The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Country: US
Technical: bw 185m (16fps)
Director: D. W. Griffith
Cast: Henry B. Walthall, Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, Lillian Gish
Synopsis:
A Southern family suffers during the American Civil War and its aftermath.
Review:
A cataclysmic, strikingly advanced portrait of the war is followed by the now notorious Ku Klux Klan episode, complete with cringing negro villains played by blacked-up white actors. In spite of this political miscalculation (even by the standards of its time) the film is a masterpiece of cinema narrative and remains gripping to this day. Not only had nothing of its scale been attempted before, it also kept up a furious pace and coherence thanks to its ground-breaking editing (all from shots achieved with Billy Bitzer's single camera). Even the acting is pretty convincing, not least thanks to the director's uncanny ability with actresses Lillian Gish and Miriam Cooper. A huge commercial hit though it was, Griffith attempted to atone to the critics with his humanist parable, Intolerance (q.v.), which was perhaps the pinnacle of American silent cinema.
Country: US
Technical: bw 185m (16fps)
Director: D. W. Griffith
Cast: Henry B. Walthall, Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, Lillian Gish
Synopsis:
A Southern family suffers during the American Civil War and its aftermath.
Review:
A cataclysmic, strikingly advanced portrait of the war is followed by the now notorious Ku Klux Klan episode, complete with cringing negro villains played by blacked-up white actors. In spite of this political miscalculation (even by the standards of its time) the film is a masterpiece of cinema narrative and remains gripping to this day. Not only had nothing of its scale been attempted before, it also kept up a furious pace and coherence thanks to its ground-breaking editing (all from shots achieved with Billy Bitzer's single camera). Even the acting is pretty convincing, not least thanks to the director's uncanny ability with actresses Lillian Gish and Miriam Cooper. A huge commercial hit though it was, Griffith attempted to atone to the critics with his humanist parable, Intolerance (q.v.), which was perhaps the pinnacle of American silent cinema.
Country: US
Technical: bw 185m (16fps)
Director: D. W. Griffith
Cast: Henry B. Walthall, Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, Lillian Gish
Synopsis:
A Southern family suffers during the American Civil War and its aftermath.
Review:
A cataclysmic, strikingly advanced portrait of the war is followed by the now notorious Ku Klux Klan episode, complete with cringing negro villains played by blacked-up white actors. In spite of this political miscalculation (even by the standards of its time) the film is a masterpiece of cinema narrative and remains gripping to this day. Not only had nothing of its scale been attempted before, it also kept up a furious pace and coherence thanks to its ground-breaking editing (all from shots achieved with Billy Bitzer's single camera). Even the acting is pretty convincing, not least thanks to the director's uncanny ability with actresses Lillian Gish and Miriam Cooper. A huge commercial hit though it was, Griffith attempted to atone to the critics with his humanist parable, Intolerance (q.v.), which was perhaps the pinnacle of American silent cinema.