In the name of patriotism and the strategic need for American support for a war effort they weren’t yet fully embracing, D.W. Griffith got to open up his old Birth of a Nation playbook for artistically crafted epic action set pieces, romance pitted against the vagaries of history, and the stripping of the humanity of the “other” — in this case "the Huns," standing in for freed slaves and abolitionists. Though out and out propaganda, the final product is nonetheless…