The Birth of a Nation

D.W. Griffith co-writes and directs this epic and controversial account of the American Civil War and its aftermath. It tells the story of two families, the pro-Union Stonemans from the North and the pro-Confederacy Camerons from the South, and the way in which they are both caught up in the turmoil which befalls a sleepy Deep South town when Northern Abolitionists threaten to outlaw the slave trade which has existed there for years. Things go from bad to worse when Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall)'s little sister dies at the hands of Gus (Walter Long), a black farmhand, and Ben dons a Ku Klux Klan mask both to avenge her death and to come to the rescue of his beloved girlfriend Elsie (Lillian Gish), who has been kidnapped by a corrupt mixed-race governor.

Special Features

Booklet, Documentaries: BFI Southbank Roundtable Discussion, Image Gallery, Interviews: DW Griffith, Melvyn Stokes, Cecil B. Demille, Short Films: 'The Rose of Kentucky' (1911), 'The Coward' (1911), 'The Drummer of the 8th' (1913), 'Stolen Glory' (1912), 'The Rebl Yell (1932), Outtakes

Actors: Raoul Walsh, Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, Robert Harron, Josephine Cromwell, Henry B. Walthall, Wallace Reid, Joseph Henabery, Spottiswood Aiken, J.A. Beringer, John French, Walter Long, Donald Crisp, Eugene Pallette, Lillian Gish

Audio Languages: English

Duration: 194 minutes

Number of Discs: 2

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