Other Titles • Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages • Intolerance • The Mother and the Law • Intolerance: A Sun-Play of the Ages • Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
Synopses for Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
1.
D.W. Griffith's Epic Masterpiece
"D.W. Griffith’s colossal spectacle" is considered by many critics to be the greatest film of the silent era. The lavish, innovative epic weaves four separate stories that depict the menace of hate, from ancient civilization up to the present day, tied together by a poignant motif of life's continuous struggle with good vs. evil in which the Eternal Mother (Lillian Gish) is seen rocking the cradle of humanity. Griffith's superb dramatization of intolerance is realized through the fall of Babylon, the Pharisees' condemnation of Jesus Christ, the persecution of Huguenots in 16-th century Paris during Catherine de Medici's regime and a contemporary morality play wherein social reformers destroy a young couple's pursuit of happiness.
After the swarm of controversy that Griffith experienced with The Birth of a Nation (1915), he used Intolerance to defensively answer his critics. At two million dollars, it was the most expensive film of its time; the outdoor set for the Babylon sequences was the largest ever created for a Hollywood picture, featuring a crowd of 16,000 extras. The nonlinear, cross-cutting narrative was among the many novel techniques that would influence the art of filmmaking for generations to come.
(35 votes)
2.
One of the most spectacular and ambitious films ever made, D.W. Griffith's Intolerance more than deserves its place in the annals of cinema history. Tackling the difficult theme of "how hatred and intolerance have battled against love and charity," Griffith's masterpiece encompasses four stories (the modern era, Jerusalem, 1572 Paris, and Babylon). Demonstrating "Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages." Griffith very skillfully employs his crosscutting technique to intertwine all the disparate narratives, and does it with such ease that it is truly a wonder to experience. As the action jumps back and forth in time, the pacing increases to a frenzy, creating a breathtaking climax near the film's conclusion that ties all the stories together and leaves the viewer in awe. Boasting a cast of thousands, gargantuan sets, chariot races, the crucifixion, death-defying stunts, and the fall of Babylon, Intolerance truly gives meaning to the words, "epic cinema." There can be no complete collection of silent cinema without this celluloid masterpiece.
(33 votes)
3.
Silent film director D.W. Griffith's biggest, most ambitious spectacle uses stories from different times and places to illustrate humanity’s intolerance of religious differences throughout the ages. The most visually impressive of these chronicles is the fall of Babylon, for which Griffith built the largest sets in Hollywood and filled them with thousands of extras; there's also Christ's crucifixion and the massacre of the Heugenots in 15th century France. The most emotionally involving tale is the "modern" one, about a poor girl (Mae Marsh) whose life is repeatedly ruined by the zealotry of social reformers. The image of a mother (Lillian Gish) rocking her child in a cradle ("the uniter of the here and hereafter") links the stories. At one point, angels reach down from heaven to stop soldiers in midbattle, making it clear that Griffith intended this follow-up to THE BIRTH OF A NATION as a message of global peace and love (and an answer to his critics’ accusations of racism). For a nation poised to enter World War I, this was perhaps the wrong message, and INTOLERANCE opened to mixed reviews and poor attendance. It is now rightly recognized as a unique work of cinematic art. The restored version includes color-tinted scenes.
(31 votes)
4.
After Birth of a Nation, what do you do for an encore, especially after said film has branded you a racist? D.W. Griffith, the silent era's "king of the world," mounted this melodramatic spectacle of "Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages," four stories that illustrate "how hatred and intolerance have battled against love and charity." Critic Heywood Broun, upon the film's release, probably said it best: "Quite the most marvelous thing which has been put on the screen, but as a theory of life it is trite." But what's on the screen is dazzling!
Griffith interweaves the four parallel stories set, respectively, in the modern era (fuddy-duddy reformers and a workers' strike), Jerusalem (Christ's crucifixion), 1572 Paris (a "hotbed" of persecution against the Huguenots), and ancient Babylon. No collection of silent films is complete without this landmark, awe-inspiring epic, which really does boast a cast of thousands (the most memorable of which is Constance Talmadge as the spunky Mountain Girl). The fall of Babylon ranks with one of the great action set pieces, complete with racing chariots, a nifty decapitation (at the hands of Elmo Lincoln, the man who would be Tarzan), and falls from what appear to be incredible heights. The edge-of-your-seat climax to the modern story, a race against time to save an innocent young man from the electric chair, is another bravura sequence. --Donald Liebenson
(29 votes)
5.
D.W. Griffith had a vision of the movies as the greatest spiritual force the world had ever known. Just one year after the huge success of "Birth Of A Nation," he was emboldened to prove his faith in the new medium with the superproduction "Intolerance." Four separate stories are interwoven: the fall of Babylon, the death of Christ, the massacre of the Huguenots and a contemporary drama, all crosscut and building with enormous energy to a thrilling chase finale. Through the juxtaposition of these well known sagas, Griffith joyously makes clear his markedly deterministic view of history, namely that the suffering of innocents makes possible the salvation of the current generation, symbolized by the boy in the modern love story.
(26 votes)
6.
D.W. Griffith's towering four-part epic of man's inhumanity to man throughout the ages, Intolerance is considered the greatest film of the silent era and perhaps the greatest film ever made. This DVD edition of Intolerance has been restored and reconstructed to 178 minutes with the original color tinting specifications and a digital stereo organ score by Gaylord Carter.
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