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Intolerance (film)

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Intolerance is a silent film directed by D.W. Griffith in 1916. The film, considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era, was made in response to critics, who claimed that Griffith's 1915 epic The Birth of a Nation was racist.

Contents

Background

Considered to be one of the most spectacular films of all time, Intolerance was a colossal undertaking filled with monumental sets, lavish period costumes, and more than 3,000 extras. The film consisted of four distinct but parallel stories that demonstrated mankind's intolerance during four different ages in world history. The timeline covered approximately 2,500 years, beginning with:

  1. The "Babylonian" period (539 BC) depicts the fall of Babylon as a result of intolerance arising from a conflict between devotees of different Babylonian gods.
  2. The "Judean" era (circa 27 AD) recounts how intolerance led to the crucifixion of Jesus.
  3. The French Renaissance (1572) tells of the failure of the Edict of Toleration that led to the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
  4. Modern America (1914) demonstrates how crime, moral puritanism, and conflicts between ruthless capitalists and striking workers helped ruin the lives of Americans.
These stories are not told separately. Instead the film constantly cuts between them, setting up moral and psychological connections among the different stories. As the four stories progress toward their climaxes, the cuts become more rapid. Breaks between the differing time-periods are marked by the symbolic image of a mother rocking a cradle, representing the passing of generations.

One of the unusual characteristics of the film is that none of the characters have names. Griffith wished them to be emblematic of human types. Thus, the central female character in the modern story is called The Dear One. Her young husband is called The Boy, and the leader of the local mafia is called The Musketeer of the Slums. Critics and film theorists indicate these names show Griffith's sentimentalism, which was already hinted at in The Birth of a Nation, with appellations such as The Little Colonel.

Actual costs to produce Intolerance are unknown, but best estimates are close to $2 million (around $33 million in today's dollars), an astronomical sum in 1916. The movie was by far the most expensive made at that point. When the movie became a flop at the box-office, the burden was so great that Griffith's famed Triangle Studios went bankrupt.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

A detailed account of the film’s making is told in the William M. Drew 1986 book titled .

A scene from the Babylon segment
Enlarge
A scene from the Babylon segment

Different existing versions

Although the film itself is now in the public domain, there are currently three major versions of the film in circulation.

There are other budget/public domain video and DVD versions of this film released by different companies, each with varying degrees of picture quality depending on the source that was used. A majority of these released are of poor picture quality.

Credits

Cast

External links

 

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