Directed by D.W. Griffith
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Kino Lorber)
The first American epic is set during the Civil War and its immediate aftermath. In the first half, President Lincoln reluctantly declares war on the southern states after they refuse to accept his Emancipation Proclamation. A wealthy southern family sends its sons off to fight, while a northern family finds itself in a position of political power after the assassination of Lincoln. In the second half, the only surviving southern brother, who is in love with the daughter of the northern politician, becomes leader of the Ku Klux Klan after freed blacks turn into armed mobs. They hunt down and kill the black man responsible for the death of his sister. Later, black soldiers kidnap his girlfriend and he leads the KKK to her rescue. In this film, at least, the KKK are more like medieval crusaders who come to the rescue of helpless southern whites. The second half is overplotted, and the film has a self-important air to it (right from the opening credits where it declares itself on the level of Shakespeare and The Bible), but there is no denying its place in cinema history.
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