History Film / TheBirthOfANation1915

* SpiritualAntithesis: Thomas Dixon Jr. described ''The Clansman'', the novel this film was based on, as "a sequel" to ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Whereas that book was Stowe's denunciation of the un-Christian evil and barbarism of slavery, ''The Clansman'' was Dixon railing against the disaster that he saw in the ''end'' of slavery, with the Ku Klux Klan presented as heroes doing their best to restore what they could of the old order. Gus has often been described as a dark mirror of Uncle Tom; whereas Uncle Tom is a paragon of Christian morality who dies a martyr by refusing to give away the whereabouts of two slaves he helped escape, Gus is a violent rapist who gets what he has coming through a VigilanteExecution courtesy of the Klan.

* BrokenAesop: The film's scene carries a message of peace and universal brotherhood...but this was after scenes of immense violence and persecution against the black characters.

Being one of the first feature films ever, ''The Birth of a Nation'' introduced, refined, and popularized too many tropes to count, and is considered one of the most groundbreaking films ever, proving that cinema was a valid form of media rather than a passing fad, in fact. It was a massive hit, grossing somewhere between $50–100 million when movie tickets cost a dime. However, it was also extremely controversial even when released, as its view of Reconstruction is one that promotes white supremacy, loathsomely demonizes black Americans (especially [[MixedAncestry biracial black-white people]]), and glorifies the KKK. In fact, the KKK had a ''huge'' revival in the years after this was released (membership numbered around six million at its peak around 1925), and many people credit ''Birth'' as one of the reasons why.

* MixedAncestry: One of the themes is that mixing of the races is bad and that the offspring of those marriages are evil. The two worst villains in the film, Lydia Smith and Silas Lynch, are "mulattoes".

** Ben Cameron as an ex-Confederate soldier who forms the Klan to protect Southern virtue is one for Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. (This is a looser example. Forrest was a cavalry general, while Ben Cameron is an infantry colonel.)

It is in the public domain and can be viewed in its entirety on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGQaAddwjxg YouTube]] or even [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation its article]] on [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]]. Many early cinema pioneers worked on or appeared in the film: Creator/JohnFord is a Klansman, Creator/ErichVonStroheim was one of Griffith's assistants, and Creator/RaoulWalsh plays [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln John Wilkes Booth]].

It is in the public domain and can be viewed in its entirety on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3kmVgQHIEY YouTube]] or even [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation its article]] on [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]]. Many early cinema pioneers worked on or appeared in the film: Creator/JohnFord is a Klansman, Creator/ErichVonStroheim was one of Griffith's assistants, and Creator/RaoulWalsh plays [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln John Wilkes Booth]].

->''"Classic or not, ''Birth of a Nation'' has long been one of the embarrassments of film scholarship. It can't be ignored ... and yet it was regarded as outrageously racist even at a time when racism was hardly a household word."''
-->-- '''Andrew Sarris'''

''The Birth of a Nation'' is a 1915 silent film and white nationalist propaganda piece directed by Creator/DWGriffith, starring famous silent film actress Creator/LillianGish, and one of Hollywood's first great "epic" films.

In 2016, over a century after the original film's release, a film with the same name was released. Unlike the pro-Klan overtones of the 1915 film, the 2016 one was [[SpiritualAntithesis the exact opposite]], being openly ''against'' racism and slavery; info for that film can be found [[Film/TheBirthOfANation2016 here]].

* AllIsWellThatEndsWell: For ''[[ValuesDissonance certain definitions]]'' of "ends well." White power is restored in the South, a terrorized black populace is returned to what the KKK thought was their rightful place, and the Cameron siblings marry the Stoneman siblings.

* {{Defictionalization}}: The burning cross so associated with the KKK actually was not used by the 19th century Klan. It was invented by Thomas Dixon for his novel, popularized by this film, and then adopted by the new Klan that was founded in response to this movie.

* NeverMessWithGranny: We have an overweight elderly housekeeper leap into action and save her employer, knocking down at least one ruffian and two soldiers in the process. Interesting for a white supremacist racist work, the heroine is black and the man she's saving is white. It was a [[ValuesDissonance common belief at the time, and certainly Griffith's as a Southern whites]], that African-Americans had been [[HappinessInSlavery better off, and happier, as slaves]], until they were "stirred up" by Northern interlopers. This viewpoint was later internalized by Northern politicians who weren't too keen on giving African-Americans the vote so they started buying into the "Lost Cause" view as well. A scene of a black woman leaping to the defense of her beloved employer/master was more acceptable than an African-American judge or soldier (who are shown as cackling villains in the film).

Being one of the first feature films ever, ''The Birth of a Nation'' introduced, refined, and popularized too many tropes to count, and is considered one of the most groundbreaking films ever. It was a massive hit, grossing somewhere between $50–100 million when movie tickets cost a dime. However, it was also extremely controversial even when released, as its view of Reconstruction is one that promotes white supremacy, loathsomely demonizes black Americans (especially [[MixedAncestry biracial black-white people]]), and glorifies the KKK. In fact, the KKK had a ''huge'' revival in the years after this was released (membership numbered around six million at its peak around 1925), and many people credit ''Birth'' as one of the reasons why.

The second part depicts the Reconstruction era. With the war over and slavery abolished, new issues arrive that America must resolve. The South must be rebuilt and [[YouWillBeAssimilated re-integrated]] as part of the nation, without its dependency on slavery. The freed slaves must find their place in the new society, and their rights and legal status must be determined. Violent controversy erupts in the South over how to tackle these issues. Stoneman and the Radical Republicans go to South Carolina to try to influence the votes of Southern blacks. The Ku Klux Klan is formed in response, who hunt down and lynch a murderous former slave, rescue the Cameron family from an attack by a black militia, and effectively disenfranchise the black voters. The people depicted throughout the film as the "true enemy," though, are mulattoes-- those of mixed white and blaack ancestry, who will stop at nothing to bring the white man down.

The second part depicts the Reconstruction era. With the war over and slavery abolished, new issues arrive that America must resolve. The South must be rebuilt and [[YouWillBeAssimilated re-integrated]] as part of the nation, without its dependency on slavery. The freed slaves must find their place in the new society, and their rights and legal status must be determined. Violent controversy erupts in the South over how to tackle these issues. Stoneman and the Radical Republicans go to South Carolina to try to influence the votes of Southern blacks. The Ku Klux Klan is formed in response, who hunt down and lynch a murderous former slave, rescue the Cameron family from an attack by a black militia, and effectively disenfranchise the black voters. The people depicted throughout the film as the "true enemy," though, are mulattoes-- those of mixed white and negro ancestry, who will stop at nothing to bring the white man down.

The second part depicts the Reconstruction era. With the war over and slavery abolished, new issues arrive that America must resolve. The South must be rebuilt and [[YouWillBeAssimilated re-integrated]] as part of the nation, without its dependency on slavery. The freed slaves must find their place in the new society, and their rights and legal status must be determined. Violent controversy erupts in the South over how to tackle these issues. Stoneman and the Radical Republicans go to South Carolina to try to influence the votes of Southern blacks. The Ku Klux Klan is formed in response, who hunt down and lynch a murderous former slave, rescue the Cameron family from an attack by a negro militia, and effectively disenfranchise the black voters. The people depicted throughout the film as the "true enemy," though, are mulattoes-- those of mixed white and negro ancestry, who will stop at nothing to bring the white man down.

''The Birth of a Nation'' is a 1915 silent movie and white nationalist propaganda piece directed by Creator/DWGriffith, starring famous silent film actress Creator/LillianGish, and one of Hollywood's first great "epic" films. Based on the 1905 novel ''The Clansman'' by Thomas Dixon.

The plot of ''The Birth of a Nation'' is a two-part chronicle of American history, with considerable neo-Confederate liberties. The first part depicts the nation before, during, and after UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, from the perspective of two juxtaposed families-- the Northern Stonemans, who are abolitionists and federalists, and the Southern Camerons, who are secessionists. When war breaks out, the houses must send their sons off to their respective opposing armies. The Camerons suffer many hardships in the war torn and depleted South, and must deal with hunger, ransackers, looters, and rapists. Eventually, the Union army crushes the Confederacy, ending the war. President Abraham Lincoln promises to rebuild the South, in spite of protests from vengeful Northern politicians who would execute its leaders and treat the land as conquered territory. But Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theater, allowing the Radical Republicans, led by Austin Stoneman, to gain strength and support for inflicting punitive measures on the South for their rebellion.

Being one of the first feature films ever, ''The Birth of a Nation'' introduced, refined, and popularized too many tropes to count, and is considered one of the most groundbreaking films ever. It was a massive hit, grossing somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty million dollars when movie tickets cost a dime. However, it was also extremely controversial even when it was released, as its view of Reconstruction is one that promotes white supremacy, loathsomely demonizes black Americans (especially [[MixedAncestry biracial black-white people]]), and glorifies the KKK. In fact, the KKK had a ''huge'' revival in the years after this was released (it numbered around 6 million members at its peak around 1925), and many people credit this movie as one of the reasons why.

This was the first feature-length movie to be screened at the White House. The President was UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson, who used to teach at Princeton University and Thomas Dixon was one of his former students. It is widely told that, after seeing the picture, Wilson said "It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." The truth is that he probably never said anything like that; the quote appears to have been fabricated by Dixon.

This film is in the public domain and can be viewed in its entirety on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3kmVgQHIEY YouTube]] or even [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation its article]] on [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]]. Many people who would become important to early cinema worked on or appeared in this film. Creator/JohnFord is a Klansman, Creator/ErichVonStroheim was one of Griffith's assistants, and Creator/RaoulWalsh plays John Wilkes Booth.

Compare ''Film/TriumphOfTheWill'', a similarly influential white nationalist propaganda piece from 20 years later, made in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.

''The Birth of a Nation'' is a 1915 silent movie directed by Creator/DWGriffith, starring famous silent film actress Creator/LillianGish, and one of Hollywood's first great "epic" films. Based on the 1905 novel ''The Clansman'' by Thomas Dixon.

The plot of ''The Birth of a Nation'' is a two-part chronicle of American history. The first part depicts the nation before, during, and after UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, from the perspective of two juxtaposed families - the Northern Stonemans, who are abolitionists and federalists, and the Southern Camerons, who are secessionists. When war breaks out, the houses must send their sons off to their respective opposing armies. The Camerons suffer many hardships in the war torn and depleted South, and must deal with hunger, ransackers, looters, and rapists. Eventually, the Union army crushes the Confederacy, ending the war. President Abraham Lincoln promises to rebuild the South, in spite of protests from vengeful Northern politicians who would execute its leaders and treat the land as conquered territory. But Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theater, allowing the Radical Republicans, led by Austin Stoneman, to gain strength and support for inflicting punitive measures on the South for their rebellion.

The second part depicts the Reconstruction era. With the war over and slavery abolished, new issues arrive that America must resolve. The South must be rebuilt and [[YouWillBeAssimilated re-integrated]] as part of the nation, without its dependency on slavery. The freed slaves must find their place in the new society, and their rights and legal status must be determined. Violent controversy erupts in the South over how to tackle these issues. Stoneman and the Radical Republicans go to South Carolina to try to influence the votes of Southern blacks. The Ku Klux Klan is formed in response, who hunt down and lynch a murderous former slave, rescue the Cameron family from an attack by a negro militia, and effectively disenfranchise the black voters. The people depicted throughout the film as the "true enemy," though, are mulattoes -- those of mixed white and negro ancestry, who will stop at nothing to bring the white man down.

Being one of the first feature films ever, ''The Birth of a Nation'' introduced, refined, and popularized zillions of tropes, and is considered one of the most groundbreaking films ever. It was a massive hit, grossing somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty million dollars when movie tickets cost a dime. However, it was also extremely controversial even when it was released, as its view of Reconstruction is one that promotes white supremacy, loathsomely demonizes black Americans (especially [[MixedAncestry biracial black-white people]]), and glorifies the KKK. In fact, the KKK had a ''huge'' revival in the years after this was released (it numbered around 6 million members at its peak around 1925), and many people credit this movie as one of the reasons why.

In 2016, over a century after the original film's release, a film with the same name was released. The 2016 film was against racism and slavery, [[SpiritualAntithesis unlike its namesake]]. Info for that film can be found [[Film/TheBirthOfANation2016 here]].

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The whole entire film is a HUGE example of this. Though at the time, Griffith believed he was being true to history, since the vision of the American Civil War and Reconstruction was more or less the academic consensus in both the North and the South at the time of the film's release; the Lost Cause historiography and the Dunning thesis. Today it's discredited and racist DatedHistory but it was common enough that it underlined almost any film about the South until the 60s, including ''Film/GoneWithTheWind''. Griffith made many attempts to prove his point by putting in quotations from historical books in the intertitles, which more or less prove if nothing else that the views presented in the film were shared by many educated academics, as well as President Woodrow Wilson. (Wilson may have been misquoted regarding this film as noted above, but he was definitely super-racist.)
** Besides being racist, the early scene where a "Negro" militia raids the town is, historically, straight nonsense. The first black Union troops weren't raised in South Carolina, they were of course raised in the North. And no Union troops were raiding South Carolina in 1863. Except for a couple of spots on the coast South Carolina was untouched by the war until Sherman's men came rampaging through in early 1865, and even then Sherman did not visit the Piedmont, instead marching through the center of the state and burning Columbia.

Being one of the first feature films ever, ''The Birth of a Nation'' introduced, refined, and popularized zillions of tropes, and is considered one of the most groundbreaking films ever. It was a massive hit, grossing somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty million dollars when movie tickets cost a dime. However, it was also extremely controversial even when it was released, as its view of Reconstruction is one that promotes white supremacy, loathsomely demonizes black Americans (especially [[MixedAncestry biracial black-white people]]), and glorifies the KKK. In fact, the KKK had a ''huge'' revival in the years after this was released (it numbered around '''6 million members''' at its peak around 1925), and many people credit this movie as one of the reasons why.

* ContinuityEditing: D.W. Griffith practically '''defined''' continuity editing with movies like this.

In 2016, the year of the film's 101st anniversary, a film with the same name was released. The 2016 film was against racism and slavery, [[SpiritualAntithesis unlike its namesake]]. Info for that film can be found [[Film/TheBirthOfANation2016 here]].

This was the first feature-length movie to be screened at the White House. The President was UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson, who used to teach at Princeton University and Thomas Dixon was one of his former students. It is widely told that, after seeing the picture, Wilson said "It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." The truth is that he probably never said anything like that. Dixon and Griffith were so intent on making the movie a hit that they pretty much made up lies about celebrities and politicians endorsing it, including both Wilson and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and at one point Dixon even claimed the movie was "federally endorsed." In fact, that quote did not show up in print until after Wilson's death. Wilson actually had no idea what the movie was about before it was shown, and a few days later he released a press statement saying that he did not approve of the "unfortunate production." Though, for the record, part of the reason why the story is believed by so many people is that Wilson was [[ValuesDissonance racist even by his own time's standard]].

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The whole entire film is a HUGE example of this. Though at the time, Griffith believed he was being true to history, since the vision of the American Civil War and Reconstruction was more or less the academic consensus in both the North and the South at the time of the film's release; the Lost Cause historiography and the Dunning thesis. Today it's discredited and racist DatedHistory but it was common enough that it underlined almost any film about the South until the 60s, including Film/GoneWithTheWind. Griffith made many attempts to prove his point by putting in quotations from historical books in the intertitles, which more or less prove if nothing else that the views presented in the film were shared by many educated academics (and President Woodrow Wilson[[note]]Who may or may not have been misquoted about his feelings towards Birth of a Nation, but a book he wrote on the Civil War, and the Lost Cause is most definitely quoted by Griffith in these intertitles[[/note]]).

* AttemptedRape: Gus tries to rape Flora Cameron.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Flora Cameron jumps off a cliff rather than be raped --sort of, see below-- by a freed slave
* BigBad: Silas Lynch.

* BindleStick: Justified. Carpetbaggers really did carry these.

* {{Blackface}}: Unsurprisingly, there were few black actors who played the black roles in this film. The rest were filled in by white actors wearing ''glaringly'' obvious makeup. (Even in its racist heyday, blackface makeup was supposed to create a clownish caricature that no one would believe was a real black person; Griffith must not have thought much of his audience's powers of perception.)

* CategoryTraitor: The Radical Republicans are implied to have betrayed the white race, especially with Stoneman himself having an extramarital affair with a black woman - leading him to give power to the evil mulatto who later try to rape his daughter.

%%* ChangedMyMindKid

* DamselInDistress: Flora Cameron and later, Elsie Stoneman. In the book, Marion Lenoir and her mother, Jeanine.

* DoubleInLawMarriage: Ends with a double wedding in which siblings Elsie and Phil Stoneman marry, respectively, siblings Ben and Margaret Cameron.

* EvilCripple: Austin Stoneman.

* HollywoodDarkness: Via use of tints (standard for silent films before colour).

%%* InUniverseCamera

* LightIsGood: The KKK from the film's perspective.
* LightIsNotGood: The KKK from the viewer's perspective. (Even, again, viewers at the time!)

* MilkingTheGiantCow: Flora makes the stereotypical cow-milking gesture right before she commits suicide.

** Austin Stoneman is a stand-in for Thaddeus Stevens, the leader of the Radical Republicans.

* PoirotSpeak: "Dem free-niggers f'um de N'of um so' crazy".

%%* ThePollyanna: Flora Cameron, during the Civil War half.
%%* RapeAsDrama

* ScaryBlackMan: Gus, who stalks and apparently tries to rape Florida. And an even scarier biracial, Silas Lynch.

* SplitScreen: One of the first (but not the first) uses of this trope. A diagonal split shows two scenes from Sherman's March to the Sea in 1864; the lower left portion shows Union soldiers torching a single farmhouse, while the upper right shows Atlanta burning.

** Sort of. Both Silas Lynch and Gus want White women but the women don't exactly return their feelings.

%%* WhiteMansBurden: Played to some extent really horribly, with Austin Stoneman's [[ScaryBlackMan mulatto protégé Silas]].

Being one of the first feature films ever, ''The Birth of a Nation'' introduced, refined, and popularized zillions of tropes, and is considered one of the most groundbreaking films ever. However, it was also extremely controversial even when it was released, as its view of Reconstruction is one that promotes white supremacy, loathsomely demonizes black Americans (especially [[MixedAncestry biracial black-white people]]), and glorifies the KKK. In fact, the KKK had a ''huge'' revival in the years after this was released (it numbered around '''6 million members''' at its peak around 1925), and many people credit this movie as one of the reasons why.

* MaleGaze: A Union hospital guard takes a long look at Gish after she passes by him to visit her convalescing boyfriend.

* PleaseSpareHimMyLiege: Mother Cameron to Abraham Lincoln, on Ben's behalf.

%%* FramedSubject

** The Klan killed about 3,000 people over the course of its existence. This is quite a lot, but it's not nearly as many as Gettysburg (which the movie claims; for reference, approximately 7800 soldiers died there).

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Klan; and, indeed, the CSA, which picked a fight when the North was inclined to let them go peacefully, and which committed war crimes over the course of the war (especially giving no quarter against black US troops, and selling free black [=POWs=] into slavery).

* ScaryBlackMan: Gus. And an even scarier biracial, Silas Lynch.

* MyEyesAreUpHere: Some of the KKK robes have a pair of large circles with crosses in them at chest height.

** Ben Cameron as an ex-Confederate soldier who forms the Klan to protect Southern virtue is one for Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.