democrat...Every man who comes out of the theater is a Southern partisan for life!" In a letter to President Wilson sent on September 5, 1915, Dixon boasted: "This play is transforming the entire population of the North and the West into sympathetic Southern voters. There will never be an issue of your segregation policy". Dixon was alluding to the fact that Wilson, upon becoming president in 1913, had allowed cabinet members to impose segregation on federal workplaces in Washington, D.C. by reducing the number of black employees through demotion or dismissal.


New opening titles on re-release

One famous part of the film was added by Griffith only on the second run of the film and is missing from most online versions of the film (presumably taken from first run prints). These are the second and third of three opening title cards that defend the film. The added titles read:
A PLEA FOR THE ART OF THE MOTION PICTURE: We do not fear censorship, for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liberty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue—the same liberty that is conceded to the art of the written word—that art to which we owe the Bible and the works of Shakespeare and If in this work we have conveyed to the mind the ravages of war to the end that war may be held in abhorrence, this effort will not have been in vain.
Various film historians have expressed a range of views about these titles. To Nicholas Andrew Miller, this shows that "Griffith's greatest achievement in ''The Birth of a Nation'' was that he brought the cinema's capacity for spectacle... under the rein of an outdated, but comfortably literary form of historical narrative. Griffith's models... are not the pioneers of film spectacle... but the giants of literary narrative". On the other hand, S. Kittrell Rushing complains about Griffith's "didactic" title-cards, while Stanley Corkin complains that Griffith "masks his idea of fact in the rhetoric of high art and free expression" and creates a film that "erodes the very ideal" of liberty that he asserts.


Contemporary reception


Press reaction

'' The New York Times'' gave it a quite brief review, calling it "melodramatic" and "inflammatory", adding that: "A great deal might be said concerning the spirit revealed in Mr. Dixon's review of the unhappy chapter of Reconstruction and concerning the sorry service rendered by its plucking at old wounds." '' Variety'' praised Griffith's direction, claiming he "set such a pace it will take a long time before one will come along that can top it in point of production, acting, photography and direction. Every bit of the film was laid, played and made in America. One may find some flaws in the general running of the picture, but they are so small and insignificant that the bigness and greatness of the entire film production itself completely crowds out any little defects that might be singled out."


Box office

The box office gross of ''The Birth of a Nation'' is not known and has been the subject of exaggeration. When the film opened, the tickets were sold at premium prices. The film played at the
Liberty Theater The Liberty Theatre is a former Broadway theater at 234 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1904, the theater was designed by Herts & Tallant and built for Klaw and Erlanger, the partnership ...
at Times Square in New York City for 44 weeks with tickets priced at $2.20 (). By the end of 1917, Epoch reported to its shareholders cumulative receipts of $4.8 million, and Griffith's own records put Epoch's worldwide earnings from the film at $5.2 million as of 1919, although the distributor's share of the revenue at this time was much lower than the exhibition gross. In the biggest cities, Epoch negotiated with individual theater owners for a percentage of the box office; elsewhere, the producer sold all rights in a particular state to a single distributor (an arrangement known as "state's rights" distribution). The film historian
Richard Schickel Richard Warren Schickel (February 10, 1933 – February 18, 2017) was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for ''Time'' magazine from 1965–2010, and also wro ...
says that under the state's rights contracts, Epoch typically received about 10% of the box office gross—which theater owners often underreported—and concludes that "''Birth'' certainly generated more than $60 million in box-office business in its first run". The film held the mantle of the
highest-grossing film Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box-office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in asse ...
until it was overtaken by '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939), another film about the Civil War and Reconstruction era. By 1940 '' Time'' magazine estimated the film's cumulative gross rental (the distributor's earnings) at approximately $15 million. For years '' Variety'' had the gross rental listed as $50 million, but in 1977 repudiated the claim and revised its estimate down to $5 million. It is not known for sure how much the film has earned in total, but producer Harry Aitken put its estimated earnings at $15–18 million in a letter to a prospective investor in a proposed sound version. It is likely the film earned over $20 million for its backers and generated $50–100 million in box office receipts. In a 2015 ''Time'' article, Richard Corliss estimated the film had earned the equivalent of $1.8 billion adjusted for inflation, a milestone that at the time had only been surpassed by '' Titanic'' (1997) and '' Avatar'' (2009) in
nominal Nominal may refer to: Linguistics and grammar * Nominal (linguistics), one of the parts of speech * Nominal, the adjectival form of "noun", as in "nominal agreement" (= "noun agreement") * Nominal sentence, a sentence without a finite verb * Nou ...
earnings.


Criticism

Like Dixon's novels and play, ''Birth of a Nation'' received considerable criticism, both before and after its premiere. Dixon, who believed the film to be entirely truthful and historically accurate, attributed this to " Sectionalists", i.e. non-Southerners who in Dixon's opinion were hostile to the "truth" about the South. It was to counter these "sinister forces" and the "dangerous...menace" that Dixon and Griffiths sought "the backing" of President Wilson and the Supreme Court. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) protested at premieres of the film in numerous cities. According to the historian David Copeland, "by the time of the movie's March 3
915 Year 915 ( CMXV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Battle of Garigliano: The Christian League, personally led by Pope John X, lays s ...
premiere in New York City, its subject matter had embroiled the film in charges of racism, protests, and calls for censorship, which began after the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP requested the city's film board ban the movie. Since film boards were composed almost entirely of whites, few review boards initially banned Griffith's picture". The NAACP also conducted a public education campaign, publishing articles protesting the film's fabrications and inaccuracies, organizing petitions against it, and conducting education on the facts of the war and Reconstruction. Because of the lack of success in NAACP's actions to ban the film, on April 17, 1915, NAACP secretary Mary Childs Nerney wrote to NAACP Executive Committee member George Packard: "I am utterly disgusted with the situation in regard to ''The Birth of a Nation'' ... kindly remember that we have put six weeks of constant effort of this thing and have gotten nowhere."
W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...
's biographer David Levering Lewis opined that "...''The Birth of a Nation'' and the NAACP helped make each other", in that the NAACP campaign in one sense served as advertising for the film, but that it also "...mobilized thousands of black and white men and women in large cities across the country... ...who had been unaware of the existence of the AACPor indifferent to it." Jane Addams, an American social worker and social reformer, and the founder of Hull House, voiced her reaction to the film in an interview published by the '' New York Post'' on March 13, 1915, just ten days after the film was released. She stated that "One of the most unfortunate things about this film is that it appeals to race prejudice upon the basis of conditions of half a century ago, which have nothing to do with the facts we have to consider to-day. Even then it does not tell the whole truth. It is claimed that the play is historical: but history is easy to misuse." In New York, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise told the press after seeing ''The Birth of a Nation'' that the film was "an indescribable foul and loathsome libel on a race of human beings". In Boston,
Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
wrote a newspaper column asking readers to boycott the film, while the civil rights activist
William Monroe Trotter William Monroe Trotter, sometimes just Monroe Trotter (April 7, 1872 – April 7, 1934), was a newspaper editor and real estate businessman based in Boston, Massachusetts. An activist for African-American civil rights, he was an early opponent of ...
organized demonstrations against the film, which he predicted was going to worsen race relations. On Saturday, April 10, and again on April 17, Trotter and a group of other blacks tried to buy tickets for the show's premiere at the Tremont Theater and were refused. They stormed the box office in protest, 260 police on standby rushed in, and a general melee ensued. Trotter and ten others were arrested. The following day a huge demonstration was staged at Faneuil Hall. In Washington D.C, the Reverend
Francis James Grimké Francis James Grimké (November 4, 1850 – October 11, 1937) was an American Presbyterian minister in Washington, DC. He was regarded for more than half a century as one of the leading African-American clergy of his era and was prominent in wor ...
published a pamphlet entitled "Fighting a Vicious Film" that challenged the historical accuracy of ''The Birth of a Nation'' on a scene-by-scene basis. When the film was released, riots also broke out in Philadelphia and other major cities in the United States. The film's inflammatory nature was a catalyst for gangs of whites to attack blacks. On April 24, 1916, the '' Chicago American'' reported that a white man murdered a black teenager in Lafayette, Indiana, after seeing the film, although there has been some controversy as to whether the murderer had actually seen ''The Birth of a Nation''. Over a century later, a Harvard University research paper found that " average, lynchings in a county rose fivefold in the month after he filmarrived." The mayor of
Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...
was the first of twelve mayors to ban the film in 1915 out of concern that it would promote race prejudice, after meeting with a delegation of black citizens. The NAACP set up a precedent-setting national boycott of the film, likely seen as the most successful effort. Additionally, they organized a mass demonstration when the film was screened in Boston, and it was banned in three states and several cities. Both Griffith and Dixon in letters to the press dismissed African-American protests against ''The Birth of a Nation''.Rylance, David "Breech Birth: The Receptions To D.W. Griffith's ''The Birth Of A Nation''" pp. 1-20 from ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'', Volume 24, No. 2, December 2005 p. 15. In a letter to '' The New York Globe'', Griffith wrote that his film was "an influence against the intermarriage of blacks and whites". Dixon likewise called the NAACP "the Negro Intermarriage Society" and said it was against ''The Birth of a Nation'' "for one reason only—because it opposes the marriage of blacks to whites". Griffith—indignant at the film's negative critical reception—wrote letters to newspapers and published a pamphlet in which he accused his critics of censoring unpopular opinions.Mayer, David (2009). ''Stagestruck Filmmaker: D.W. Griffith & the American Theatre''. University of Iowa Press. p. 166. . When Sherwin Lewis of ''The New York Globe'' wrote a piece that expressed criticism of the film's distorted portrayal of history and said that it was not worthy of constitutional protection because its purpose was to make a few "dirty dollars", Griffith responded that "the public should not be afraid to accept the truth, even though it might not like it". He also added that the man who wrote the editorial was "damaging my reputation as a producer" and "a liar and a coward".


Audience reaction

''The Birth of a Nation'' was very popular, despite the film's controversy; it was unlike anything that American audiences had ever seen before. The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it "the greatest picture ever made and the greatest drama ever filmed". Mary Pickford said: "''Birth of a Nation'' was the first picture that really made people take the motion picture industry seriously". Glorifying the Klan to approving white audiences, it became a national cultural phenomenon: merchandisers made Ku Klux hats and kitchen aprons, and ushers dressed in white Klan robes for openings. In New York there were Klan-themed balls and, in Chicago that Halloween, thousands of college students dressed in robes for a massive Klan-themed party. The producers had 15 "
detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
s" at the
Liberty Theater The Liberty Theatre is a former Broadway theater at 234 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1904, the theater was designed by Herts & Tallant and built for Klaw and Erlanger, the partnership ...
in New York City "to prevent disorder on the part of those who resent the 'reconstruction period' episodes depicted." The Reverend Charles Henry Parkhurst argued that the film was not racist, saying that it "was exactly true to history" by depicting freedmen as they were and, therefore, it was a "compliment to the black man" by showing how far black people had "advanced" since Reconstruction.Rylance, David. "Breech Birth: The Receptions To D.W. Griffith's ''The Birth Of A Nation''" pp. 1–20 from ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'', Volume 24, No. 2, December 2005 pp. 11–12. Critic Dolly Dalrymple wrote that, "when I saw it, it was far from silent ... incessant murmurs of approval, roars of laughter, gasps of anxiety, and outbursts of applause greeted every new picture on the screen".Rylance, David. "Breech Birth: The Receptions To D.W. Griffith's ''The Birth Of A Nation''" pp. 1–20 from ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'', Volume 24, No. 2, December 2005 p. 3. One man viewing the film was so moved by the scene where Flora Cameron flees Gus to avoid being raped that he took out his handgun and began firing at the screen in an effort to help her.
Katharine DuPre Lumpkin Katharine DuPre Lumpkin (December 22, 1897 – May 5, 1988) was an American writer and sociologist from Macon, Georgia. She is a member of both the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame and the Georgia Women of Achievement. Background Katharine DuPre Lump ...
recalled watching the film as an 18-year-old in 1915 in her 1947 autobiography ''The Making of a Southerner'': "Here was the black figure—and the fear of the white girl—though the scene blanked out just in time. Here were the sinister men the South scorned and the noble men the South revered. And through it all the Klan rode. All around me people sighed and shivered, and now and then shouted or wept, in their intensity."


Sequel and spin-offs

D. W. Griffith made a film in 1916, called ''
Intolerance Intolerance may refer to: * Hypersensitivity or intolerance, undesirable reactions produced by the immune system * ''Intolerance'' (film), a 1916 film by D. W. Griffith * ''Intolerance'' (album), the first solo album from Grant Hart, formerly o ...
'', partly in response to the criticism that ''The Birth of a Nation'' received. Griffith made clear within numerous interviews that the film's title and main themes were chosen in response to those who he felt had been intolerant to ''The Birth of a Nation''. A sequel called '' The Fall of a Nation'' was released in 1916, depicting the
invasion of the United States The concept of an invasion of the United States relates to military theory and doctrine which address the feasibility and practicality of a foreign power attacking and successfully invading the United States. The country has been physically invade ...
by a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
-led confederation of
European monarchies Monarchy was the prevalent form of government in the history of Europe throughout the Middle Ages, only occasionally competing with communalism, notably in the case of the Maritime republics and the Swiss Confederacy. Republicanism became more ...
and criticizing pacifism in the context of the First World War. It was the first feature-length sequel in film history. The film was directed by Thomas Dixon Jr., who adapted it from his novel of the same name. Despite its success in the foreign market, the film was not a success among American audiences, and is now a lost film. In 1918, an American silent drama film directed by
John W. Noble John Winthrop Noble (born Winfield Fernley Kutz; June 24, 1880 – September 10, 1946) was an American film director and screenwriter during the silent era. Career John Winthrop Noble was the professional name of Winfield Fernley Kutz (someti ...
called '' The Birth of a Race'' was released as a direct response to ''The Birth of a Nation''. The film was an ambitious project by producer Emmett Jay Scott to challenge Griffith's film and tell another side of the story, but was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1920, African-American filmmaker
Oscar Micheaux Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (; January 2, 1884 – March 25, 1951) was an author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Although the short-lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first movie company owned and controlled ...
released ''
Within Our Gates ''Within Our Gates'' is a 1920 American silent film by the director Oscar Micheaux that portrays the contemporary racial situation in the United States during the early twentieth century, the years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Kla ...
'', a response to ''The Birth of a Nation''. ''Within Our Gates'' depicts the hardships faced by African Americans during the era of Jim Crow laws. Griffith's film was remixed in 2004 as ''Rebirth of a Nation'' by
DJ Spooky Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...
. Quentin Tarantino has said that he made his film '' Django Unchained'' (2012) to counter the falsehoods of ''The Birth of a Nation''.


Influence

In November 1915,
William Joseph Simmons William Joseph Simmons (May 7, 1880 – May 18, 1945) was an American preacher and fraternal organizer who founded and led the second Ku Klux Klan from Thanksgiving evening 1915 until being replaced in 1922 by Hiram Wesley Evans. Early life Simm ...
revived the Klan in Atlanta, Georgia, holding a cross burning at Stone Mountain. The historian John Hope Franklin observed that, had it not been for ''The Birth of a Nation'', the Klan might not have been reborn. Franklin wrote in 1979 that "The influence of ''Birth of a Nation'' on the current view of Reconstruction has been greater than any other single force", but that "It is not at all difficult to find inaccuracies and distortions" in the movie.


Current reception


Critical response

Released in 1915, ''The Birth of a Nation'' has been credited as groundbreaking among its contemporaries for its innovative application of the medium of film. According to the film historian Kevin Brownlow, the film was "astounding in its time" and initiated "so many advances in film-making technique that it was rendered obsolete within a few years". The content of the work, however, has received widespread criticism for its blatant racism. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote:
Certainly ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) presents a challenge for modern audiences. Unaccustomed to silent films and uninterested in film history, they find it quaint and not to their taste. Those evolved enough to understand what they are looking at find the early and wartime scenes brilliant, but cringe during the postwar and Reconstruction scenes, which are racist in the ham-handed way of an old minstrel show or a vile comic pamphlet.
Despite its controversial story, the film has been praised by film critics, with Ebert mentioning its use as a historical tool: "''The Birth of a Nation'' is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl's ''
Triumph of the Will ''Triumph of the Will'' (german: Triumph des Willens) is a 1935 German Nazi propaganda film directed, produced, edited and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. Adolf Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his na ...
'', it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil." According to a 2002 article in the '' Los Angeles Times'', the film facilitated the refounding of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915.
History.com History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
states that "There is no doubt that ''Birth of a Nation'' played no small part in winning wide public acceptance" for the KKK, and that throughout the film "African Americans are portrayed as brutish, lazy, morally degenerate, and dangerous." David Duke used the film to recruit Klansmen in the 1970s. In 2013, the American critic Richard Brody wrote ''The Birth of a Nation'' was:
...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. It's tempting to think of the film's influence as evidence of the inherent corruption of realism as a cinematic mode—but it's even more revealing to acknowledge the disjunction between its beauty, on the one hand, and, on the other, its injustice and falsehood. The movie's fabricated events shouldn't lead any viewer to deny the historical facts of slavery and Reconstruction. But they also shouldn't lead to a denial of the peculiar, disturbingly exalted beauty of ''Birth of a Nation'', even in its depiction of immoral actions and its realization of blatant propaganda. The worst thing about ''The Birth of a Nation'' is how good it is. The merits of its grand and enduring aesthetic make it impossible to ignore and, despite its disgusting content, also make it hard not to love. And it's that very conflict that renders the film all the more despicable, the experience of the film more of a torment—together with the acknowledgment that Griffith, whose short films for Biograph were already among the treasures of world cinema, yoked his mighty talent to the cause of hatred (which, still worse, he sincerely depicted as virtuous).
Brody also argued that Griffith unintentionally undercut his own thesis in the film, citing the scene before the Civil War when the Cameron family offers up lavish hospitality to the Stoneman family who travel past mile after mile of slaves working the cotton fields of South Carolina to reach the Cameron home. Brody maintained that a modern audience can see that the wealth of the Camerons comes from the slaves, forced to do back-breaking work picking the cotton. Likewise, Brody argued that the scene where people in South Carolina celebrate the Confederate victory at the Battle of Bull Run by dancing around the "eerie flare of a bonfire" implies "a dance of death", foreshadowing the destruction of Sherman's March that was to come. In the same way, Brody wrote that the scene where the Klan dumps Gus's body off at the doorstep of Lynch is meant to have the audience cheering, but modern audiences find the scene "obscene and horrifying". Finally, Brody argued that the end of the film, where the Klan prevents defenseless African Americans from exercising their right to vote by pointing guns at them, today seems "unjust and cruel". In an article for '' The Atlantic'', film critic Ty Burr deemed ''The Birth of a Nation'' the most influential film in history while criticizing its portrayal of black men as savage. Richard Corliss of ''Time'' wrote that Griffith "established in the hundreds of one- and two-reelers he directed a cinematic textbook, a fully formed visual language, for the generations that followed. More than anyone else—more than all others combined—he invented the film art. He brought it to fruition in ''The Birth of a Nation''." Corliss praised the film's "brilliant storytelling technique" and noted that "''The Birth of a Nation'' is nearly as antiwar as it is antiblack. The Civil War scenes, which consume only 30 minutes of the extravaganza, emphasize not the national glory but the human cost of combat. ... Griffith may have been a racist politically, but his refusal to find uplift in the South's war against the Union—and, implicitly, in any war at all—reveals him as a cinematic humanist."


Accolades

In 1992, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. The
American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...
recognized the film by ranking it #44 within the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list in 1998.


Historical portrayal

The film remains controversial due to its interpretation of American history. University of Houston historian
Steven Mintz Steven Mintz (born 1953), is an American historian at the University of Texas at Austin. For five years, from 2012 through 2017, he served as executive director of the University of Texas System's Institute for Transformational Learning. This i ...
summarizes its message as follows: " Reconstruction was an unmitigated disaster, African-Americans could never be integrated into white society as equals, and the violent actions of the Ku Klux Klan were justified to reestablish honest government". The South is portrayed as a victim. The first overt mentioning of the war is the scene in which Abraham Lincoln signs the call for the first 75,000 volunteers. However, the first aggression in the Civil War, made when the Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in 1861, is not mentioned in the film. The film suggested that the Ku Klux Klan restored order to the postwar South, which was depicted as endangered by abolitionists, freedmen, and carpetbagging Republican politicians from the North. This is similar to the Dunning School of historiography which was current in academe at the time. The film is slightly less extreme than the books upon which it is based, in which Dixon misrepresented Reconstruction as a nightmarish time when black men ran amok, storming into weddings to rape white women with impunity. The film portrayed President Abraham Lincoln as a friend of the South and refers to him as "the Great Heart". The two romances depicted in the film, Phil Stoneman with Margaret Cameron and Ben Cameron with Elsie Stoneman, reflect Griffith's retelling of history. The couples are used as a metaphor, representing the film's broader message of the need for the reconciliation of the North and South to defend white supremacy. Among both couples, there is an attraction that forms before the war, stemming from the friendship between their families. With the war, however, both families are split apart, and their losses culminate in the end of the war with the defense of white supremacy. One of the intertitles clearly sums up the message of unity: "The former enemies of North and South are united again in defense of their Aryan birthright." The film further reinforced the popular belief held by whites, especially in the South, of Reconstruction as a disaster. In his 1929 book ''The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln'',
Claude Bowers Claude Gernade Bowers (November 20, 1878 – January 21, 1958) was a newspaper columnist and editor, author of best-selling books on American history, Democratic Party politician, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ambassador to Spain (1933 ...
treated ''The Birth of a Nation'' as a factually accurate account of Reconstruction. In ''The Tragic Era'', Bowers presented every black politician in the South as corrupt, portrayed Republican Representative Thaddeus Stevens as a vicious " race traitor" intent upon making blacks the equal of whites, and praised the Klan for "saving civilization" in the South. Bowers wrote about black empowerment that the worst sort of "scum" from the North like Stevens "inflamed the Negro's egoism and soon the lustful assaults began. Rape was the foul daughter of Reconstruction!"


Academic assessment

The American historian John Hope Franklin wrote that not only did Claude Bowers treat ''The Birth of a Nation'' as accurate history, but his version of history seemed to be drawn from ''The Birth of a Nation''. Historian
E. Merton Coulter Ellis Merton Coulter (1890–1981) was an American historian of the South, author, and a founding member of the Southern Historical Association. For four decades, he was a professor at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, where he was ...
treated ''The Birth of a Nation'' as historically correct and painted a vivid picture of "black beasts" running amok, encouraged by alcohol-sodden, corrupt and vengeful black Republican politicians. Franklin wrote as recently as the 1970s that the popular journalist Alistair Cooke in his books and TV shows was still essentially following the version of history set out by ''The Birth of a Nation'', noting that Cooke had much sympathy with the suffering of whites in Reconstruction while having almost nothing to say about the suffering of blacks or about how blacks were stripped of almost all their rights after 1877. Veteran film reviewer
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
wrote:
... stung by criticisms that the second half of his masterpiece was racist in its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and its brutal images of blacks, Griffith tried to make amends in ''Intolerance'' (1916), which criticized prejudice. And in ''
Broken Blossoms ''Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl'', often referred to simply as ''Broken Blossoms'', is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars ...
'' he told perhaps the first interracial love story in the movies—even though, to be sure, it's an idealized love with no touching.
Despite some similarities between the Congressman Stoneman character and Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, Rep. Stevens did not have the family members described and did not move to South Carolina during Reconstruction. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1868. However, Stevens's biracial housekeeper, Lydia Hamilton Smith, was considered his common-law wife, and was generously provided for in his will. In the film, Abraham Lincoln is portrayed in a positive light due to his belief in conciliatory postwar policies toward Southern whites. The president's views are opposite those of Austin Stoneman, a character presented in a negative light, who acts as an antagonist. The assassination of Lincoln marks the transition from war to Reconstruction, each of which periods has one of the two "acts" of the film. In including the assassination, the film also establishes to the audience that the plot of the movie has historical basis. Franklin wrote the film's depiction of Reconstruction as a hellish time when black freedmen ran amok, raping and killing whites with impunity until the Klan stepped in is not supported by the facts. Franklin wrote that most freed slaves continued to work for their former masters in Reconstruction for the want of a better alternative and, though relations between freedmen and their former masters were not friendly, very few freedmen sought revenge against the people who had enslaved them. The depictions of mass Klan paramilitary actions do not seem to have historical equivalents, although there were incidents in 1871 where Klan groups traveled from other areas in fairly large numbers to aid localities in disarming local companies of the all-black portion of the state militia under various justifications, prior to the eventual Federal troop intervention, and the organized Klan continued activities as small groups of "night riders". The civil rights movement and other social movements created a new generation of historians, such as scholar Eric Foner, who led a reassessment of Reconstruction. Building on W. E. B. DuBois' work, but also adding new sources, they focused on achievements of the African American and white Republican coalitions, such as establishment of universal public education and charitable institutions in the South and extension of
suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...
to black men. In response, the Southern-dominated
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...
and its affiliated white militias had used extensive terrorism, intimidation and even assassinations to suppress African-American leaders and voting in the 1870s and to regain power.


Legacy


Film innovations

In his review of ''The Birth of a Nation'' in ''
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die ''1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die'' is a film reference book edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics. It is a part of a series designed and produced by Quintessence Editions, a ...
'', Jonathan Kline writes that "with countless artistic innovations, Griffith essentially created contemporary film language ... virtually every film is beholden to 'The Birth of a Nation''in one way, shape or form. Griffith introduced the use of dramatic close-ups, tracking shots, and other expressive camera movements; parallel action sequences, crosscutting, and other editing techniques". He added that "the fact that ''The Birth of a Nation'' remains respected and studied to this day—despite its subject matter—reveals its lasting importance." Griffith pioneered such camera techniques as close-ups, fade-outs, and a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras made to look like thousands. ''The Birth of a Nation'' also contained many new artistic techniques, such as color tinting for dramatic purposes, building up the plot to an exciting climax, dramatizing history alongside fiction, and featuring its own musical score written for an orchestra.


Home media and restorations

For many years, ''The Birth of a Nation'' was poorly represented in home media and restorations. This stemmed from several factors, one of which was the fact that Griffith and others had frequently reworked the film, leaving no definitive version. According to the silent film website ''Brenton Film'', many home media releases of the film consisted of "poor quality DVDs with different edits, scores, running speeds and usually in ''definitely unoriginal'' black and white". One of the earliest high-quality home versions was film preservationist David Shepard's 1992 transfer of a
16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...
print for VHS and
LaserDisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
release via Image Entertainment. A short documentary, ''The Making of The Birth of a Nation'', newly produced and narrated by Shepard, was also included. Both were released on DVD by Image in 1998 and the United Kingdom's Eureka Entertainment in 2000. In the UK,
Photoplay Productions Photoplay Productions is an independent film company, based in the UK, under the direction of Kevin Brownlow and Patrick Stanbury. Is one of the few independent companies to operate in the revival of interest in the lost world of silent cinema a ...
restored the Museum of Modern Art's
35mm 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock * 35MM 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format ...
print that was the source of Shepard's 16 mm print, though they also augmented it with extra material from the British Film Institute. It was also given a full orchestral recording of the original Breil score. Though broadcast on Channel 4 television and theatrically screened many times, Photoplay's 1993 version was never released on home video. Shepard's transfer and documentary were reissued in the US by Kino Video in 2002, this time in a 2-DVD set with added extras on the second disc. These included several Civil War shorts also directed by D. W. Griffith. In 2011, Kino prepared a HD transfer of a 35 mm negative from the Paul Killiam Collection. They added some material from the Library of Congress and gave it a new compilation score. This version was released on Blu-ray by Kino in the US, Eureka in the UK (as part of their " Masters of Cinema" collection) and Divisa Home Video in Spain. In 2015, the year of the film's centenary,
Photoplay Productions Photoplay Productions is an independent film company, based in the UK, under the direction of Kevin Brownlow and Patrick Stanbury. Is one of the few independent companies to operate in the revival of interest in the lost world of silent cinema a ...
'
Patrick Stanbury Patrick Stanbury is a British film producer, restorer and historian. Photoplay productions In 1990, together with Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, Stanbury established Photoplay Productions. He served as Associate Producer on all Photoplay's earl ...
, in conjunction with the British Film Institute, carried out the first full restoration. It mostly used new 4K scans of the LoC's original camera negative, along with other early generation material. It, too, was given the original Breil score and featured the film's original tinting for the first time since its 1915 release. The restoration was released on a 2-Blu-ray set in the UK and US by the BFI and Twilight Time, alongside a host of extras, including many other newly restored Civil War-related films from the period.


In popular culture

* ''The Birth of a Nation'' reverent depiction of the Klan was lampooned in Mel Brooks's ''
Blazing Saddles ''Blazing Saddles'' is a 1974 American satirical western black comedy film directed by Mel Brooks, who also wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Alan Uger. The film stars Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. ...
'' (1974). * Ryan O'Neal's character Leo Harrigan in Peter Bogdanovich's '' Nickelodeon'' (1976) attends the premiere of ''The Birth of a Nation'' and realizes that it will change the course of American cinema. * Clips from Griffith's film are shown in **
Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...
's ''
Forrest Gump ''Forrest Gump'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth. It is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson and ...
'' (1994), where the footage is meant to portray the
titular character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...
's ancestor and namesake
Nathan Bedford Forrest Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821October 29, 1877) was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 to 1869. Before the war, Forrest amassed substantial wealt ...
** The closing montage of Spike Lee's '' Bamboozled'' (2000), along with other footage from demeaning portrayals of African Americans in early 20th century film ** Lee's '' BlacKkKlansman'' (2018), where Harry Belafonte's character Jerome Turner speaks about its role in the
lynching of Jesse Washington Jesse Washington was a seventeen-year-old African American farmhand who was lynched in the county seat of Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916, in what became a well-known example of racist lynching. Washington was convicted of raping and murdering L ...
as the modern Ku Kluk Klan led by
Grand Wizard The Grand Wizard (later the Grand and Imperial Wizard simplified as the Imperial Wizard and eventually, the National Director) referred to the national leader of several different Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States and abroad. The ti ...
David Duke ( Topher Grace) screens it as propaganda. * Director
Kevin Willmott Kevin Willmott (born August 31, 1959) is an Academy Award Winning American film director and screenwriter, and professor of film at the University of Kansas. He is known for work focusing on black issues including writing and directing '' Nint ...
's mockumentary '' C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America'' (2004) portrays an imagined history where the Confederacy won the Civil War. It shows part of an imagined Griffith film, ''The Capture of Dishonest Abe'', which resembles ''The Birth of a Nation'' and was supposedly adapted from Thomas Dixon's ''The Yankee''. * In
Justin Simien Justin Simien (born May 7, 1983) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. His first feature film, ''Dear White People'', won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. The film was later ...
's '' Dear White People'' (2014), Sam ( Tessa Thompson) screens a short film called ''The Rebirth of a Nation'' which portrays white people wearing whiteface while criticizing Barack Obama. * In 2016, Nate Parker produced and directed the film '' The Birth of a Nation'', based on
Nat Turner's slave rebellion Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.Schwarz, Frederic D.1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion" ''American Heri ...
; Parker clarified:
I've reclaimed this title and re-purposed it as a tool to challenge racism and white supremacy in America, to inspire a riotous disposition toward any and all injustice in this country (and abroad) and to promote the kind of honest confrontation that will galvanize our society toward healing and sustained systemic change.
* Dinesh D'Souza's 2016 political documentary '' Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party'' depicts President Wilson and his cabinet viewing ''The Birth of a Nation'' in the White House before a Klansman comes out of the screen and into the real world. The film is meant to accuse the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...
and the
American political left The American Left consists of individuals and groups that have sought egalitarian changes in the economic, political and cultural institutions of the United States. Various subgroups with a national scope are active. Liberals and progressives b ...
in covering up its past support of white supremacy and continuing it through welfare policies and
machine politics In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership con ...
. * The title of D'Souza's 2018 film '' The Death of a Nation'' is a reference to Griffith's film, and like his previous film is meant to accuse the Democratic Party, and historical American left-wing of racism.


Negative reaction

* In 2019, Bowling Green State University renamed its Gish Film Theater, which was named for actress Lilian Gish, after protests alleging that using her name is inappropriate because of her role in ''Birth of a Nation''.


See also

* List of American films of 1915 *
List of films and television shows about the American Civil War The following is a list of films and television shows about the American Civil War from the beginning of the 20th century until present. Films about the war Before 1920 *''The Guerrilla'' (1908) *''The Fugitive (1910 film), The Fugitive'' (1910 ...
* List of films featuring slavery *
List of highest-grossing films Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box-office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assess ...
* List of racism-related films * Racism in the United States


Notes


References


Bibliography

* Addams, Jane, in ''Crisis: A Record of Darker Races'', X (May 1915), 19, 41, and (June 1915), 88. * Bogle, Donald. ''Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films'' (1973). * Brodie, Fawn M. ''Thaddeus Stevens, Scourge of the South'' (New York, 1959), pp. 86–93. Corrects the historical record as to Dixon's false representation of Stevens in this film with regard to his racial views and relations with his housekeeper. * Chalmers, David M. ''Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan'' (New York: 1965), p. 30 * Franklin, John Hope. "Silent Cinema as Historical Mythmaker". In ''Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II''. 1997. Gerster, Patrick, and Cords, Nicholas. (editors.) Brandywine Press, St. James, NY. * Franklin, John Hope, "Propaganda as History" pp. 10–23 in ''Race and History: Selected Essays 1938–1988'' (
Louisiana State University Press The Louisiana State University Press (LSU Press) is a university press at Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books. LSU Press is a member of the Association of American Univer ...
, 1989); first published in ''The Massachusetts Review'', 1979. Describes the history of the novel ''The Clan'' and this film. * Franklin, John Hope, ''Reconstruction After the Civil War'' (Chicago, 1961), pp. 5–7. * Hickman, Roger. ''Reel Music: Exploring 100 Years of Film Music'' (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006). * Hodapp, Christopher L., and Alice Von Kannon, ''Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies For Dummies'' (Hoboken: Wiley, 2008) pp. 235–236. * Korngold, Ralph, ''Thaddeus Stevens. A Being Darkly Wise and Rudely Great'' (New York: 1955) pp. 72–76. corrects Dixon's false characterization of Stevens' racial views and of his dealings with his housekeeper. * Leab, Daniel J., ''From Sambo to Superspade'' (Boston, 1975), pp. 23–39. * ''New York Times'', roundup of reviews of this film, March 7, 1915. * ''The New Republica'', II (March 20, 1915), 185 * Poole, W. Scott, ''Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting'' (Waco, Texas: Baylor, 2011), 30. * Simkins, Francis B., "New Viewpoints of Southern Reconstruction", ''Journal of Southern History'', V (February 1939), pp. 49–61. * The latest study of the film's making and subsequent career. * Williamson, Joel, ''After Slavery: The Negro in South Carolina During Reconstruction'' (Chapel Hill, 1965). This book corrects Dixon's false reporting of Reconstruction, as shown in his novel, his play and this film.


Further reading

* *


External links

* * * * * * *''The Birth of a Nation'' essay by
David Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the ''Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a c ...
at National Film Registrybr>
*
''The Birth of a Nation'': Controversial Classic Gets a Definitive New Restoration
essay by
Patrick Stanbury Patrick Stanbury is a British film producer, restorer and historian. Photoplay productions In 1990, together with Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, Stanbury established Photoplay Productions. He served as Associate Producer on all Photoplay's earl ...
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