A major watermark for all that was to follow in motion pictures

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2000)

Birth of a Nation is still controversial today. Its themes strike a chord with our sensibilities because it deals with an ugly part of our national identity. The Birth of a Nation not only caused the revival of the Ku Klux Klan but set a high cinematic standard that had long reaching effects on world cinema. Indeed it was a year later when Griffith responded to critics who railed against him for the cinematic adaptation of the now all but forgotten novel turned play, The Clansman.
But let's look past the negrophobia for a minute if only to look at the earliest works of Hitchcock, Lang, Pabst, Murnau, and Eisenstein. That alone should suggest that BoaN is a worthy film, but suggesting this would overlook the superlative performance of Lillian Gish, prodigal camerawork and storytelling skills of Griffith, and of course the small matter of this films undaunted importance and popularity in the first half of the twentieth century.