This movie is not for babies.

Rating: Null/10 (17 December 2002)

Make no mistake about it, this 87 year old film, the foundation of movie-making language and one of the most successful films of all time, is not to be seen through the eyes of an idealist. A movie like this can crush a man's ego, forever bruise the mind of the easily offended, and ruin the life of the impressionable.
Was Griffith a racist? Perhaps so. Was Griffith a hateful, stupid white man, who believed in the dominance over others? Not at all. Anybody who had seen many of his short films, knew that Griffith's philosophy was that of the poor man's friend. A Corner in Wheat shows the struggle of the poor against a powerful merchant, who gets what is coming to him. His Trust shows a black slave gallantly risking his life for his master...the slave was not portrayed at all as a bad character; nor can the old "good slave, bad freeman" arguement be used against that film. Out of his own will, the man saved the little girl from the fire...he was a good man at heart. Intolerance and Broken Blossoms, made in 1916 and 1919 respectively, tell a message very much against racism and fanaticism. With these movies sandwiching The Birth of a Nation, what can we think about this epic monster?
I choose to think thusly: The Birth of a Nation was, perhaps, an expose of the twisted view of history as seen through a wounded, beaten land (the South). The things we see in the film, so disgustive and reprehensive, are what is seen through the eyes of the fanatic. Whether ot not it was Griffith's purpose, I will forever see this film as a brilliant expose of man's greatest enemy.