Die Geburt einer Nation (1915)
30KDie Geburt einer Nation: Directed by D.W. Griffith. With Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper. The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln’s assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
“This movie had the stockholders quaking when they saw the costs mount. It was the most expensive movie made up to that time, and it shows that silent films really COULD create spectacle on a grand scale.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne of the posters remarked on how ridiculous the Klansmenu0026#39;s hoods looked. Actually, the original u0026quot;ghost costumesu0026quot; were all homemade and there was no standardized uniform- some had spikes on the head, horns, painted faces on the masks, etc. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI myself had an ancestor who was a member of the Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan, and they saw themselves as guerilla fighters against an occupying power, not as terrorists. Today we can condemn them. At the time, it must have seemed to them that the war was over, but that the battle lines were still firmly drawn.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis film is a good peek into the attitude of the general public in 1915 about Reconstruction. It became a national obsession, and probably gave impetus to Col. William Joseph Simmonsu0026#39;s decision to u0026quot;resurrectu0026quot; the Klan in that year.”
