First film to be shown in the White House (to President Woodrow Wilson).
Future directors John Ford, Raoul Walsh, Elmer Clifton, Joseph Henabery, Karl Brown and Donald Crisp worked on this film as actors and/or crew members. Erich von Stroheim is also credited by some sources - including von Stroheim himself - with being an actor and/or assistant director on this film, but records show that the first time von Stroheim worked for D.W. Griffith was on Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages, which wasn't shot until more than a year after this film.
Generally considered to mark the birth of modern American cinema.
Historian Kevin Brownlow has expressed doubt concerning 'Fireworks' Wilson' whom Karl Brown, the assistant cameraman, named as the special effects man in interviews. Brownlow's doubt is caused by the fact that there are no references to Wilson in any other accounts from any period, and he has suggested that Brown may have invented the name since he could not recall the name of the film's documented special effects supervisor, Walter Hoffman.
In original program material, George Beranger is listed as "J.A. Beringer" and the character of Duke Cameron is credited to "John French". Also, Wallace Reid's name is misspelled "Reed" in original programs.
Ironically, D.W. Griffith had previously produced and directed Biograph's The Rose of Kentucky, which showed the Ku Klux Klan as villainous--a sharp contrast to this film, made four years later, in which the KKK was portrayed in a favorable light.
Ironically, the release of the film inspired many African-Americans to start making their own films in an attempt to counter this film's depiction of them and to offer positive alternative images and stories of the African-American people.
It is widely believed that after viewing this film in the White House, President Woodrow Wilson remarked that it was "like writing history with lightning." However, the reality is that Wilson disapproved of the "unfortunate production". It is believed by some of Wilson's aides that the apparent endorsement and approbation was a ruse generated by Thomas F. Dixon Jr., the author of the original novel.
Klansmen in full robes were used to publicize the opening in Los Angeles, where the film's premiered with the title "The Clansman", after the novel on which it was based.
May 14, 1938, East Orange, New Jersey: While refusing to discontinue showing the reissued The Birth of a Nation, as requested by the East Orange City Council, the Ormont Theater deleted sections of the film termed "objectionable" in a petition signed by 608 people. A.J.Rettig, manager, hit back at the petitioners, saying agitation had been started to "cause unnecessary harassing of an orderly and peaceful business."
Most Civil War scenes were based on actual photos of scenes they depict. However, postwar reconstruction scenes were not historically accurate, and many were in fact based on political cartoons rather than photographs (such as the legislature scenes).
Rated #7 of the 25 most controversial movies of all time. Entertainment Weekly, 16 June 2006.
Some of the black characters are played by white actors with make-up, particularly those characters who were required to come in contact with a white actress. The person playing the Cameron's maid is not only clearly white, but is also obviously male.
Some of the investors were Louis B. Mayer, H.E. Aitken and Jesse L. Lasky among many others in Hollywood at that time. The film's success is what helped the three to form their own film studios--Mayer started Louis B. Mayer Productions, which eventually became MGM, and Lasky started Famous Playes-Lasky, which eventually became Paramount Pictures.among others.
The actor who played the sentry in the hospital was a bit player whose performance touched audiences all over the country in his scene where he wistfully sighs at the sight of Lillian Gish entering the hospital. In fact, audiences loved the actor's performance so much so that D.W. Griffith tried to track him down, supposedly to no avail. Some filmographies credit William Freeman in this role. Gish corroborates this credit in her autobiography, writing that she met Freeman years later when she was riding in a parade.
The battlefield sequences were shot on the property on which now stands Universal Studios.
The character of Austin Stoneman is based on Thaddeus Stevens, a representative from Pennsylvania, including the details of his wig and clubfoot.
The earliest feature-length film listed in '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.
The excessive use of smoke-bombs in the battle scenes were to obscure the mostly empty battlefield.
The film was 12 reels long.