this is a hard one to rate. the first part of this movie was absolutely fantastic and by far the best filmmaking i've seen in a 1910s movie so far. it surpasses everything before it by miles. the battle scenes are outrageous and the acting is impeccable. i was so glued to the screen just trying to take it all in. but it's hard to gass it up too much, when this movie isn't just slightly racist. it's entire plot and purpose is to show, what they say in the first scene, that bringing black people to the US was a mistake. and to justify and romanticise the KKK. which is bad! and very uncomfortable! but I think the amount of racism and it being so in your face and intense makes it easier for a normal viewer to see that this type of historical revisionism is bad and obvious. that is to say, I don't think this movie is as dangerous as propaganda for a 2020s audience as for a 1910s one. stylistically the choice to have blackface actors and actual black actors in the same scenes was beyond stupid. it looked incredibly bad every time. lillian gish... what a woman! can't wait to see her again in the next dw griffith film not gonna rate this one. the first half is 4/5, after the intermission it's so hard to say because it's very incredibly racist and it makes it very hard. it was very exciting and kept my attention and I cared deeply about the characters but it also started feeling more cartoonish especially with the black villains. <b>part of:</b> <i><a href="https://boxd.it/2JIM">1001 movies to see before you die</a> <a href="https://boxd.it/55Mq">roger ebert's great movies</a> </i>

This movie, technically speaking is a masterpiece, it truly brought the medium to it's full extent. Historically speaking it's tremendously relevant. But at it's core, it's a racist, hateful movie that makes up the history of the American Civil War, it presents the KKK as heroes and paints all black people as savages incompatible with civilisation. And to make matters worse, it uses religion and patriotism to justify it all. Well, I'd like to remind all of you of Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." It doesn't say God created the white man in his own image, it doesn't say God created the black man in his own image. It says God created humanity, all of it. And anyone that's not willing to accept it shouldn't call themselves a Christian. On less religious topics, the film, interestingly enough, also supports it's racist arguments on the writings of president Woodrow Wilson, which of course caused an outrage and Wilson had to critise the movie, but the quotes are still there and Wilson never said they weren't his..