The Birth of a Nation Overview:

The Birth of a Nation (1915) was a Drama - Historical Film directed by D.W. Griffith and produced by D.W. Griffith and H.E. Aitken.

The Birth of a Nation was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1992.

BlogHub Articles:

Classic Films in Focus: THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

By Jennifer Garlen on Feb 19, 2013 From Virtual Virago

D.W. Griffith's silent Civil War epic is one of those films that every serious student of film probably needs to sit through at some point, but for the modern viewer The Birth of a Nation (1915) is a very hard pill to swallow. Lauded by film critics who praise its technique while deploring its polit... Read full article


Classic Films in Focus: THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

By Jennifer Garlen on Feb 19, 2013 From Virtual Virago

D.W. Griffith's silent Civil War epic is one of those films that every serious student of film probably feels obligated to sit through at some point, but for the modern viewer The Birth of a Nation (1915) is a very hard pill to swallow. Lauded by film critics who praise its technique while deploring... Read full article


Classic Films in Focus: THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

By Jennifer Garlen on Feb 19, 2013 From Virtual Virago

D.W. Griffith's silent Civil War epic is one of those films that every serious student of film probably feels obligated to sit through at some point, but for the modern viewer The Birth of a Nation (1915) is a very hard pill to swallow. Lauded by film critics who praise its technique while deploring... Read full article


10 Things About The Birth of a Nation

By Brandy Dean on Feb 8, 2013 From Pretty Clever Films

If you’re going to love silent cinema or if you’re going to make a study of the early development of movies, you’re gonna have to butt heads with D.W. Griffith. And you’re going to have to come to some kind of truce with The Birth of a Nation. We all know the problems with th... Read full article


The Birth of a Nation

By Janelle Vreeland on Sep 19, 2011 From Curtains

The Birth of a Nation (1915) There is no question about the influence director D.W. Griffith has had on the art of filmmaking. He invented techniques that we take for granted today. And what he did not invent himself, he certainly perfected. Unfortunately, his genius was tarnished by the racist to... Read full article


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Quotes from

Flora Cameron: [letter to Ben] - and you have really grown a moustache - oh my! I'm just dying, dying to see you. Well, I'm growing up too - they say I'm such a big girl now you wouldn't know me. XXXXXX Kisses Your little
[crossed out]
Flora Cameron: big Sis


Elsie Stoneman: [Ben is to be hanged. Elsie has an idea] We will ask mercy from the Great Heart.


John Wilkes Booth: Sic semper tyrannis!


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Facts about

Joseph Henabery, who was one of D.W. Griffith's chief assistant directors as well as contributing research, played 13 roles in the film in addition to his main role as Abraham Lincoln.
During filming, camera operator Karl Brown was sure that the movie was just another typical melodrama. At the film's premiere, D.W. Griffith had hired the entire Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra to play the score for the film. Brown was amazed; nothing like this has been done before. When the conductor raised his baton, and the orchestra started playing, he said it was so amazing and loud he was shaking his head, "It was like nothing I ever heard." Brown additionally remembers that Griffith hummed certain themes to the composer of the original score that he wanted.
At the time of this film's original premiere, it bore a title card that read something like, "This is a depiction of the events of the civil war and of the formation of the Ku Klux Klan from the point of view of the American South." This title card has since been lost.
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National Film Registry

The Birth of a Nation

Released 1915
Inducted 1992
(Silent)




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Also directed by D.W. Griffith




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Also released in 1915




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