According to Griffith's assistant cameraman Karl Brown, when the director was told that the film might cause riots in Atlanta, his reaction was "I hope to god it does."

(Texte paru en 1994)

On the esthetic side, it established the basis of film technique. It established the supremacy of the film director. It established the motion picture as a weapon of propaganda. It demonstrated to the partisans of the stage and still older arts, that the new medium of Film could produce works of art and of thought.

(Texte paru en 1965)

The civil war battle pictures, taken in panorama, represent enormous effort and achieve a striking degree of success. (...) In term of purely pictorial value, the best work is done in those stretches of the film that follow the night riding of the men of the Ku-Klux Klan, who look like a company of avenging spectral crusaders sweeping along the moonlit roads.

(Texte paru en 1915)

Grifith, notre maître à tous!... Griffith a tout inventé, oui tout. Regardez-le au travail: il n'a entre les mains qu'une caméra immobile et lourde: pas question de travelling! Oui mais Griffith l'installera à l'arrière d'un camion pour photographier la course folle d'un de ces étranges cavaliers à la blouse blanche, porteur de crucifix qu'il lance dans les marais.

(Texte paru en 1971)