The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Continuity mistake: In the sequence entitled "Their State flag. The spirit of the South". When Ben Cameron enters the room and picks up his little sister, he is wearing his saber. When he then carries her across the room and shows her the flag, his saber is missing. (00:28:30)

Richard Lannom

Continuity mistake: During the war, one of the "chums" gets shot. He starts to convulse and flail all over the place. However, in the next shot he is suddenly still, and starts to convulse once again. (00:42:10)

Continuity mistake: Right in the beginning, we see a small black child in court. In the close-up of him, we see that he is near the back of the courtroom. However, the camera then cuts to a different angle and suddenly he is at the front of the courtroom, taking his seat.

Trivia: The film was a favorite of President Woodrow Wilson, a Southerner who was alleged to be a racist, evident through his purging of blacks working in the federal government during the first presidential term.

Trivia: It has been reported that the positive depiction of the Klu Klux Klan in the film was responsible for its rebirth in 1915. Unlike the Klan that existed during Reconstruction (which is mostly anti-black and anti-Northern), the "Second Klan" (which survives today) is white supremist, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and anti-homosexual.

megamii

Trivia: It was the first film to be viewed in the White House.

megamii

Intertitle: Second Part - Reconstruction. The agony which the South endured that a nation might be born. The blight of war does not end when hostilities cease.

Intertitle: If in this work we have conveyed to the mind the ravages of war to the end that war may be held in abhorrence, this effort will not have been in vain.

John Wilkes Booth: Sic semper tyrannis.