The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Directed by D. W. Griffith. Starring Henry B. Walthall, Lillian Gish, Ralph Lewis, George Siegmann, Miriam Cooper, Mae Marsh, Mary Alden, Walter Long, Joseph Henabery, Wallace Reid.

D. W. Grittih’s landmark silent film epic revolutionized filmmaking grammar and cinematic storytelling, but also remains one of the most controversial films ever made because of its despicably racist stereotypes and attitudes. In a way, it’s fitting, since the title suggests a titanic moment worthy of a Declaration of Independence-style signing that would change the “game” forever, but it’s founded on devices of deep, deplorable shame that can’t be unwritten, ignored, or refuted. The narrative depicts two intertwined families that threaten to tear asunder from war and politics—Northern abolitionists led by Lewis, and Southern traditionalists whose ranks include war hero (and bigoted Aryan poster boy) Walthall; their years-spanning story is told (as it would be for most great epics to come) against a sweeping historical backdrop—the Civil War for the first half, and the Reconstruction era in the second—and it’s in that last hour-and-a-half that things get really ugly. Although the breadth and detail of the plotting was groundbreaking at the time, it can be seen in retrospect as unpolished, and not always convincing or clear. Some of the performances (especially the two key mixed-race villains played by Siegmann and Alden) go embarrassingly over-the-top. Then there is, of course, the disgust in those later scenes that are tough to watch over a hundred years later. But as much as it is undeniably flawed and vile and inflammatory, it is equally undeniably a potent work of art that forever reshaped motion picture technique, aesthetic, and the industry as a whole. Adaptation credited to Griffith and Frank E. Woods, as taken from the novel/play “The Clansman” by “professional racist” Thomas Dixon Jr. Inspired a sequel (now lost) called The Fall of a Nation.

70/100