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Through a Glass. . .
Darkly, 1915–1938
It was the turn of the century, and the global political realities of the day were making
an impact upon a United States hoping to remain aloof to foreign involvement. But,
events in Europe would forever change the balance of world power and the stature of
the United States. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria and his
wife Sophie were traveling in a motorcade visiting Bosnia to observe military maneuvers
and to preside over the opening of the state museum in Sarajevo. A group of Serbian
nationalists known as The Black Hand assassinated the archduke and his wife, causing
Austria to seek assurances from Germany that it would support them in any means of
retaliation they chose. On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, be-
ginning World War I. Although President Woodrow Wilson attempted to shield America
from being involved and declared the country’s neutrality, it was the threat to America’s
commercial shipping by German submarine warfare that forced America’s entry on
April 6, 1917. America had a taste of the lethal German submarine fleet when a German
U-boat sank the Lusitania, a British passenger ship sailing from New York to Liverpool,
killing most of the passengers onboard, including 123 Americans.
THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: D. W. Griffith, H. E. Aitken (executive producer, uncredited)
WRITER(S): Thomas F. Dixon Jr.
CAST: Lillian Gish (Elsie Stoneman), Mae Marsh (Flora Cameron), Henry B. Walthall (Col.
Ben Cameron), Miriam Cooper (Margaret Cameron), Mary Alden (Lydia Brown), Ralph
Lewis (Austin Stoneman), George Siegmann (Silas Lynch), Walter Long (Gus), Robert
Harron (Tod Stoneman), Wallace Reid (Jeff the blacksmith)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: G. W. Bitzer
MUSIC: Joseph Carl Breil, D. W. Griffith
LENGTH
AND
RATING: 125 min; NR
Although the French and Italians were the first to introduce feature-length films, it was
the controversial and visionary director D. W. Griffith who brought the epic film to the
screen. Under his authorship, The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance became spectacular
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