Intolerance (film)
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| Intolerance | |
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 Intolerance movie poster |
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| Directed by | D.W. Griffith |
| Produced by | D.W. Griffith |
| Starring | Mae Marsh Robert Harron |
| Cinematography | Billy Bitzer |
| Distributed by | Triangle Distributing Corporation |
| Release date(s) | August 5 1916 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 163 min. / Spain:123 min. / UK:178 min. (2000 video release) / USA:197 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
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 protested against Griffith's previous film The Birth of a Nation for its alleged racist content, illustrating the problem of people's intolerance against other people's views.
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[edit] 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:
- 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.
- The "Judean" era (circa 27 AD) recounts how intolerance led to the crucifixion of Jesus.
- The French Renaissance (1572) tells of the failure of the Edict of Toleration that led to the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
- 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 D.W.Griffith's Intolerance: Its Genesis and Its Vision.
[edit] Different existing versions
Although the film itself is now in the public domain, there are currently three major versions of the film in circulation.
- The Killiam Shows Version: This version, taken from a third-generation 16 mm print, contains an organ score by Gaylord Carter. Running approx. 176 minutes, this is the version that has been the most widely seen in recent years, and is currently airing on Turner Classic Movies. It has been released on LaserDisc and DVD by Image Entertainment.
- The Kino Version: Pieced together by Kino International, this version, presumably taken from better 35 mm material, contains a synth score by Joseph Turrin and an alternate "happy ending" to the "Fall of Babylon" sequence. This runs 197 minutes and is on DVD from Kino.
- The Official Thames Silents Restoration: In 1989, this film was given a formal restoration by film preservationists Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. This version, also running 197 minutes, was prepared by Thames Television from original 35 mm material, and its tones and tints restored per Griffith's original intent. It also has a digitally recorded orchestral score by Carl Davis. It was released briefly on home video in the 1990s, but has never been telecast in the U.S. This version is under copyright by the Rohauer Collection, who worked in association with Thames on the restoration.
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.
[edit] Credits
- Directed and written by D.W. Griffith
- Assistant directors: Allan Dwan, Erich von Stroheim, Christy Cabanne, Tod Browning, Jack Conway, Victor Fleming, W.S. Van Dyke, Elmer Clifton, Monte Blue, Mike Siebert, George Siegmann
- Cinematography: G.W. Bitzer and Karl Brown
- Editing: James and Rose Smith
- Average running time of currently available copies: just under or over 3 hours (depending on the version available; scroll above for details)
[edit] Cast
- Frank Borzage
- Tod Browning
- Jewel Carmen
- Elmer Clifton
- Constance Collier
- Miriam Cooper
- Carol Dempster
- Douglas Fairbanks
- Lillian Gish
- Sam De Grasse
- Mildred Harris
- Robert Harron
- Vera Lewis
- Walter Long
- Harold Lockwood
- Bessie Love
- Wilfred Lucas
- Mae Marsh
- Tully Marshall
- Owen Moore
- Carmel Myers
- Seena Owen
- Eugene Pallette
- Wallace Reid
- Madame Sul-Te-Wan
- Constance Talmadge
- Natalie Talmadge
- King Vidor
[edit] Trivia
The massive lifesize set of the Great Wall of Babylon, seen in the fourth story, was placed at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard when the movie was completed. It became a notable landmark for many years during Hollywood's golden era.
After filming wrapped, the Los Angeles Fire Department cited the Babylonian set as a fire hazard and ordered it to be torn down. D.W. Griffith discovered that he had run out of money and was therefore unable to finance its demolition. The set stood derelict and crumbling for nearly four years until it was finally taken down in 1919. By then it had fallen apart enough for it to be dismantled at a sufficiently low cost.
The marriage scenes in the life-of-Christ part of the film were staged and shot according to Jewish tradition, under the supervision of Rabbi Myers. He was the father of Carmel Myers, who played a slave girl in the Babylonian scenes.
A major sub-plot, dealing with a real-life assassination, was cut from the French story before the film's release.
The role of the second Pharisee is credited to Erich von Stroheim. However, von Stroheim did not play this role. Griffith decided to use von Stroheim's name as a pseudonym for actor William Courtright, who actually plays the role. This has caused much confusion over the years. Von Stroheim's only work on this film was as a production assistant for the Babylon sequences.
Ruth St. Denis is listed by some modern sources as the Solo Dancer in the Babylonian Story, but she has denied this in an interview.
D.W. Griffith was forced to re-shoot the sequence of the crucifixion because certain organizations were saying that Griffith shot too many Jewish extras around the cross, and not enough Romans. Griffith then burned the footage and re-shot the scene with more Roman extras.
Jenkins and his foundation are modeled after John D. Rockefeller and his own foundation. The massacre of workers at the beginning of the movie is modeled after the Ludlow massacre of 1914, in which Rockefeller was involved.
Joseph Henabery was hired to shoot some additional scenes of semi-nude slavegirls when the front office declared that the film needed "more sex".
The title and some lines from the poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" by Walt Whitman are used as intertitles in the movie.
The intertitle during the strike which states that the National Guard has retreated and the workers "now fear only the company guards" was added to the re-release of the modern story, The Mother and the Law (1919), but it is utilized by present versions of the original film.
Cameraman Karl Brown remembered a scene with the various members of the Babylonian harem that featured full frontal nudity. He was barred from the set that day, apparently because he was so young. While there are several shots of slaves and harem girls throughout the film, the scene that Brown describes is not in any surviving versions.
[edit] External links
- Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages at the Internet Movie Database
- Summary and discussion of the movie at Filmsite.org, a website about classical American movies
