About Intolerance (1916)
The story behind the film
After the enormous commercial success of The Birth of a Nation (1915), D. W. Griffith was the most powerful director in America — and one of the most criticised. The NAACP and many others condemned The Birth of a Nation for its racist stereotypes and its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith's next film, Intolerance, was partly his response. It was not an apology: Griffith said in interviews that the film was a rebuttal to his critics, whom he regarded as intolerant themselves. Modern viewers can weigh that claim for themselves; what is beyond dispute is the film's huge influence on how movies are made.
Griffith had already begun shooting a modern drama called The Mother and the Law. He then expanded it into a vast epic that intercuts four stories separated by centuries, each showing how intolerance has caused suffering throughout history:
- A modern story of a young couple in an American city, caught up in a factory strike, crime and the injustices of the legal system.
- A Judean story of the life and death of Jesus.
- A French story of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572.
- A Babylonian story of the fall of Babylon to Cyrus of Persia in 539 BC.
The stories are linked by a recurring image of a mother rocking a cradle, symbolising the passing of generations.
Cast & crew
- Directed by D. W. Griffith; cinematography by G. W. "Billy" Bitzer
- Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle (Eternal Motherhood)
- Mae Marsh as The Dear One
- Robert Harron as The Boy
- Constance Talmadge as The Mountain Girl
- Alfred Paget as Prince Belshazzar
- Seena Owen as The Princess Beloved
- Elmo Lincoln as The Mighty Man of Valor
- Bessie Love as The Bride
Why it's worth watching
Intolerance is one of the most ambitious films ever made. Its Babylon sequences remain jaw-dropping: the giant walls, the elephant statues, and the colossal feast of Belshazzar, filmed with sweeping camera movements over thousands of extras. Even more radical is the editing. As the film builds to its climax, Griffith cuts faster and faster between the four stories — a chariot race to save Babylon, a race to stop an execution in the modern story — creating a rhythm that critics have called "the only film fugue". Constance Talmadge's spirited Mountain Girl is a delight, and Mae Marsh gives one of the finest performances of the silent era.
It's long, but it's essential viewing for anyone interested in film history.
Fun facts
- The film used more than 3,000 extras, and the Babylon set on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles had walls reported to be 300 feet tall.
- Its cost was long reported as close to $2 million, but surviving accounts put the actual figure at about $386,000 — still a huge sum. The film is often called a flop, but it earned roughly $1.75 million, enough to recoup its budget.
- Its editing strongly influenced Soviet and European filmmakers, and several of Griffith's assistant directors, including Erich von Stroheim, Tod Browning and W. S. Van Dyke, became major directors.
- In 1989 Intolerance was among the first 25 films selected for the US National Film Registry.
Public-domain status
Intolerance was released in 1916, and US copyright on all films from that year has long since expired, so it is in the US public domain. See "Rights & source" below.