The Birth of a Nation

1915 "The Fiery Cross of the Ku Klux Klan!"
6.1| 3h13m| PG| en
Details

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

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Reviews

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.
Bereamic Awesome Movie
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Jithin K Mohan The first film to truly capture the visual language of cinema to influence the masses with its dramatics created through revolutionary feats in editing, cinematography and the use of music. But at the same time blatantly racist to the extreme that even though every cue in the film is supposed to be taking one side any sensible modern person will take the other one and would hold only disgust to the makers behind the film.
statesofunrest It was good during the civil war part. I liked the big battle scenes and the story during that part was interesting enough and everything, but then the second half started and I thought at first maybe the director was going for something that was actually pro-rights for African Americans but then I noticed all the black face, and then the story takes a much darker tone that really wasn't necessary, accurate, and came from a place of ignorance. I know it was a different time, but as the highest selling silent movie of all time, I guess I was expecting something, you know...less racist. Anyway, I guess that shows you that controversy sells tickets, if nothing else.
alfCycle As a piece of technical film making, it is an amazing achievement for its time. As a piece of narrative storytelling, it is the most absurdly racist pile of garbage I've ever seen. I understand this movie's importance in the history of film, but as a balance between craft and subject matter, the putrid vile that is the latter undercuts the historical significance of the former.1/10...but that's just like, my opinion, man# Of Times Watched: Once
Freddy Schmitz Beforehand, I highly condemn the message this movie has. The high rating is solely based on the qualities of the film in regard to the craft involved in its making which is, objectively, just phenomenal for its time.What makes this silent historical epic revolutionary are the enormous battle scenes, involving hundreds of extras and a director directing from a big tower via light signals, its use of music and camera, filming at night (which wasn't common back then), coloring of specific scenes (mostly battle scenes) in one color and a battle in the films' climax used as a tool of dramatization and storytelling. The film paved the way for big epic movies which would mark Hollywood forever since then. At a running-time of over three hours it was the longest film to ever be released back in 1915.Obviously, due to its racist portrayal of black people this movie is not for everyone but if you are interested in the history of Hollywood you've got to check it out, while ignoring the historical inaccuracies and racist bull crap Without this movie Hollywood wouldn't be what it is today. It would not have impacted America and its film industry that much if it wasn't done so well.Even when ignoring the racist viewpoint this was made from you don't get around to notice the historical inaccuracies and at over three hours this movie seems a bit too long for me even though its an epic. Plus several characters weren't fleshed out enough. Of course, this is due to the fact that this is a silent film and it was made over 80 years ago with different narrative standards at the time but from my viewpoint, which is currently set in the year 2016, I simple cannot ignore it and it bothers me. And again, the racism in this film simply feels overbearing sometimes, the director even went so far to cast mainly white actors for the most vicious black characters, simply painting their faces black. But as I said, I tried to not let the racist overtones of this film affect my rating. Overall I give this movie a strong 8/10. I only give higher ratings to films which really touch me on an emotional level and the pure viciousness in its portrayal of an entire group of people makes this impossible for me.