The film was controversial even before its release and has remained so ever since; it has been called "the most controversial film ever made in the United States Lincoln is portrayed positively, unusual for a narrative that promotes the Lost Cause ideology. The film portrays African Americans (many of whom are played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive toward white women. The film presents the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic force necessary to preserve American values and a white supremacist social order so it ended in many people seeing this as a vary racist film
