It pioneered closeups and fadeouts, and it includes a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras (another first) made to look like thousands. It was originally shown in two parts separated by an intermission, and it was the first American-made film to have a musical score for an orchestra. Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship of two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras over the course of several years-the pro- Union ( Northern) Stonemans and the pro- Confederacy ( Southern) Camerons.

It was the first non-serial American 12- reel film ever made. The Birth of a Nation is a landmark of film history, lauded for its technical virtuosity. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E.

The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play The Clansman. The Birth of a Nation, originally called The Clansman, is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D.

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