Civilization (film)

Civilization
Directed byReginald Barker
Thomas H. Ince
Raymond B. West
Screenplay byC. Gardner Sullivan
Edward Sloman
Story byC. Gardner Sullivan
Produced byThomas H. Ince
StarringHoward C. Hickman
Enid Markey
George Fisher
Herschel Mayall
CinematographyJoseph H. August
Dal Clawson
Clyde De Vinna
Otis M. Gove
Devereaux Jennings
Charles E. Kaufman
Robert Newhard
Irvin Willat
Edited byThomas H. Ince
Hal C. Kern
LeRoy Stone
Irvin Willat
Music byHugo Riesenfeld
Victor Schertzinger
Distributed byTriangle Film Corporation
Release date
  • June 2, 1916 (1916-06-02)
Running time
88 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent film
English intertitles

Civilization is a 1916 American pacifist drama film produced by Thomas H. Ince, written by C. Gardner Sullivan and Edward Sloman, and directed by Ince, Reginald Barker and Raymond B. West. The story involves a submarine commander who refuses to fire at a civilian ocean liner supposedly carrying ammunition for his country's enemies. The film was a big-budget spectacle that was compared to both The Birth of a Nation and the paintings of Jean-François Millet. The film was a popular success and was credited by the Democratic National Committee with helping to re-elect Woodrow Wilson as the U.S. president in 1916. The film was one of the early movies to depict Jesus Christ as a character, leading some to criticize the depiction as in "poor taste."

Civilization is sometimes viewed as one of the first anti-war films. In 1999, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[1][2]

  1. ^ "Preserving the Silver Screen (December 1999) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  2. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-06-01.