The Clansman, originally titled The Birth of a Nation, is a silent American epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish, released in 1915. The screenplay is based on Thomas Dixon Jr.’s novel and plays The Clansman, which was published in 1905. Griffith and Frank E. Woods co-wrote the screenplay, while Griffith and Harry Aitken produced the movie.
The Birth of a Nation is a film that has been praised for its technical prowess. It was the first 12-reel film ever shot, and it was also the longest at the time, lasting three hours.
Its plot, which is part fiction and part history, follows the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, as well as the relationship between two families during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods—the pro-Union (Northern) Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy (Southern) Camerons—over several years. It was the first American-made film to feature a musical score for an orchestra, and it was originally presented in two halves separated by an intermission.
The film was deemed ‘the most contentious film ever filmed in the United States: 198 and ‘the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history’ before its debut and has remained so ever since. African Americans around the country rallied and protested in response to the film’s representations of black people and Civil War history. Black leaders in Boston and other cities attempted to have it banned because it exacerbated racial tensions and could lead to violence.
The Birth of a Nation’s box office gross is unknown and has been the subject of exaggeration. When the movie first came out, the tickets were extremely expensive. The film was shown for 44 weeks at the Liberty Theater in Times Square, New York City, with tickets costing $2.20 (equivalent to $56 in 2020).
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