Ever notice that every blockbuster movie has the same fundamental pieces? A hero, a journey, some conflicts to muck it all up, a reward, and the hero returning home and everybody applauding his or her swag? Yeah, scholar Joseph Campbell noticed first—in 1949. He wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces, in which he outlined the 17 stages of a mythological hero's journey.

About half a century later, Christopher Vogler condensed those stages down to 12 in an attempt to show Hollywood how every story ever written should—and, uh, does—follow Campbell's pattern. We're working with those 12 stages, so take a look. (P.S. Want more? We have an entire Online Course devoted to the hero's journey.)

Well, The Birth of a Nation is a wide-reaching historical epic, so it doesn't quite fit the "hero's journey" bill. Instead the film is divided into two parts, each of which covers a specific historical period. What's more, we follow a wide range of stories—from the struggles of Ben Cameron, to the political intrigue of Washington, to the romance between Phil and Margaret—which means that there's at least a half dozen journeys going on at the same time.