The Birth of a Nation
1915 · directed by D.W. Griffith
- Rating
- 81/100
- Hit
- yes
- Prestige lists
- AFI 100
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
The Birth of a Nation (1915), directed by D.W. Griffith, rates 81/100 — a hit. See how its director, cast and crew rate across their careers.
Cast
- Lillian Gish
- Mae Marsh
- Henry B. Walthall
- Miriam Cooper
- Mary Alden
- Ralph Lewis
- George Siegmann
- Walter Long
- Robert Harron
- Wallace Reid
Crew
- Billy Bitzer — Director of Photography
- Joseph Carl Breil — Director of Photography
- D.W. Griffith — Editor
- James Smith — Editor
- Joseph Henabery — Editor
- Raoul Walsh — Editor
- Rose Smith — Editor
- D.W. Griffith — Original Music Composer
- Jon Mirsalis — Original Music Composer
- Frank E. Woods — Screenplay
- D.W. Griffith — Writer
More from D.W. Griffith
- Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) — 84/100 · hit
- Way Down East (1920) — 81/100 · hit
- Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919) — 80/100 · hit
- Orphans of the Storm (1921) — 78/100
- True Heart Susie (1919) — 70/100
- The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) — 64/100 · short, not counted
How these numbers work: Methodology