The Birth of a Nation 1915

New York Times: The civil war battle pictures, taken in panorama, represent enormous effort and achieve a striking degree of success. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: Griffith's later films are unquestionably superior. But here, in a very real sense, is where the movies began, both as an art and as a business. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Problematically, Birth of a Nation wasn't just a seminal commercial spectacle but also a decisively original work of art -- in effect, the founding work of cinematic realism, albeit a work that was developed to pass lies off as reality. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is an unavoidable fact of American movie history, and must be dealt with. Read more

Time Out: The biggest challenge the film provided for its audiences is perhaps to decide when 'ground-breaking, dedicated, serious cinematic art' must be reviled as politically reprehensible. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Birth of a Nation is a great epoch in picture making; it's great for pictures and it's great for the name and fame of David Wark Griffith. When a man like Griffith in a new field can do what he has done, he may as well be hailed while he is living. Read more