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

The Battle (1911)

This Civil War drama, directed by D.W. Griffith, stars Charles H. West and Blanche Sweet, with Charles Hill Mailes, William Christy Cabanne, Donald Crisp and Robert Harron.

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 DVD edition has been transferred from a fair 16mm reduction print that appears to have originated from a Library of Congress paper print. Washed out highlights, grey midtones and poor image detail aren’t the only things wrong here. A significant amount of dust, speckling, schmutz, frame jitters, emulsion chipping, and other print flaws are seen. With the number of surviving prints of this film, we wonder if this is truly the best material available for this edition.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on piano by Jon C. Mirsalis.

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 has been discontinued and is . . .

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