Search - The Birth of a Nation on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1915 DVD Release: 11/17/1998 Format: DVD Edition: Dual Layered,Special Collection Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 3 hrs 7 mins Studio: Image Entertainment Members Wishing: 9 Genres: Epic, Historical Film, Historical Epic See Also: The Birth of a Nation, The Birth of a Nation, The Birth of a Nation and the Civil War Films of D.W. Griffith, The Birth of a Nation, The Birth of a Nation, The Birth of a Nation

The most successful and artistically advanced film of its time, The Birth of a Nation has also sparked protests, riots, and divisiveness since its first release. The film tells the story of the Civil War and its aftermath, as seen through the eyes of two families. The Stonemans hail from the North, the Camerons from the South. When war breaks out, the Stonemans cast their lot with the Union, while the Camerons are loyal to Dixie. After the war, Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall), distressed that his beloved south is now under the rule of blacks and carpetbaggers, organizes several like-minded Southerners into a secret vigilante group called the Ku Klux Klan. When Cameron's beloved younger sister Flora (Mae Marsh) leaps to her death rather than surrender to the lustful advances of renegade slave Gus (Walter Long), the Klan wages war on the new Northern-inspired government and ultimately restores "order" to the South. In the original prints, Griffith suggested that the black population be shipped to Liberia, citing Abraham Lincoln as the inspiration for this ethnic cleansing. Showings of Birth of a Nation were picketed and boycotted from the start, and as recently as 1995, Turner Classic Movies cancelled a showing of a restored print in the wake of the racial tensions around the O.J. Simpson trial verdict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Henry B. Walthall - Ben Cameron, the Little Colonel
Miriam Cooper - Margaret Cameron
Mae Marsh - Flora Cameron, the Little Sister
Lillian Gish - Elsie Stoneman
Robert Harron - Ted Stoneman
Ralph Lewis - The Honorable Austin Stoneman, Leader of the House

The most successful and artistically advanced film of its time, The Birth of a Nation has also sparked protests, riots, and divisiveness since its first release. The film tells the story of the Civil War and its aftermath, as seen through the eyes of two families. The Stonemans hail from the North, the Camerons from the South. When war breaks out, the Stonemans cast their lot with the Union, while the Camerons are loyal to Dixie. After the war, Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall), distressed that his beloved south is now under the rule of blacks and carpetbaggers, organizes several like-minded Southerners into a secret vigilante group called the Ku Klux Klan. When Cameron's beloved younger sister Flora (Mae Marsh) leaps to her death rather than surrender to the lustful advances of renegade slave Gus (Walter Long), the Klan wages war on the new Northern-inspired government and ultimately restores "order" to the South. (In the original prints, Griffith suggested that the black population be shipped to Liberia, citing Abraham Lincoln as the inspiration for this ethnic cleansing.) The Birth of a Nation showcases director D.W. Griffith's paradoxical position as artistically advanced yet politically reactionary; the most far-thinking filmmaker of his time in conceiving new ways to tell stories and move the camera, Griffith was also shackled to Victorian ideas about race, women, and families. As a result, showings of Birth of a Nation have been picketed and boycotted from the start, and as recently as 1995, Turner Classic Movies cancelled a showing of a restored print in the wake of the racial tensions around the O.J. Simpson trial verdict. The DVD contains a 24-minute documentary focusing on the production of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide