The Birth of a Nation
The Fiery Cross of the Ku Klux Klan!
1915 · 193 min · ★ 6.0 · Drama, History, War
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.
Directed by D.W. Griffith · Written by Frank E. Woods
Your Rating
Cast
-
Lillian Gish Stoneman's Daughter Elsie -
Mae Marsh Flora Cameron -
Henry B. Walthall Col. Ben Cameron -
Miriam Cooper Margaret Cameron -
Mary Alden Stoneman's Housekeeper Lydia -
Ralph Lewis Leader of the House Hon. Austin Stoneman -
George Siegmann Lieut. Governor Silas Lynch -
Walter Long Gus -
Robert Harron Tod -
Wallace Reid Jeff, the Blacksmith -
Joseph Henabery Abraham Lincoln -
Elmer Clifton Stoneman's Elder Son Phil
Trailers & Videos
The Life of a Nation Collection
More from D.W. GriffithSee all →
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages · 1916Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
★ 7.11916
MovieDramaHistory
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl · 1919Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl
★ 6.91919
MovieDramaRomance
The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
American Experience · 1988American Experience
★ 6.51988
SeriesDocumentary
TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch · 1913The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
★ 5.91913
MovieActionWestern
Two young girls are sent away to live with their uncle, which sets off a chain of events resulting in an Indian attack on the town.
Hoodoo Ann · 1916Hoodoo Ann
★ 5.61916
MovieRomanceComedy
A teenage orphan (who believes herself to be "hoodooed") is taken in by a childless couple and quickly falls for the boy next door; Her luck seems to have changed. But the idyll is broken up after a trip to the movies-- It seems the 'hoodoo' has returned after she tries to replicate what she'd seen on the screen.
1776, or The Hessian Renegades · 19091776, or The Hessian Renegades
★ 5.21909
MovieHistoryWar
During the American Revolution, a young soldier carrying a crucial message to General Washington is spotted and pursued by a group of enemy soldiers. He takes refuge with a civilian family, but is soon detected. The family and their neighbors must then make plans to see that the important message gets through after all.
To Save Her Soul · 1909To Save Her Soul
★ 5.21909
MovieDrama
Agnes, a singer in a country church, is practicing one day when a vaudeville manager hears her and offers her a job. Over the objections of the curate who loves her, she accepts the offer and goes to the city. Later the curate goes to hear Agnes perform and, fearing that her soul is being corrupted by show business, he asks her to return to the small town with him. When she refuses, he is prepared to kill her in order to protect the purity of her soul. This brings about her change of heart, and together they return to the little church.
Three Friends · 1913Three Friends
★ 5.01913
MovieDrama
Each night, after the day's work at the factory, the three bachelor friends met and declared anew their attachment over a social glass. They bound themselves to remain thus as long as life might last, never to marry. But one was a traitor, while the other two were called away. A widened breach, a quarrel, fanned the resentment, but true friendship at last claimed its own.
Muggsy's First Sweetheart · 1910Muggsy's First Sweetheart
★ 5.01910
MovieComedy
A scrappy lad from the skids attempts to court a well-to-do maiden. During his visits to her family estate, he upsets the Uplift committee that's weaseled their way into the home.
Fifty-Fifty · 1916Fifty-Fifty
★ 5.01916
MovieDrama
Naomi is a young aspiring artist known to her Bohemian friends as "The Nut." Naomi's alleged nuttiness does not in any way impede the efforts by wealthy Frederick Harmon to make the unworldly heroine his bride. When their first baby is born, Naomi becomes so obsessed with motherhood that she completely ignores poor Harmon, who, to offset his loneliness, begins squiring the vampish Helen Carew. Helen manages to convince Harmon that Naomi has been unfaithful, leading inevitably to divorce-court litigation.
The Eternal Mother · 1912The Eternal Mother
★ 4.81912
Movie
John and Mary divorce their spouses to marry each other. Mary dies after giving birth and the baby is taken in by John's first wife, Martha. She refuses all contact with John until many years later when he becomes ill and she finally forgives him for deserting her.
Through Darkening Vales · 1911Through Darkening Vales
★ 4.51911
Movie
Hard-working Dave loves Grace, but she rejects him for a flashier suitor. Grace is blinded in an accident, and her suitor abandons her. Meanwhile, Dave also goes blind from eye strain caused by overwork. Dave learns of Grace's misfortune and gives a doctor the money he was saving for his own operation, so her sight can be restored.
The Renunciation · 1909The Renunciation
★ 4.41909
MovieWestern
Two miners are fighting over a woman, and one is about to murder the other in his sleep. At the critical moment, the woman introduces her fiancé from the city.
General Massacre · 1973General Massacre
★ 4.21973
MovieWarDrama
The story focuses on a veteran (the General) who served the military during WWII, Vietnam and the Korean War. He has quite a few alarming conceptions about warfare ("politics are the extension of war", “Civilians are as much the enemy as men in uniform”…) When he returns to his estate in Antwerp, he continues to live under the impression of being in command of his troops and hikes into the nearby woods fully armoured.
Remodeling Her Husband · 1920Remodeling Her Husband
★ 4.01920
MovieComedy
After she marries Jack Valentine, Janie Wakefield discovers that her husband's reputation as a flirt is well deserved when she sees him riding in a taxi with a strange woman. Jaine sets out to remodel her husband into the man she wants.
The Failure · 1911The Failure
★ 4.01911
MovieDramaRomance
A man loses his business and his fiancée, and drifts into the saloons. There he meets a similarly-downtrodden young woman. She works behind the scenes to help him recover his life, and eventually he realizes how steadfast she is.
More Like This
The Common Man · 1975The Common Man
★ 7.01975
MovieDrama
Georges Lajoie is a Parisian café owner. As every summer, Georges, his wife Ginette and grown-up son Léon go on holiday to Loulou's campsite, where they meet up with the Schumacher family (whose father is a bailiff) and the Colin family (who sells bras in the markets). This year, their peace is slightly disturbed by the proximity of a construction site where foreign workers are employed. Xenophobic comments are made. One evening at the ball, a fight breaks out between Lajoie, Albert Schumacher and two algerian immigrant workers...
Vixen! · 1968Vixen!
★ 5.51968
MovieDrama
In a Canadian mountain resort, Vixen Palmer resides with her naive pilot husband Tom. While he's away flying in tourists, she sleeps with practically everybody including a husband and his wife, and even her biker brother. However, the only one she won't bed is her brother's friend... who is Black.
L'Âge d'or · 1930L'Âge d'or
★ 6.81930
MovieRomanceComedy
The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song · 1971Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
★ 5.21971
MovieActionCrime
After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.
A Bridge Too Far · 1977A Bridge Too Far
★ 7.21977
MovieDramaHistory
The story of Operation Market Garden—a failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of WWII to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in Holland allowing access over the Rhine into Germany. A combination of poor allied intelligence and the presence of two crack German panzer divisions meant that the final part of this operation (the bridge in Arnhem over the Rhine) was doomed to failure.
The Chamber · 1996The Chamber
★ 6.01996
MovieCrimeDrama
Idealistic young attorney Adam Hall takes on the death row clemency case of his racist grandfather, Sam Cayhall, a former Ku Klux Klan member he has never met.
Three Kings · 1999Three Kings
★ 6.61999
MovieActionComedy
A group of American soldiers stationed in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War find a map they believe will take them to a huge cache of stolen Kuwaiti gold hidden near their base, and they embark on a secret mission that's destined to change everything.
The Last Full Measure · 2020The Last Full Measure
★ 7.32020
MovieDramaAction
The incredible true story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger, a U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen medic who personally saved over sixty men. Thirty-two years later, Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman investigates a Congressional Medal of Honor request for Pitsenbarger and uncovers a high-level conspiracy behind the decades-long denial of the medal, prompting Huffman to put his own career on the line to seek justice for the fallen airman.
The Last Laugh · 1924The Last Laugh
★ 7.81924
MovieDrama
An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel, is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society.
Ravenous · 1999Ravenous
★ 6.81999
MovieAdventureWestern
After arriving at his new, remote Army outpost, Capt. John Boyd and his regiment aid a wounded frontiersman who recounts a horrifying tale of a wagon train murdered by its supposed guide – a vicious U.S. Army colonel gone rogue. Fearing the worst, the regiment heads out into the wilderness to verify the gruesome claims.

