Mediocre. Does provide one howler!

Rating: 1/10 (22 December 2002)

My favorite part of this film? Before the opening credits roll, there is a typically Griffith-like disclaimer about how "we" (Griffith) do not fear censorship, because "we seek not to offend." This is one of the most unintentionally hilarious moments in cinematic history. We don't care to offend, so let us offer high praise to the Ku Klux Klan, have the majority of black characters actually be whites in blackface (including one scene with "blacks" shoving bananas into their mouths like pigs in a trough) and use as our source Dixon's asinine "The Clansman."
Of famous American films I remember a quote, "The worse the book, the better the film."
I loathe Political Correctness as much as the next white man, but come on! The majority of Americans in 1915 were NOT supporters of the KKK, "Like history written by lightning," Wilson's famous quote, actually was in reference to the huge spectacle of the film in general more than a political comment, (and indicates the President's lack of historical knowledge) and sure, racism did abound at the time. Racism still exists, it is not nice, but is also not as important as pushers of Political Correctness will try to force us to believe.
My hatred of this film is that the film attempts to constantly shove every racist image or idea down our throats. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STEPINFETCHIT OR WILLIE BEST AND A TRUE DESIRE TO PORTRAY FORCEFULLY BLACKS AS NEAR-ANIMALS.
Griffith was a sick, incredibly overrated director--even when the importance of "Birth Of A Nation" is acknowledged, and I certainly acknowledge this film's importance in its use of narrative structure, but little else. Griffith's film was from a book called "The Clansman," and his "Broken Blossoms" was from a book called "The Chink and the Child." Griffith was an early visionary, a friend of the oppressed? Sell it to someone else.