Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

D.W. Griffith’s greatest triumph remains the most-discussed film of the entire silent era of cinema. Creaky and melodramatic, the film nonetheless still retains much of the emotional power to move audiences — although, today, the pro Ku Klux Klan film tends to move viewers to outraged indignation. The film remains important for its ground-breaking storytelling scope and methods, and probably is the greatest guilty pleasure of cinema in today’s politically-correct world.

We are careful not to identify any surviving version of the film as the original 1915 release version, as it has been well-documented by historians that in the months following the film’s initial release, and for years after, D.W. Griffith continued to reshape the film through small abridgements and reedited sequences. Some prints are, there is no doubt, victims of amateur editors employed by censors, exhibitors, and regional and rerelease distributors. Any surviving version of The Birth of a Nation is a record of the survival state of the individual source print utilized to create the legion of duplicate 35mm prints and 16mm reduction prints in film archives and in distributors’ warehouses.

A synchronized music and sound effects soundtrack was added to the film for a 1930 American rerelease. Some surviving prints of that version still exist.

In recent years, attempts have been made by the cancel culture movement to deny your access to this film. They want us to believe that it should never be seen again at all. This group has already pressured Amazon.com away from offering home video editions of the film for sale on their retail sites worldwide or from presenting the film in their video streaming services. While certain aspects of the film are humanly indefensible, we feel that is not an excuse for censorship (or worse, the destruction) of this film. We feel that you have a right to examine the film on your own terms and that you are intelligent enough to sort out what is right and wrong about the filmmaker’s political stand. Do not give in to censorship regardless of the so-called good intentions of those who seek to control what art you have access to and to control what you think.

— Carl Bennett

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from the 2015 Photoplay Productions version mainly prepared by Patrick Stanbury from an archival 35mm print of the 1921 rerelease version of the film. Missing footage in the main print has been digitally-inserted from other prints. The 2K high-definition scan (with 4K inserts) has been digitally restored with image stabilization and removal of major print flaws. Some dust and speckling, emulsion scuffing, fine scratches and other minor flaws remain. All in all, an absolute pleasure to watch.

The film is accompanied by the original 1915 music score by Joseph Carl Briel, arranged and conducted by John Lanchbery, and presented in uncompressed 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo sound. Music for the Civil War extras is performed by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra and Stephen Horne.

Supplemental material includes the 1930 sound version introduction to The Birth of a Nation, featuring a staged conversation between D.W. Griffith and actor Walter Huston, mastered from an excellent 35mm print (6 minutes) and the intermission and the introduction to the second part of the film with Griffith and Huston from a very-good to excellent 35mm print (2 minutes); four additional Griffith Civil War films, including a complete presentation of The Coward (1915); outtakes and camera tests from the production of The Birth of a Nation from the Library of Congress (silent, 39 minutes); “The Birth of a Nation Score Recording Sessions,” documentary footage in 5.1 audio (21 minutes); D.W. Griffith’s 1936 appearance on Lux Radio Theater with Cecil B. DeMille (4 minutes); “The Birth of a Nation: The Legacy,” a featurette by John McCarty (18 minutes); “The Clansman: From Stage to Screen,” a featurette by Daniel Griffith, with historian David Mayer (17 minutes); a text essay “We Can Never Censor the Past” by Kevin Brownlow (9 screens); a text essay “The Birth of a Nation: The 2015 Restoration” by Patrick Stanbury (5 screens); a text essay “Fighting Back: Responding to The Birth of a Nation” by Ashley Clark (8 screens); a timed still photograph and advertising materials gallery (73 images, 14 minutes); and an 8-page insert booklet with an essay on The Birth of a Nation by Julie Kirgo.

This is our current recommended home video edition of The Birth of a Nation. It is, unfortunately, out-of-print.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This dual-format Blu-ray Disc / DVD edition has been transferred from high-quality 35mm materials. The set is made up of one Blu-ray Disc featuring the remastered HD edition of the film, while two other DVD discs are identical to the content of the 2011 Kino remastered DVD edition noted below (which seems redundant).

The HD version of the film is presented with music performed by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. The standard-deinition version of the film is accompanied by the original Joseph Breil music score as arranged and conducted by Robert Israel, and performed by a small ensemble.

Mysteriously, this edition has disappeared from all Amazon sites — likely due to pressure from the cancel culture movement.

This Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

The film is presented with music performed by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

The supplemental material includes seven Griffith Civil War short films; and a 44-page insert booklet.

North American collectors will need a region-free Blu-ray Disc and/or a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This three-disc DVD edition has been transferred from high-quality 35mm materials. The set is made up of one DVD disc featuring the remastered HD edition of the film, while two other DVD discs represent the content of the 2002 Kino DVD edition noted below.

The remastered version of the film is presented with music performed by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. The standard-deinition version of the film is accompanied by the original Joseph Breil music score as arranged and conducted by Robert Israel, and performed by a small ensemble.

Mysteriously, this edition has disappeared from all Amazon sites — likely due to pressure from the cancel culture movement.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .

This two-disc DVD edition has been transferred from high-quality 35mm materials. It is, in fact, identical to the Image edition noted below that was produced for home video by David Shepard. The highlights of the natural-speed video transfer are only occasionally burnt-out with most being fairly well controlled, while shadows are also being a little plugged in the darkest places. The amber-sepia middle tones are fairly well balanced and detailed.

The film is accompanied by the original Joseph Breil music score as arranged and conducted by Robert Israel, and performed by an ensemble. The Breil music is best presented in this satisfying stereo recording.

The edition also contains seven additional short Civil War films directed by D.W. Griffith, including In the Border States (1910), The House with Closed Shutters (1910), The Fugitive (1910), His Trust (1911), His Trust Fulfilled (1911), Swords and Hearts (1911) and The Battle (1911).

Supplemental material includes the 1930 sound version introduction to The Birth of a Nation, featuring a staged conversation between D.W. Griffith and actor Walter Huston, mastered from a good 16mm reduction print (6 minutes); a 1993 featurette on the making of the film written by Russell Merritt and narrated by David Shepard (24 minutes); a collection of documents presented as “New York vs. The Birth of a Nation,” a reproduction of an article in which Griffith discusses the film; exerpts from the source novel; plus a gallery of posters, ads and programs.

Mysteriously, this out-of-print edition has disappeared from all Amazon sites — likely due to pressure from the cancel culture movement intending to eliminate The Birth of a Nation from the face of the earth. This DVD edition is also included in Kino’s Griffith Masterworks boxset.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is . . .

We originally viewed this DVD edition in the 1992 laserdisc version of this release and expected this early DVD to be of the same high quality.

David Shepard has assembled to most complete edition of Griffith’s controversial film. When compared to the 1991 Lumivision laserdisc edition (and its subsequent release on DVD), this Image Entertainment edition features restrained sepia and color toning of the picture, some scenes are extended, it has additional shots and scenes not included in other home video editions, and they are all edited together in a much easier to follow continuity. For a film of this age, and considering the fragmented history of the many prints that have survived Griffith’s and censors edits, the film is in very good condition, with some print wear noticable. The only thing available in the laserdisc edition and missing from the DVD edition is the reproduction of the 1915 roadshow programme booklet. Based on our knowledge of the laserdisc version, we recommend this David Shepard edition of The Birth of a Nation.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

We originally viewed this video master, which was prepared from a 35mm print held by the George Eastman Museum archive, in the Lumivision laserdisc edition that was released in 1991. The Lumivision laserdisc’s oversaturated color-tones were garish to the point of distraction. We have since viewed this Triton DVD edition prepared from the same video master. The color saturation issue is not a problem with this DVD edition.

When this edition is compared to home video producer David Shepard’s DVD editions detailed above, some scenes in this print were edited and presented in a confusing continuity. But the fault was not with Lumivision or the George Eastman Museum film archive, suppliers of the 35mm print utilized for the video transfer appearing on this DVD. The Birth of a Nation is well-documented as a film that was under sporadic revision for years after its release at the hands of its direct, D.W. Griffith, and others. It should be no surprise that a straight transfer of an existing original print might render confusing results. Still, for a film of this age, and considering the fragmented history of the many prints that have survived Griffith’s and censors edits, the film is in very good condition, with some print wear that is noticeable.

The original music score by Joseph Breil, with some arrangements along the way, is performed on synthesizers.

The disc also features exerpts from The Birth of a Race (1918), a feature film response to The Birth of a Nation.

Surprises never cease if you are prone to assumptions, and we assumed that this budget DVD edition from Catcom Home Video was going to be mastered from a 16mm reduction print like most other low-cost discs. Instead, we were flabbergasted to discover that this disc has been mastered from the same predominantly sepia-toned full-frame, natural-speed video transfer produced by David Shepard for the 1998 Image edition noted above. Not manufactured to the same high-quality standards, this edition does have a few video glitches to remind you of how little the disc costs.

The ensemble music score arranged and conducted by Robert Israel, originally a stereo recording, has been reduced to mono for this release.

This DVD-R edition has been transferred from a 16mm reduction print from a private collection of the 1930 rerelease version, with a soundtrack of synchronized music and sound effects. The source print is slightly flat, with light grey highlights and charcoal grey shadows, but their is a reasonably good range of greytones in between. The image detail is OK for an older 16mm print, and better looking than many. The windowboxed video transfer will appear full-frame on most television monitors, and appears to accurately reproduce what image detail exists in the source print.

Structurally different from earlier versions in its editing and with some different intertitles, the 1930 version of the film is shorter than earlier versions as some sequences begin or end abruptly with a soundtrack pop. The original cinematography, shot at a Griffith-imposed slow cranking speed, zips by in this 24-frames-per-second sound version also accounting for the shorter running time. People clapping their hands in a shot do so at a hummingbird-wing rate. This edition is missing the spoken introduction by D.W. Griffith and Walter Huston from the 1930 sound-rerelease version.

The film is accompanied by the music score compiled by Louis F. Gottschalk as recorded, with primitive synchronized sound effects, for the sound rerelease. It is reproduced here from the optical soundtrack of the 16mm source print.

Occasionally, “Reelclassicdvd.com” appears for several seconds in yellow type in the lower right-hand corner to discourage video pirates (and collectors, who don’t want such things imposed upon their film viewing).

Included as supplemental material is a theatrical trailer for the sound rerelease (2 minutes). The notoriously slow Griffith footage (usually shot around 15-16 frames a second) races by in this sound-speed 16mm reduction print. The announcer and his bombastic script are the attraction.

This is the best-looking home video edition of one of the many 16mm reduction prints available of the 1930 sound rerelease version of the film.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from Reelclassicdvd.com through . . .

This budget DVD edition has been mastered from a very-good print that appears to be a 16mm reduction print, which is slightly greyed out but remains quite watchable. The print rarely has blasted out highlights, but the shadows dark and verge on featureless. There is the same amount of speckling, dust and emulsion damage that is present in other surviving prints of the film. The full-frame video transfer has been made at close to natural speed and holds much of the detail present in the source print, but we saw at least one instance where a video glitch from the source master tape playback was present in the disc.

The film is accompanied by a canned classical orchestral music that is pleasant enough but it reproduced in varying volume and quality, and rarely has anything to do with what is happening on-screen.

Not a bad edition for the few dollars it costs — in fact it is the best-looking of the cheapy Birth of a Nation DVDs we have reviewed — but we still recommend the Image or Kino editions noted above.

This disc is a rip-off in more ways than one. Not only is it an unashamed pirating of the Lumivision/SlingShot/Triton editions noted above, lifted wholesale from those discs, the visual image is so overcompressed that it can be a challenge to watch this DVD. When a standard DVD-R disc can hold approximately 4.4 Gb of program information, this disc barely tops 3.0 Gb for a 190-minute presentation! The results are only about as good as the visual quality of a VHS videotape.

The film is accompanied by the same synthesizer music score offered on the Lumivision/SlingShot/Triton editions but doesn’t sound as good.

If you want the George Eastman Museum version of The Birth of a Nation, pass on this one and try to get one of the out-of-print Lumivision/SlingShot/Triton discs instead.

You get what you pay for. Just remember that old saying and you may save yourself from wasting a little pocket change.

Ask how you can fit a 180-minute film onto a single-layer DVD and the answer comes back . . . overcompress the video information! While the source material for this DVD edition of The Birth of a Nation utilizes a very-good 16mm reduction print, the MPEG-2 video compression bit rate is low enough (an average of 2.5 megabytes per second) to be obvious in any still frame on any size monitor and remains as apparent in full motion to experienced eyes. The result is a passible picture at first glance, but soon the blocky lack of true detail becomes noticeable and gradually annoying (particularly on monitors larger than 24 inches).

The print itself appears to be on a par in detail and tonal range to the other budget editions of The Birth of a Nation available in Region 1 on DVD. The print’s highlights are rarely blasted out to white, but the greyscale range is a little on the flat and grey side, while image shadows remain open and reasonably detailed. The image framing is generally open, as well.

An orchestral music score has been cobbled together from existing recordings and does a passible job of accompanying the film.

Since there is better to be had, our recommendation is to pass on this one and spend a little more for the Image edition from David Shepard’s Film Preservation Associates.

This two-disc DVD-R edition has been digitally video transferred from a 16mm reduction print prepared by Griggs Moviedrome/Essex Films. The good to very-good print loses image detail in many of its highlights and is closed-up in shadows, but reproduces more of the original camera framing than some 16mm prints that are tightly cropped.

Unfortunately, we are not happy with the video encoding of the disc that leaves a picture of noticable digital artifacts in a dithered pattern (as any still frame will confirm). The artifacts are not as visually apparent on a standard-resolution television, but the coarse dithering pattern actually diffuses image detail on a high-definition monitor.

The film is accompanied by an excellent music score composed and performed on Miditzer virtual (computer-based) theatre pipe organ by Ben Model. Usually, 16mm print-based home video editions of silent films do not feature such high-quality music. The music is the highlight of this edition.

While the picture looks OK on a standard-definition television, you have to ask yourself how much longer will you have your NTSC television before you bite the HD bullet. Several home video editions noted above do a much better job of representing the silent film versions of The Birth of a Nation.

This DVD edition was transferred from a 16mm reduction print of the 1930 sound rerelease version. Due to the low camera-cranking rate of early Griffith films (approximately 15 FPS) and to the 24 FPS speed at which the sound rerelease was duplicated, the film’s action zips by with unintended comic effect.

The 16mm reduction print utilized for the video transfer is very soft of image detail, with grey highlights and deep shadows. A persistent hair in the gate of the negative-to-positive duplication stage shows up at the bottom of the frame of the early reels. There is a little print dust, but almost no speckling. There are also a few twitchy video glitches that have been allowed to go by, such as at 4:21 into the disc.

The film’s accompaniment is the music score compiled by Louis F. Gottschalk as recorded, with sound effects, for the sound rerelease. It is reproduced here from the optical soundtrack of the 16mm print in all its noisy, hissing mono glory.

This edition has made the sound rerelease version available to collectors who are completists, and it might be of some value for that reason, but do not let this shortened, blurry, manic version be your first exposure to this great film.

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

Not recommended.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is . . .

Don’t expect much.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is . . .

Other silent era LILLIAN GISH films available on home video.

Other silent era MAE MARSH films available on home video.

Other WALLACE REID films available on home video.

Other silent era ERICH VON STROHEIM films available on home video.

Other CIVIL WAR FILMS of the silent era available on home video.