Chinese Version

 

The Birth of a Nation (USA)

 

The birth of Ku Klux Klan

 

Director: D.W. Griffith

Cast: Henry Walthall   Miriam Cooper   Mae Marsh   Lillian Gish   George Siegmann

Footage: 175min

Year: 1915

The Stonemans hail from the North, the Camerons from the South. After the war, Ben Cameron, distressed that his beloved south is now under the rule of blacks and carpetbaggers, organizes several like-minded Southerners into a secret vigilante group called the Ku Klux Klan. When Cameron's beloved younger sister Flora leaps to her death rather than surrender to the lustful advances of renegade slave Gus, the Klan wages war on the new Northern-inspired government and ultimately restores "order" to the South.

Griffith communicated not only the monumental scale of Civil War battles but also the intimate psychology of his central characters. The film was banned in several states for its racism, race riots broke out after its Boston premiere, and it directly influenced the 20th century reemergence of the Klan.

References:

The Birth Of A Nation (1915)

Themes in The Birth of a Nation

Works of the same director:

Intolerance

Short segments online

Personal rate

Clip on chnm.gmu.edu