U: Teaching people about the uses of film to proffer propaganda, as well as an example of how the Lost Cause was exploiting New Media in its favor long before Holocaust Deniers, 9/11 Truthers, and Sandy Hook Truthers even conceptually existed. There are a great many historical contexts you could use that film for. It's actually a much better choice than Saturday Night Fever and the Graduate.

It could be, especially in the context of a film history course. But I could also imagine it being presented to a class as an accurate depiction of the founding of the Klan, of the south during reconstruction, etc.

Which it is not.