Watch The Battle

Unlike many of D.W. Griffith's early Civil War melodramas, THE BATTLE focuses on actual combat. A Union soldier panics during his first fight and flees to his girlfriend's house. She bullies him back into harm's way as the balance of war begins to shift. Dynamic battle scenes jammed with uniformed extras anticipate Griffith's subsequent spectacles, though the loving sketches of domestic rituals are just as much a hallmark of the director's mature style. - Max Goldberg