Description
| Summary: | The epic story of two families, one Northern and one Southern, during and after the Civil War. D.W. Griffith's masterful direction combines brilliant battle scenes and tender romance with a vicious portrayal of African-Americans.
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| Item Description: | Based on the novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixon.
Originally released as a motion picture in 1915.
1.33:1 aspect ratio.
Restoration by Patrick Stanbury and the Photoplay Productions, taken from a tinted original print of the 1921 reissue of the 1915 The birth of a nation.
Special features: Disc 1. 1930 sound reissue prologue (D.W. Griffith in conversation with Walter Huston, star of his 1930 sound film Abraham Lincoln); 1930 sound reissue intermission and introduction to act 2 (Huston recites sections from Woodrow Wilson's A history of the American people) -- Disc 2. Outtakes and original camera tests; Stills and collections gallery; Silent feature: The coward (1915 ; produced by Thomas H. Ince, directed by Reginald Barker ; released nine months after The Birth of a Nation premiered, this Civil War drama concerns the weak-willed son (Charles Ray) of a Southern officer (Frank Keenan), forced to enlist at gunpoint, and coming to terms with cowardice); Silent short: The rose of Kentucky (1911 ; directed by D.W. Griffith ; three years before shooting on Birth began, Griffith made his only other film featuring the Klan, in this case labeled the Night Riders, and cast as the villains); Silent short: Stolen glory (1912 ; directed by Mack Sennett ; Sennett, who had worked under Griffith at Biograph, had a great fondness for improvising comedy shorts around actual events, in this case a parade of the Grand Army of the Republic, the principal veterans organization for those who served in the Union Army during the Civil War); Silent short: The drummer of the 8th - original edit [and] Silent short: The drummer of the 8th - 2015 re-edit (1913 ; produced by Thomas H. Ince, directed by Jay Hunt ; presented in two versions. The re-edit shifts the position of later, seemingly out-of-order sequences encountered in the Library of Congress original negative holdings. Both cuts use all existing footage); The Birth of a nation score recording sessions in 5.1 audio; D.W. Griffith on Lux Radio Theater with Cecil B. DeMille; The birth of a nation: the legacy (directed, written and edited by John McCarty); The clansman: from stage to screen (directed and edited by Daniel Griffith); Text essay: We can never censor the past (by Kevin Brownlow); Text essay: The birth of a nation: the 2015 restoration (by Patrick Stanbury); Text essay: Fighting back: responding to The birth of a nation (by Ashley Clark). |
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| Physical Description: | 2 videodiscs (191 min.) : sound, tinted and black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (7 unnumbered pages : illustrations ; 15 cm) |
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| Format: | Blu-ray; all regions; 1080p high definition; 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD MA. |
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| Production Credits: | Director of photography, G.W. Bitzer ; music by John Lanchbery, based on the original Joseph Carl Briel score. |
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| Participant or Performer: | Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry Walthall, Miriam Cooper, Mary Alden, Ralph Lewis, Wallace Reid. |
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| Language: | Silent film with music score and English intertitles. |
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| Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note: | "THIS DISC IS COPY-PROTECTED."--Container and disc labels. |
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