Kino Video have announced that they will release on Blu-ray D.W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln (1930), starring Walter Huston, Una Merkel and William L. Thorne. Restored and remastered in HD for the first time ever, the film will be available for purchase on November 13th.
In November, Kino Video are also bringing to Blu-ray Fritz Lang's epic Die Nibelungen, Sergei Eisenstein Double Feature (2-Blu-ray set includes Battleship Potemkin and Strike), and The Selznick Collection (5-disc Blu-ray set includes Nothing Sacred, A Farewell to Arms, A Star is Born, Bird of Paradise and Little Lord Fauntleroy).
Update:
Special Features:
Mastered in HD from the 35mm restoration by The Museum of Modern Art
Introduction to The Birth of a Nation, featuring D.W. Griffith and Walter Huston
(filmed during production of Abraham Lincoln)
Often circulated in inferior versions mastered from 16mm prints, the Kino Classics edition is the most complete version available -- with approximately three minutes of footage missing from other DVD releases. The audio elements of these rediscovered scenes have been lost, and the missing dialogue and sound effects are provided via subtitles.
Finally Kino gets around to it, have loved that they have been working diligently on all of their Keaton films, but they have so much more, all of the Griffith Masterworks. Love it or Hate it; Birth of a Nation, does serve a purpose in modern filmmaking narration. Hopefully this will lead to a lot more Griffith , Intolerance (and like Metropolis found footage, if someone found the actual 3:30 cut of the film would me amazing) , Broken Blossoms, Orphans of the Storm, and the Bio Shorts.
The father of modern filmmaking needs to be presented to this generation.
@Chad - Before the Medveds did the Golden Turkeys, they explained how this one was SO reverent and by-the-numbers, it was a bit silly. Walter Huston's okay, but Spielberg it ain't.
(And yeah, think the Birth of a Nation Guy HAD to do this one as equal time to save studio face, and it comes off as grudging community service. I remember an archival talkie promo short for it on TCM where Griffith was interviewed, and he still wasn't exactly apologizing for his more famous movie.)
