Directed by:
D.W. GriffithScreenplay:
D.W. GriffithCinematography:
G.W. BitzerCast:
Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, Mary Alden, Ralph Lewis, George Siegmann, Walter Long, Robert Harron, Wallace Reid, Joseph Henabery (more)Plots(1)
The Birth of a Nation begins depicting the amiable relationship between two families, Northern and Southern, and the way in which the impending Civil War intensifies the conflict of their worldviews. Following the end of the war and the assassination of President Lincoln, a lawless chaos courses throughout the Reconstruction South, and the Ku Klux Klan is formed to take on a rising black militia and impose a vengeful vigilante justice across their land and "birthright". It's a film that's deeply divisive even to the senses of a single viewer: images of painterly beauty in composition and tonal quality often exhibit a contemptuous, inflammatory coarseness with regard to subject matter; just as frequently, long tracts evince an innocent, terrifically lyrical grandeur. (Eureka Entertainment)
(more)Cast
Walter Huston
Canada
Best movies:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Edge of Darkness (1943)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
D.W. Griffith
USA
Best movies:
San Francisco (1936)
Hearts of the World (1918)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Gibson Gowland
UK
Best movies:
Sunrise (1927)
Gaslight (1944)
Behind the Door (1919)
Eugene Pallette
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages (1916)
Peggy Cartwright
Canada
Best movies:
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages (1916)
The Iron Horse (1924)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Monte Blue
USA
Best movies:
Gentleman Jim (1942)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
Adventures of Don Juan (1948)
Alma Rubens
USA
Best movies:
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages (1916)
The Half-Breed (1916)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
George Walsh
USA
Best movies:
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages (1916)
Cleopatra (1934)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Jules White
Austria-Hungary
Best movies:
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Russell Hicks
USA
Best movies:
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
Scarlet Street (1945)
The Little Foxes (1941)
Edmund Burns
USA
Best movies:
It Happened One Night (1934)
Male and Female (1919)
The Death Kiss (1932)
Bob Burns
USA
Best movies:
Ride Clear of Diablo (1954)
The Man from Bitter Ridge (1955)
The Plainsman (1936)
Sam De Grasse
Canada
Best movies:
Robin Hood (1922)
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages (1916)
Charles Stevens
USA
Best movies:
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Robin Hood (1922)
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Howard Gaye
Best movies:
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Tom Wilson
USA
Best movies:
The Kid (1921)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
Captain Blood (1935)
Vester Pegg
USA
Best movies:
Stagecoach (1939)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
Josephine Crowell
Canada
Best movies:
Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20's (1965) - a.f.
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
The Avenging Conscience (1914)