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| The Birth of a Nation | 
 enlarge | Actors: Spottiswoode Aitken, Mary Alden, George Beranger, Elmer Clifton, Miriam Cooper
Studio: Image Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $11.84
You Save: $8.15 (41%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $6.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (153 reviews)
Sales Rank: 14331
Format: Black & White, Dvd-video, Silent, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 165 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 2
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.7 x 0.7
MPN: IMED4674D
ISBN: 6305130949
UPC: 014381467420
EAN: 9786305130949
ASIN: 6305130949
Release Date: November 17, 1998
Theatrical Release Date: March 3, 1915
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Description
Based on a play called "The Clansmen," D.W. Griffith's three-hour Civil War epic traces the development of the Civil War itself, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan through the lives of two families.
Amazon.com essential video
A pivotal moment in film history. After The Birth of a Nation, nothing was the same: not the way audiences watched movies, not the way filmmakers created them. D.W. Griffith's jumbo-size saga of the Civil War expanded the boundaries of storytelling on the screen, conveying a richer, more complicated (and certainly longer) tale than anyone had seen in a movie before. The delicate relationships, the sad passage of time, the spectacular battle scenes all look as fresh and innovative today as they did in 1915. So do Griffith's brilliant actors, most of them--including favorite leading lady Lillian Gish--drawn from his regular stock company. What has become increasingly problematic about The Birth of a Nation is Griffith's condescending attitude toward black slaves, and the ringing excitement surrounding the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith, whose political ideas were naive at best, seemed genuinely surprised by the criticism of his masterwork, and for his next project he turned to the humanist preaching of the massive Intolerance. Despite protests, Birth sold more tickets than any other movie, a record that stood for decades, and President Woodrow Wilson famously compared it to "history written in lightning." That judgment has lasted. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 148 more reviews...
 Still controversial January 3, 2009
"The Birth of a Nation", D.W. Griffith's epic film of 1915, is an amazing look at early cinematography with a topic that is still discussed almost one hundred years after its premiere. The good news is that this film, even by modern standards, could not and would not be made today for obvious reasons, but as representative "history" it stands out.
Divided into two equal parts, the film opens with two prominent families during the Civil War. The battle scenes are heroically portrayed and the long scene of Lincoln's assassination is one of the best. The second part, dealing with Reconstruction, is troubling yet fascinating to watch as hate disguised as bravery becomes the theme. The Klan (literally the "white knights on horseback") rise to many occasions to save their beleaguered friends and neighbors. The portrayal of blacks in the film is the most unsettling of all.
Besides enjoying the performance of a very young Lillian Gish, what I liked most about "The Birth of a Nation" was its historic feel rather than its accuracy. If cinematography had been around earlier in the nineteenth century, one might very well assume that the characters, the action, the sets and the props would be just as one saw them in motion.
I can understand why watching "The Birth of a Nation" would be distressing for many people today, but it helps to remember how far we've come as a country since 1915. With that in mind, I recommend seeing this monumental film.
The Version of The Birth of a Nation to Buy! December 27, 2008
While it seems that many reviews posted on the DVD site aren't actually for this DVD, this review is specifically a review of Kino's Griffith Masterworks edition. The DVD contains the most complete version of The Birth of a Nation known and available. The film is 187 min. long on this disk. It is a beautiful print, well restored and re-tinted. A beautiful print. The musical score is clever and very entertaining too. I think of any bad thing to say about the disk. I think most know of the story line and its hints of racism. It's there and it can't be argued away. D.W. Griffith was a son of a Civil War soldier and grew up in the South. He used the book The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr. as it jibed with his own viewpoints and many of the day. The hero worship of the Klan actually encouraged its resurgence in late 1910s and 1920s into the 30s. The racism brought Griffith so much grief, he spent his life trying to justify his views and created Intolerance to offset the criticism. What brings The Birth of a Nation is its reliance on story and use of the film camera never tried before in the USA before. It is a cinema powerhouse and actually a pretty moving film. Never before had Americans seen the cinema come to life before. Some French, Italian and German filmmakers created feature films that are quite good and successful, but World War I basically destroyed their film industries and the US reigned supreme. DW Griffith took American film to the next level permanently. No longer were films relegated to the poorer urban areas and Nickelodeons. It was now a popular art form and respectable to attend the cinema. The DVD also includes a making of, and introduction by DW himself made in 1930, and several early versions of his Civil War films. It seems to me that because of the closeness to the time period, the films might indicate a closer idea of how former Confederates actually thought and how they remember the war.
 Mostly interesting as part of the history of cinema November 16, 2008
I've seen the Feuillade serials from 1914/1915, I've seen the Garbo silents, I've seen most of Keaton's and Chaplin's features, etc. In short, I enjoy and appreciate a lot of silent films. I found Birth of a Nation a chore to get through.
It's obvious that from a technical standpoint, especially editing-wise, the film is quite revolutionary. But as a whole, the melodrama is trite soap opera stuff, and the acting for the most part is unimaginative and repetitive. Only Lillian Gish and Henry B. Walthall made any kind of impression. Also, any aesthetic pleasure that can be derived from the picture, is quickly undercut by the horrible racism that infects the whole thing. In the end it's akin to waching a beautifully taken photograph of a Nazi rally.
Citizen Kane is a revolutionary and entertaining picture. Birth of a Nation, like Battleship Potemkin, is just revolutionary. It's a basic work that has to be seen for the understanding of the development of the medium, but it is as dated as a film can be.
 i was almost conviced...and that horrified me October 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
this movie bored me in the first hour or so but then i started to notice the implications i was incredulous ,i actually thought there was going to be a catch or something..i guess i kept forgetting the times then.when i realized what the film was saying i was horrified yet fascinated by the fact that i actually fund myself -on a superficial level- buying into the story and wishing the clansmen triumph...talk about powerful propaganda.i never understood-as in felt for myself- how rational people could be swayed to beieve in outrageously subversive and immoral ideas and always felt myself impregnable to such a thing,but this film opened my eyes and made me realize even more the power of picture and artistic expression in general .i think this film should be used as a tool of promoting such ideas as the manufacture of consent and the shaping of people's minds and i'd love to know what noam chomsky would say about a film like this.
Racial Classic of the Civil War September 30, 2008
What makes this opus worthwhile is its significance as a study in early film. In a way its too bad Griffith did not end the film with the conclusion of the Civil War. This would have made for a shorter, tighter film without all the bizarre stuff of the latter part.
Even as a Civil War film there is a lot lacking here. The classic friends and brother against brother film is shown here and its a theme that the movies would use many times again. The battle scene showing Peterburg seems an odd choice to show on film. Since this is an epic showing the whole Civil War it seems strange that Griffith decides to show such a late battle in the conflict. There is no Bull Run, or even Gettysburg shown here. The Petersburg scene is well done, although rather choatic looking. Too much smoke almost obscures the set sometimes, and while this is a period detail it leads to visual confusion. There are also a lot of guys standing around waving Union or Rebel flags in the middle of the battlefield. I doubt this was done in actuality.
Perhaps one of the reasons where Griffith chose Peterburg as his battle for the film is that this seige closely resembled the trenches of WW1. At the time of BIRTHS release in 1915 the war was waging in Europe and America's entry was only a few years away. Petersburg with its seige lines was a precursor of WW1 battlefields and perhaps Griffith wanted to show this.
The second half of the film is a bizarre look at events associated with Reconstruction in the South. There can be no doubt that if Lincoln had lived things would have been a lot better for the defeated South. This film seems to imply that with his death the North betrayed Lincoln's promise to bring the nation back together again. Radicals did seek to take advantage of the strickend South and Blacks were used as a means to exploit the situation. But Griffith's take on all of this is pretty odd. Romanticizing the KKK seems a strange way to do homage to the sacrefices of the Civil War. Again, if Griffith had ended the film sooner it would have been a more balanced work. Still, the influence of BIRTH on Hollywood's view of the Civil War would be profound, and remains so even to today. An imperfect epic that is worth watching for its historical interest, but should not be taken too seriously as a perspective on American history.
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