Wolff rating: UNRATED
Plot summary: Follows the story of a Southern family before, during, and after the Civil War; really two movies in one, the first about the waste of war and the second a racist epic about the Ku Klux Klan.
Biased, pithy comments: D.W. Griffith's masterpiece of film (the longest movie filmed to date) is frustrating. Besides being one of the first films to ever use deep-focus shots, night photography, and a host of other firsts that makes this film an intergal part of film history, Griffith (when he isn't openly moralizing) can really make a scene exciting. Despite the fact that almost every scene that got racists' heart pounding when it was first filmed seems both tame and harmless (passing of a law that legalizes interracial marriage, putting black men in uniform, a black soldier proposing marriage to a white woman), the film still pushes all the wrong buttons, and you can't help but hope the Klan will arrive in time to save a family that is clearly in danger. (Of course, if they weren't mudering racists, they might not have been in danger in the first place, but that's as may be.) So, although this is a really fascinating film (a little slow at the beginning but takes off near the end, along with a heart-rending re-enactment of Lincoln's assassination), about the time everyone is whipping out their white sheets you can't help but be repulsed. Thus, this is a film for study and to be marveled at for its fine craftsmanship using incredibly primitive tools.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Lilian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Ralph Lewis, George Siegmann, Walter Long.
Directed by: D.W. Griffith