The Birth Of A Nation (DVD)

THE BIRTH OF A NATION is a must-see movie for anyone interested in the history of Hollywood motion pictures. It was directed in 1915 by D.W. Griffith, based on the novel THE CLANSMAN by Thomas F. Dixon Jr. The movie tells the story of the American Civil War and its aftermath, and this piece of history is put across in a vary racist manner, making heroes out of the Ku Klux Klan, who execute(ed) blacks simply because of their skin colour. The film has the reputation of being the first movie to use examples of film grammar which are still used by Hollywood today, including close-ups and cross-cutting narrative, but if one looks at earlier movies, including ...