First half: brilliant. Second half: ugh...

Rating: 6/10 (7 May 2004)

The first half of The Birth of a Nation, which focuses on the Civil War, is probably not only one of the greatest silent films, but one of the greatest films of all time. It's all the more remarkable that it was the first film of its type--feature length--and that so few silent films in the years that followed came anywhere near equaling its achievements. My own favorite moment is at the very end of the first half, when a weary Ben Cameron comes home at the end of the war and is slowly coaxed inside by the outstretched arms of his family.
If only Griffiths had stopped there. The second half of the film devolves into lurid melodrama, and as if that wasn't bad enough, displays a sickening racism and disregard for historical fact. Don't try to excuse it as being a product of its time; the NAACP protested when it was released, and President Woodrow Wilson had to backpedal on his initial praise of the film.

Nonetheless, the film is worth seeing for its enormous significance to the history of film, and for its technical brilliance (which is evident even in the repugnant second half of the film).