Brilliant...and racist

Rating: 8/10 (22 January 2007)

It's a shame really. "The birth of a Nation" is an epic film with brilliant directing from one of the first masters, D.W. Griffith. He uses expressive close-ups and super impositions with incredible skill. The movie has breathtaking long shots showing the huge scale of the civil war. It also includes a realistic version of the Lincoln assassination. But after Lincoln dies the movie displays the Ku Klux Klan as heroes! It actually is interesting seeing the point of view from a disenfranchised southerner but I still had to lower the movie rating from a 9 to a 8. It is just too ridiculous to see clansmen racing out on their horses to save the day. If you are trying to see the best movies of all time chronologically please skip this movie and see "Intolerance" which has the same brilliant directing from Griffith and is even more epic in scale, but has a much better message.