First-Time Viewing

The Birth of a Nation

Release Date:March 21, 1915

Running Time:195 min

Genres:Drama, History, War

Director

Cast

Lillian Gish Mae Marsh Henry B. Walthall Miriam Cooper Mary Alden Ralph Lewis George Siegmann Walter Long Robert Harron Wallace Reid Joseph Henabery Elmer Clifton

Top billed cast (via TMDB).

Synopsis

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

Where to watch

Streaming