Apart from Pink Flamingos this is the most morally reprehensible film we are showing this semester. This film glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and justifies lynchings, segregation and the disenfranchisement of blacks. In fact, there was a major resurgence in Klan membership following the release of this film, reaching a peak membership of five million in the 1920s. Yet The Birth of a Nation was also a landmark in the history of American cinema. The film tells the story of two families, one Northern (the Stonemans) and the other Southern (the Camerons), during the American Civil War and Reconstruction. It was based on the novel 'The Clansman' written by Thomas Dixon Jr. In response to the criticism of alleged racism, Griffith made the film Intolerance a year later.
D.W.Griffith pioneered a number of cinematic techniques such as intercutting between parallel action scenes, panning camera tracking shots, close-ups to reveal intimate expressions, the extensive use of tinting for dramatic effect, the use of magnesium flares to allow night photography, the meticulous staging of battle scenes with hundreds of extras and many others.