Surprisingly Good, Surprisingly Accurate

Rating: 10/10 (28 September 2003)

(SPOILERS)
I watched this movie a couple of days ago and I must admit it wasn't that bad. I'm not a Neo-Confederate or Klans men but this movie actually depicted what happened after the war from a different point of view but in actualality never eached the peak as in this film. In The Birth of a Nation the main characters are the Klans Men and the enemy really isn't the blacks but Mr. Lynch a white man who wants the blacks to rule the south.
The movie contains no talking but surprisingly there are sound effects. The main character are Lillian Gishes character Elsie Stoneman and Henry Walthalls' the Little Colonel Ben Cameron who is a Ex-Confederate and the Klansmen leader. The battle scene outside of Petersburg is surprisingly realistic except for a scene when Cameron jumps over the mound to help wounded Union soldier and everybody from both armies cheer. Also this is another high point, even though the South was at war with the North, Abraham Lincoln was still a hero to the south after the war; he was there only hope. Most of the blacks in the movie are just white men with shoe polish on there faces and it has some of the worst makeup I've ever scene.
What would be considered over acting today is all over this movie especially when a soldier gets shot, sometimes you couldn't tell if Lillian Gish is crying or laughing at some scenes. Even more realistic scenes are like when Flora Stoneman jumps of a cliff, showing her hit the rocks about fifty feet below.
One problem with this movie are the depiction of blacks as fools who couldn't talk right and were only down there to destroy white civilization. This movie was an interesting experience for me to see a movie that depicted the Klan as a group of heroes and the great work of D.W. Griffith. The film is racist at some scenes and do give it a sad moment for being the first feature length movie.
The Birth of a Nation, Starring Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, and Mariam Cooper.
4 out of 5 Stars.