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sabotai · 08-14-2006, 03:33 PM

Intolerance (1916)
Director: D.W. Griffth
Starring: Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, Elmer Clifton, Alfred Paget, Seena Owen
Length: 178 Minutes

Honors
Nominated AFI's "100 Years...100 Movies"
Nominated AFI's "100 Years...100 Thrills"

D.W. Griffth's follow up to The Birth Of A Nation, he created this film as an answer to the controversy that Borth caused. He originally was creating a shorter film about the Progressive Era labor unrest and strikes. He added three seperate story lines taking place in different time periods and wrapped them around a single theme.

The modern story is about a man who scrapes by after losing his job. He ends up marrying a girl, but is framed for a crime by a local "mob boss" for whom he did work for, but quit. While in jail, his wife gives birth to their child, but then the child is taken away by a group of over-zealous women who think they know better than everyone else and that their perceptions are always spot on (DYFS anyone?). They get a warrent to take her baby away. The mob boss promises to get her baby back, after he takes an interest in her. Her husband is released from jail, but when the mob boss' wife kills the mob boss, the husband is found with the gun (the boss' wife threw the gun into the room and the husband picked it up) and is taken back to jail and sentanced to death. The mob boss' wife confesses and the man is saved at the last second.

The second story line is that of Jesus and his batryal and crucifixion. It was pretty much worthless as there were only 3 or 4 scenes for this story line and took up a toal of 10 minutes, if that. It felt tacted on.

The third story line is that of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre during the reigh of Cathrine de Mecini and her son Charles IX of France. Another pretty worthless storyline as it took up maybe 15 minutes, if that. This storyline felt tacted on as well and only served, along with the previous storyline, as a distraction from the modern story and the 4th story, the fall of Babylon. I continually forgot about these two story lines as the Modern and Babylon stories dominated in length.

The 4th story, and best story IMO, was the Babylon story. It is the story of a Mountain Girl who is sent to the Babylonian Courts by her brother for being "incorrigable". King Belshazzar gives her freedom from the "marriage market" (she was sentanced there by the court to be sold to a good husband). Later, she is sentanced to death for fighting a priest, but the King pardons her when she pleads that the only reason she attacked the priest was because he said bad things about the king. The Mountain Girl learns of a plot by the High Priest to betray the king, but the king is hesitant to believe her. His hesitation causes the downfall of Babylon as the Persian armies enter the great city when the gates are left open.

Two huge battles are fought during the Babylon story. The sets built for the Babylon story were enormous, the largest built for a movie. They featured thousands of extras, cavarly and war elephants for the battles, large props, etc. Part of the set for the Babylon story stood in Hollywood for many years.

The movie cuts between storylines as the movie progresses, the first time a movie was present in a non-linear/hybrid way. Intolerance was not a commercial success, most likely due in large part to this. Audiences were not used to seeing a movie this way and were probably confused through some of it.

The Babylong story was very entertaining, while the Modern story was just okay. As I said before, the Judean and French storylines were pretty worthless and only served as a distraction due to them being very short compared to the other two. Recent archeaologist finds at the time had spurred interest in Babylonian times, and I wonder if it would have been more profitable had Griffith released the Modern story and Babylon stories as seperate movies. The budget is unknown, but best estimates place it at $2 million ($33 million today), an astronomical sum for the time. It was a flop at the box office, and caused Griffith's studio to go bankrupt. This result might be part of the reason why it would be awhile before a studio put that much money into making a movie again.

The historical rating is high, despite it being a flop, as many people do consider it a masterpiece and one of the best silent films ever made. The entertainment rating suffers due to 3 of the 4 storylines not being that good. Rating them seperately, I'd give the Babylon story an 8, the Modern story a 5 and the two storylines that were so short, I already have forgotten what they were about, 2 each.

Historical Rating: 8/10
Entertainment Raiting: 6/10

08-14-2006, 03:33 PM	#33
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	Intolerance (1916) Director: D.W. Griffth Starring: Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, Elmer Clifton, Alfred Paget, Seena Owen Length: 178 Minutes Honors Nominated AFI's "100 Years...100 Movies" Nominated AFI's "100 Years...100 Thrills" D.W. Griffth's follow up to The Birth Of A Nation, he created this film as an answer to the controversy that Borth caused. He originally was creating a shorter film about the Progressive Era labor unrest and strikes. He added three seperate story lines taking place in different time periods and wrapped them around a single theme. The modern story is about a man who scrapes by after losing his job. He ends up marrying a girl, but is framed for a crime by a local "mob boss" for whom he did work for, but quit. While in jail, his wife gives birth to their child, but then the child is taken away by a group of over-zealous women who think they know better than everyone else and that their perceptions are always spot on (DYFS anyone?). They get a warrent to take her baby away. The mob boss promises to get her baby back, after he takes an interest in her. Her husband is released from jail, but when the mob boss' wife kills the mob boss, the husband is found with the gun (the boss' wife threw the gun into the room and the husband picked it up) and is taken back to jail and sentanced to death. The mob boss' wife confesses and the man is saved at the last second. The second story line is that of Jesus and his batryal and crucifixion. It was pretty much worthless as there were only 3 or 4 scenes for this story line and took up a toal of 10 minutes, if that. It felt tacted on. The third story line is that of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre during the reigh of Cathrine de Mecini and her son Charles IX of France. Another pretty worthless storyline as it took up maybe 15 minutes, if that. This storyline felt tacted on as well and only served, along with the previous storyline, as a distraction from the modern story and the 4th story, the fall of Babylon. I continually forgot about these two story lines as the Modern and Babylon stories dominated in length. The 4th story, and best story IMO, was the Babylon story. It is the story of a Mountain Girl who is sent to the Babylonian Courts by her brother for being "incorrigable". King Belshazzar gives her freedom from the "marriage market" (she was sentanced there by the court to be sold to a good husband). Later, she is sentanced to death for fighting a priest, but the King pardons her when she pleads that the only reason she attacked the priest was because he said bad things about the king. The Mountain Girl learns of a plot by the High Priest to betray the king, but the king is hesitant to believe her. His hesitation causes the downfall of Babylon as the Persian armies enter the great city when the gates are left open. Two huge battles are fought during the Babylon story. The sets built for the Babylon story were enormous, the largest built for a movie. They featured thousands of extras, cavarly and war elephants for the battles, large props, etc. Part of the set for the Babylon story stood in Hollywood for many years. The movie cuts between storylines as the movie progresses, the first time a movie was present in a non-linear/hybrid way. Intolerance was not a commercial success, most likely due in large part to this. Audiences were not used to seeing a movie this way and were probably confused through some of it. The Babylong story was very entertaining, while the Modern story was just okay. As I said before, the Judean and French storylines were pretty worthless and only served as a distraction due to them being very short compared to the other two. Recent archeaologist finds at the time had spurred interest in Babylonian times, and I wonder if it would have been more profitable had Griffith released the Modern story and Babylon stories as seperate movies. The budget is unknown, but best estimates place it at $2 million ($33 million today), an astronomical sum for the time. It was a flop at the box office, and caused Griffith's studio to go bankrupt. This result might be part of the reason why it would be awhile before a studio put that much money into making a movie again. The historical rating is high, despite it being a flop, as many people do consider it a masterpiece and one of the best silent films ever made. The entertainment rating suffers due to 3 of the 4 storylines not being that good. Rating them seperately, I'd give the Babylon story an 8, the Modern story a 5 and the two storylines that were so short, I already have forgotten what they were about, 2 each. Historical Rating: 8/10 Entertainment Raiting: 6/10 Last edited by sabotai : 05-03-2009 at 09:37 PM.