The Birth of a Nation
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The Birth of a Nation

"The Fiery Cross of the Ku Klux Klan!"

1915 3h 15m ★ 5.9 (578 votes) Released

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.

Director

D.W. Griffith

Writer

D.W. Griffith

Screenplay

Frank E. Woods

Rating
5.9
Runtime
195 min
Budget
$0.1M
Revenue
$11.0M
Profit/Loss
+10.9M

Production

Epoch Film Co.

Top Billed Cast

Videos & Trailers

Gallery

Audience Reviews

P
prabhushakti
★ 10/10 Mar 3, 2018

He achieved what no other known man has ever achieved. To watch his work is like being witness to the beginning of melody, or the first conscious use of the lever or the wheel; the emergence, coordination, and first eloquence of language; thebirth of an art: and to realize that this is all the work of one man. - James Agee Griffith demonstrated to every filmmaker and moviegoer who followed him what a movie was, and what a movie could be. - Roger Ebert

Keywords

armyku klux klansouthern usasilent filmamerican civil warreconstruction erahistorical epicinspirationalawestruckoptimisticfeel-good

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