Intolerance film wikipedia pages

Intolerance (film)

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Jump to: navigation, search

Intolerance
Intolerance (film).jpg
Theatrical poster

Directed by
D. W. Griffith
Produced by
D. W. Griffith
Written by
D.W. Griffith
 Hettie Grey Baker
Tod Browning
Anita Loos
 Mary H. O'Connor
Frank E. Woods
Starring
Vera Lewis
Ralph Lewis
Mae Marsh
Robert Harron
Constance Talmadge
Lillian Gish
Josephine Crowell
Margery Wilson
Frank Bennett
Elmer Clifton
Miriam Cooper
Alfred Paget
Music by
Joseph Carl Breil
Carl Davis
Cinematography
Billy Bitzer
Editing by
D. W. Griffith
 James Smith
 Rose Smith
Distributed by
Triangle Distributing Corporation
Release date(s)
September 5, 1916

Running time
210 minutes (original version)
 197 minutes (most modern cuts)
Country
United States
Language
Silent film
 English intertitles
Budget
$385,907[1]
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era.[2] The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines, each separated by several centuries: (1) A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; (2) a Judean story: Christ’s mission and death; (3) a French story: the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572; and (4) a Babylonian story: the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC. Each story had its own tint in the original print.[2] The scenes are linked by shots of a figure representing Eternal Motherhood, rocking a cradle.[2]
Intolerance was made partly in response to criticism of Griffith's previous film, The Birth of a Nation (1915),[3] which was attacked by the NAACP and other groups as perpetuating racial stereotypes and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan.[4]


Contents
  [hide] 1 Storylines
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Influence
6 Extant versions 6.1 Major versions
6.2 Other versions
6.3 Lost footage
7 References
8 External links

Storylines[edit]



Lillian Gish as "Eternal Motherhood"
[icon] This section requires expansion. (December 2012)
This complex film consists of four distinct, but parallel, stories—intercut with increasing frequency as the film builds to a climax—that demonstrate mankind's persistent intolerance throughout the ages. The film sets up moral and psychological connections among the different stories. The timeline covers approximately 2,500 years:
1.The ancient "Babylonian" story (539 BC) depicts the conflict between Prince Belshazzar of Babylon and Cyrus the Great of Persia. The fall of Babylon is a result of intolerance arising from a conflict between devotees of two rival Babylonian gods—Bel-Marduk and Ishtar.
2.The Biblical "Judean" story (c. 27 AD) recounts how—after the Wedding at Cana and the Woman Taken in Adultery—intolerance led to the Crucifixion of Jesus. This sequence is the shortest of the four.
3.The Renaissance "French" story (1572) tells of the religious intolerance that led to the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Protestant Huguenots by Roman Catholic royals.
4.The American "Modern" story (c. 1914) demonstrates how crime, moral puritanism, and conflicts between ruthless capitalists and striking workers help ruin the lives of marginal Americans. To get more money for his spinster sister's charities, a mill owner orders a 10% pay cut on his workers' wages. A workers strike is crushed and The Boy and The Dear One make their way to another city; she lives in poverty and he turns to crime; after they marry he tries to break free of crime but is framed for theft by his ex boss. While he is in prison, his wife must endure their child being taken away by the same "moral uplift society" that instigated the strike. Upon his release from prison, he discovers his ex-boss attempting to rape his wife. A struggle begins and in the confusion the girlfriend of the boss shoots and kills the boss. She escapes and The Boy is convicted and sentenced to the gallows. A kindly policeman helps The Dear One find the real killer and together they try to reach the Governor in time so her reformed husband won't be hanged.
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 many of the characters don't 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 names such as The Little Colonel.
A highly detailed summary of all four plots can be found here.
Cast[edit]

In order of appearance:
Lillian Gish ... Eternal Motherhood
Vera Lewis ... Mary T. Jenkins
Mae Marsh ... The Dear One
Fred Turner ... The Dear One's father, a worker at the Jenkins Mill
Robert Harron ... The Boy
Günther von Ritzau ... A Pharisee
Frank Bennett ... King Charles IX of France
Maxfield Stanley ... Monsieur La France, Duc d'Anjou, Charles' younger brother
Josephine Crowell ... Catherine de Medici, the Queen-mother
Joseph Henabery ... Admiral Coligny
Constance Talmadge ... Marguerite of Valois
W.E. Lawrence ... Henry of Navarre
Margery Wilson ... Brown Eyes
Eugene Pallette ... Prosper Latour
A.D. Sears ... A Mercenary
Sam de Grasse ... Mr. Jenkins, mill boss
Constance Talmadge ... The Mountain Girl (second role in film)
Elmer Clifton ... The Rhapsode, a warrior-singer
Tully Marshall ... High Priest of Bel-Marduk
The Ruth St. Denis Dancers[5]... Dancing girls
Alfred Paget ... Prince Belshazzar
Carl Stockdale ... King Nabonidus, father of Belshazzar
Elmo Lincoln ... The Mighty Man of Valor, guard to Belshazzar
Seena Owen ... The Princess Beloved, favorite of Belshazzar
Arthur Meyer ... The Mountain Girl's brother
Lawrence Lawlor ... Judge (Babylonian Story)
Miriam Cooper ... The Friendless One, former neighbor of the Boy and Dear One
Walter Long ... Musketeer of the Slums
Martin Landry ... Auctioneer
Bessie Love ... The Bride
George Walsh ... The Bridegroom
Howard Gaye ... The Nazarene
Lillian Langdon ... Mary, the Mother
Ruth Handford ... Brown Eyes' mother
Spottiswoode Aitken ... Brown Eyes' father
George Siegmann ... Cyrus the Great
Max Davidson,[6] tenement neighbor of Dear One
????????? ... Egibi
Douglas Fairbanks ... Drunken Soldier with monkey (uncredited extra)
????????? ... Nevers
????????? ... Tavannes
????????? ... Retz
????????? ... Birague
Lloyd Ingraham ... Judge (Modern Story)
Barney Bernard ... The Boy's Attorney
Tom Wilson ... The Kindly Officer (Kindly Heart)
Ralph Lewis ... The Governor

Uncredited extras:
Monte Blue[6]
Frank Borzage
Tod Browning
Frank Brownlee
Kate Bruce[6]
Frank Campeau
Jewel Carmen
Dark Cloud
Gino Corrado[6]
Constance Collier
Virginia Lee Corbin
William Courtright
Nigel De Brulier
Carol Dempster
Edward Dillon
George Fawcett[6]
Olga Grey
Mildred Harris
DeWolf Hopper Sr.
Jennie Lee[6]
Harold Lockwood
Wilfred Lucas
Francis McDonald
Owen Moore
Carmel Myers
Loyola O'Connor
Vester Pegg
Billy Quirk
Wallace Reid
Alma Rubens
Ted Shawn[7]
Pauline Starke
Eve Southern
Madame Sul-Te-Wan
Natalie Talmadge
Ethel Grey Terry
King Vidor[8]
Winifred Westover
Tammany Young
Frank Bruner

Production[edit]



 The vast courtyard from the Babylon sequence.
Intolerance was a colossal undertaking featuring monumental sets, lavish period costumes, and more than 3,000 extras. Griffith began shooting the film with the Modern Story (originally titled "The Mother and the Law"), whose planning predated the great commercial success The Birth of a Nation (which had made $48 million, about $671 million in 2013[9]), then greatly expanded it to include the other three parallel stories under the theme of intolerance.
Actual costs to produce Intolerance are unknown, but best estimates are close to $2.5 million (about $46 million in 2013), an astronomical sum in 1916.[9] The film was by far the most expensive made at that point. When the film became a flop at the box-office, the burden was so great that in 1918 Triangle Film Corporation was put up for sale.
A detailed account of the film’s production is told in William M. Drew's 1986 book D.W. Griffith's Intolerance: Its Genesis and Its Vision.[10]
Reception[edit]
Upon its initial release, Intolerance was a commercial failure. Despite this, Intolerance has received very positive reviews. Intolerance has been called "the only film fugue".[11][12][13] Professor Theodore Huff, one of the leading film critics of the first half of the 20th century, stated that it was the only motion picture worthy of taking its place alongside Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the masterpieces of Michelangelo, etc. as a separate work of art.[11]
The film was shown out of competition at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.[14]
In 1989, Intolerance was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", going in during the first year of voting.
In 2007, AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) ranked Intolerance at number 49 of 100 films. The film currently holds a 96% approval rating on the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.
Film critic David Thomson has written of the film's "self-destructive frenzy":

The cross-cutting, self-interrupting format is wearisome.... The sheer pretension is a roadblock, and one longs for the "Modern Story" to hold the screen.... [That story] is still very exciting in terms of its cross-cutting in the attempt to save the boy from the gallows. This episode is what Griffith did best: brilliant, modern suspense, geared up to rapidity — whenever Griffith let himself slow down he was yielding to bathos.... Anyone concerned with film history has to see Intolerance, and pass on.[15]
Influence[edit]
Intolerance and its unorthodox editing were enormously influential, particularly among European and Soviet filmmakers. Many of the numerous assistant directors Griffith employed in making the film — Erich von Stroheim, Tod Browning, Woody Van Dyke — went on to become important and noted Hollywood directors in the subsequent years.[citation needed] It has been parodied by Buster Keaton in Three Ages (1923).[16]
A replica of an archway and elephant sculptures from the Babylon segment of the film serve as an important architectural element of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center in Hollywood, Los Angeles (built in 2001).
Extant versions[edit]
Intolerance is now in the public domain and there are currently four major versions of the film in circulation.
Major versions[edit]
The Killiam Shows Version: This version, taken from a third-generation 16 millimeter 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. It has been released on LaserDisc and DVD by Image Entertainment. This is the most complete version currently available on home video, if not the longest. Image Entertainment currently also has out a 197 minute version.
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 millimeter material, and its tones and tints restored per Griffith's original intent. (The Internet Movie Database states this version is 177 minutes). It also has a digitally recorded orchestral score by Carl Davis. This version was released in the U.S. briefly around 1989–1990 by HBO Video, then went out of print. This version is under copyright by the Rohauer Collection, who worked in association with Thames on the restoration. This version of the film was given a further digital restoration by Cohen Media Group (which currently serves as keeper of the Rohauer library), and was reissued to select theatres in 2013. It will be issued on Blu-ray for the first time in the fall of this year.
The Kino Version: Pieced together in 2002 by Kino International, this version, taken from better 35 millimeter material, is transferred at a slower frame rate than the Killiam Shows print, resulting in a longer running time of 197 minutes. It contains a synth orchestral score by Joseph Turrin. An alternate "happy ending" to the "Fall of Babylon" sequence, showing the Mountain Girl surviving and re-united with the Rhapsode, is included on the DVD as a supplement. While not as complete as the Killiam Shows Version, this print contains footage not found on any other home video release.

New York Times,
 (Sat., February 19, 1921), p.15

        WARK PRODUCING CORPORATION, moving pictures, at 1,476
 Broadway, has filed schedules in bankruptcy, with liabilities of $298,910,
 unsecured claims and assets of $125,042, consisting of films, pictures,
 prints, &c., $65,000; accounts $13,927 and deposits in banks $47,016.
 Copyright on motion picture play, "Intolerance," is given as value unknown.
 Among the creditors are D. W. Griffith, $84,334; D. W. Griffith, Inc. $975;
 D. W. G. Corp., $60,230; H. E. Aitken, $8,136, and Norman Hall, $6,610.
The Restored Digital Cinema Version: Restoration conducted by ZZ Productions in collaboration with the Danish Film Institute and Arte France of the version shown on 7 April 1917 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. This version runs approximately 177 minutes and premiered 29 August 2007 at the Venice Film Festival and on 4 October on arte.[17]
Other versions[edit]
There are other budget/public domain video and Digital Video Disc 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, but even the restored 35 millimeter versions exhibit considerable film damage.
The Internet Movie Database lists the standard running time as 163 minutes, which is the running length of the DVD released by "Public Domain Flicks". The Delta DVD released in Region 1 as Intolerance: A Sun Play of the Ages and in Region 2 as Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages clocks in at 167 minutes. The version available for free viewing on the Internet Movie Archive is listed as 176 minutes, and is presumably the Killiam restoration.
Lost footage[edit]
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 (which were shot by another director, without Griffith's involvement) the scene that Brown describes is not in any surviving versions.[18]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Box Office Information for Intolerance". The Numbers. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c Tim Dirks. "Intolerance (1916)". The Best Films of All Time - A Primer of Cinematic History.
3.Jump up ^ Scott McGee, Intolerance, TCM - Turner Classic Movies, retrieved 13 February 2013
4.Jump up ^ NAACP: 100 Years of History, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), retrieved 13 February 2013
5.Jump up ^ Ruth St. Denis is listed by some modern sources as the Solo Dancer in the Babylonian Story, but she denied this in an interview. However, it is generally believed St. Denis and her "Denishawn dancers" appear on the steps of the Babylon set in the great courtyard scene.
6.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Intolerance: Cast, MovieTome[dead link]
7.Jump up ^ Ted Shawn (1891–1972) at the Internet Movie Database
8.Jump up ^ "Full cast and crew for Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)". Internet Movie Database.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Cross, Mary. 100 People Who Changed 20th-Century America (2013 ed.). ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781610690867.- Total pages: 624
10.Jump up ^ William M. Drew, D.W.Griffith's Intolerance: Its Genesis and Its Vision, Jefferson, NJ, McFarland & Company (1986); (2001). ISBN 0-7864-1209-7
11.^ Jump up to: a b Franklin, Joe: Classics of the Silent Screen, The Citadel Press, New York, NY, 1959
12.Jump up ^ Zito, Stephen F., American Film Institute and Library of Congress, Cinema Club 9 Program Notes, Post Newsweek Stations, Washington, DC, November , 1971
13.Jump up ^ Huff, Theodore quoted in Classics of the Silent Screen, The Citadel Press, New York, NY 1959
14.Jump up ^ "Festival de Cannes: Intolerance". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
15.Jump up ^ Thomson, David (2008), “Have You Seen…?” A Personal introduction to 1,000 Films; New York: Knopf, pg 403.
16.Jump up ^ Knopf, Robert The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton By p.27
17.Jump up ^ Biennale Cinema, 64th Venice Film Festival: The restored version of David Wark Griffith’s Intolerance (1916), La Biennale di Venezia, archived from the original on 3 October 2007
18.Jump up ^ Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) - Did You Know? - Trivia, Internet Movie Database
External links[edit]

Portal icon United States portal
Portal icon Film portal
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Intolerance.
Intolerance at the Internet Movie Database
Intolerance at SilentEra
Intolerance at AllRovi
Intolerance is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
Detailed plot summary and discussion of the film at Filmsite.org
Period poster of the film at the Criterion Theatre, Bridgeton, New Jersey
Intolerance on YouTube

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Intolerance (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Intolerance
Intolerance (film).jpg
Theatrical poster

Directed by
D. W. Griffith
Produced by
D. W. Griffith
Written by
D.W. Griffith
 Hettie Grey Baker
Tod Browning
Anita Loos
 Mary H. O'Connor
Frank E. Woods
Starring
Vera Lewis
Ralph Lewis
Mae Marsh
Robert Harron
Constance Talmadge
Lillian Gish
Josephine Crowell
Margery Wilson
Frank Bennett
Elmer Clifton
Miriam Cooper
Alfred Paget
Music by
Joseph Carl Breil
Carl Davis
Cinematography
Billy Bitzer
Editing by
D. W. Griffith
 James Smith
 Rose Smith
Distributed by
Triangle Distributing Corporation
Release date(s)
September 5, 1916

Running time
210 minutes (original version)
 197 minutes (most modern cuts)
Country
United States
Language
Silent film
 English intertitles
Budget
$385,907[1]
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era.[2] The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines, each separated by several centuries: (1) A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; (2) a Judean story: Christ’s mission and death; (3) a French story: the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572; and (4) a Babylonian story: the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC. Each story had its own tint in the original print.[2] The scenes are linked by shots of a figure representing Eternal Motherhood, rocking a cradle.[2]
Intolerance was made partly in response to criticism of Griffith's previous film, The Birth of a Nation (1915),[3] which was attacked by the NAACP and other groups as perpetuating racial stereotypes and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan.[4]


Contents
  [hide] 1 Storylines
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Influence
6 Extant versions 6.1 Major versions
6.2 Other versions
6.3 Lost footage
7 References
8 External links

Storylines[edit]



Lillian Gish as "Eternal Motherhood"
[icon] This section requires expansion. (December 2012)
This complex film consists of four distinct, but parallel, stories—intercut with increasing frequency as the film builds to a climax—that demonstrate mankind's persistent intolerance throughout the ages. The film sets up moral and psychological connections among the different stories. The timeline covers approximately 2,500 years:
1.The ancient "Babylonian" story (539 BC) depicts the conflict between Prince Belshazzar of Babylon and Cyrus the Great of Persia. The fall of Babylon is a result of intolerance arising from a conflict between devotees of two rival Babylonian gods—Bel-Marduk and Ishtar.
2.The Biblical "Judean" story (c. 27 AD) recounts how—after the Wedding at Cana and the Woman Taken in Adultery—intolerance led to the Crucifixion of Jesus. This sequence is the shortest of the four.
3.The Renaissance "French" story (1572) tells of the religious intolerance that led to the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Protestant Huguenots by Roman Catholic royals.
4.The American "Modern" story (c. 1914) demonstrates how crime, moral puritanism, and conflicts between ruthless capitalists and striking workers help ruin the lives of marginal Americans. To get more money for his spinster sister's charities, a mill owner orders a 10% pay cut on his workers' wages. A workers strike is crushed and The Boy and The Dear One make their way to another city; she lives in poverty and he turns to crime; after they marry he tries to break free of crime but is framed for theft by his ex boss. While he is in prison, his wife must endure their child being taken away by the same "moral uplift society" that instigated the strike. Upon his release from prison, he discovers his ex-boss attempting to rape his wife. A struggle begins and in the confusion the girlfriend of the boss shoots and kills the boss. She escapes and The Boy is convicted and sentenced to the gallows. A kindly policeman helps The Dear One find the real killer and together they try to reach the Governor in time so her reformed husband won't be hanged.
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 many of the characters don't 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 names such as The Little Colonel.
A highly detailed summary of all four plots can be found here.
Cast[edit]

In order of appearance:
Lillian Gish ... Eternal Motherhood
Vera Lewis ... Mary T. Jenkins
Mae Marsh ... The Dear One
Fred Turner ... The Dear One's father, a worker at the Jenkins Mill
Robert Harron ... The Boy
Günther von Ritzau ... A Pharisee
Frank Bennett ... King Charles IX of France
Maxfield Stanley ... Monsieur La France, Duc d'Anjou, Charles' younger brother
Josephine Crowell ... Catherine de Medici, the Queen-mother
Joseph Henabery ... Admiral Coligny
Constance Talmadge ... Marguerite of Valois
W.E. Lawrence ... Henry of Navarre
Margery Wilson ... Brown Eyes
Eugene Pallette ... Prosper Latour
A.D. Sears ... A Mercenary
Sam de Grasse ... Mr. Jenkins, mill boss
Constance Talmadge ... The Mountain Girl (second role in film)
Elmer Clifton ... The Rhapsode, a warrior-singer
Tully Marshall ... High Priest of Bel-Marduk
The Ruth St. Denis Dancers[5]... Dancing girls
Alfred Paget ... Prince Belshazzar
Carl Stockdale ... King Nabonidus, father of Belshazzar
Elmo Lincoln ... The Mighty Man of Valor, guard to Belshazzar
Seena Owen ... The Princess Beloved, favorite of Belshazzar
Arthur Meyer ... The Mountain Girl's brother
Lawrence Lawlor ... Judge (Babylonian Story)
Miriam Cooper ... The Friendless One, former neighbor of the Boy and Dear One
Walter Long ... Musketeer of the Slums
Martin Landry ... Auctioneer
Bessie Love ... The Bride
George Walsh ... The Bridegroom
Howard Gaye ... The Nazarene
Lillian Langdon ... Mary, the Mother
Ruth Handford ... Brown Eyes' mother
Spottiswoode Aitken ... Brown Eyes' father
George Siegmann ... Cyrus the Great
Max Davidson,[6] tenement neighbor of Dear One
????????? ... Egibi
Douglas Fairbanks ... Drunken Soldier with monkey (uncredited extra)
????????? ... Nevers
????????? ... Tavannes
????????? ... Retz
????????? ... Birague
Lloyd Ingraham ... Judge (Modern Story)
Barney Bernard ... The Boy's Attorney
Tom Wilson ... The Kindly Officer (Kindly Heart)
Ralph Lewis ... The Governor

Uncredited extras:
Monte Blue[6]
Frank Borzage
Tod Browning
Frank Brownlee
Kate Bruce[6]
Frank Campeau
Jewel Carmen
Dark Cloud
Gino Corrado[6]
Constance Collier
Virginia Lee Corbin
William Courtright
Nigel De Brulier
Carol Dempster
Edward Dillon
George Fawcett[6]
Olga Grey
Mildred Harris
DeWolf Hopper Sr.
Jennie Lee[6]
Harold Lockwood
Wilfred Lucas
Francis McDonald
Owen Moore
Carmel Myers
Loyola O'Connor
Vester Pegg
Billy Quirk
Wallace Reid
Alma Rubens
Ted Shawn[7]
Pauline Starke
Eve Southern
Madame Sul-Te-Wan
Natalie Talmadge
Ethel Grey Terry
King Vidor[8]
Winifred Westover
Tammany Young
Frank Bruner

Production[edit]



 The vast courtyard from the Babylon sequence.
Intolerance was a colossal undertaking featuring monumental sets, lavish period costumes, and more than 3,000 extras. Griffith began shooting the film with the Modern Story (originally titled "The Mother and the Law"), whose planning predated the great commercial success The Birth of a Nation (which had made $48 million, about $671 million in 2013[9]), then greatly expanded it to include the other three parallel stories under the theme of intolerance.
Actual costs to produce Intolerance are unknown, but best estimates are close to $2.5 million (about $46 million in 2013), an astronomical sum in 1916.[9] The film was by far the most expensive made at that point. When the film became a flop at the box-office, the burden was so great that in 1918 Triangle Film Corporation was put up for sale.
A detailed account of the film’s production is told in William M. Drew's 1986 book D.W. Griffith's Intolerance: Its Genesis and Its Vision.[10]
Reception[edit]
Upon its initial release, Intolerance was a commercial failure. Despite this, Intolerance has received very positive reviews. Intolerance has been called "the only film fugue".[11][12][13] Professor Theodore Huff, one of the leading film critics of the first half of the 20th century, stated that it was the only motion picture worthy of taking its place alongside Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the masterpieces of Michelangelo, etc. as a separate work of art.[11]
The film was shown out of competition at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.[14]
In 1989, Intolerance was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", going in during the first year of voting.
In 2007, AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) ranked Intolerance at number 49 of 100 films. The film currently holds a 96% approval rating on the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.
Film critic David Thomson has written of the film's "self-destructive frenzy":

The cross-cutting, self-interrupting format is wearisome.... The sheer pretension is a roadblock, and one longs for the "Modern Story" to hold the screen.... [That story] is still very exciting in terms of its cross-cutting in the attempt to save the boy from the gallows. This episode is what Griffith did best: brilliant, modern suspense, geared up to rapidity — whenever Griffith let himself slow down he was yielding to bathos.... Anyone concerned with film history has to see Intolerance, and pass on.[15]
Influence[edit]
Intolerance and its unorthodox editing were enormously influential, particularly among European and Soviet filmmakers. Many of the numerous assistant directors Griffith employed in making the film — Erich von Stroheim, Tod Browning, Woody Van Dyke — went on to become important and noted Hollywood directors in the subsequent years.[citation needed] It has been parodied by Buster Keaton in Three Ages (1923).[16]
A replica of an archway and elephant sculptures from the Babylon segment of the film serve as an important architectural element of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center in Hollywood, Los Angeles (built in 2001).
Extant versions[edit]
Intolerance is now in the public domain and there are currently four major versions of the film in circulation.
Major versions[edit]
The Killiam Shows Version: This version, taken from a third-generation 16 millimeter 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. It has been released on LaserDisc and DVD by Image Entertainment. This is the most complete version currently available on home video, if not the longest. Image Entertainment currently also has out a 197 minute version.
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 millimeter material, and its tones and tints restored per Griffith's original intent. (The Internet Movie Database states this version is 177 minutes). It also has a digitally recorded orchestral score by Carl Davis. This version was released in the U.S. briefly around 1989–1990 by HBO Video, then went out of print. This version is under copyright by the Rohauer Collection, who worked in association with Thames on the restoration. This version of the film was given a further digital restoration by Cohen Media Group (which currently serves as keeper of the Rohauer library), and was reissued to select theatres in 2013. It will be issued on Blu-ray for the first time in the fall of this year.
The Kino Version: Pieced together in 2002 by Kino International, this version, taken from better 35 millimeter material, is transferred at a slower frame rate than the Killiam Shows print, resulting in a longer running time of 197 minutes. It contains a synth orchestral score by Joseph Turrin. An alternate "happy ending" to the "Fall of Babylon" sequence, showing the Mountain Girl surviving and re-united with the Rhapsode, is included on the DVD as a supplement. While not as complete as the Killiam Shows Version, this print contains footage not found on any other home video release.

New York Times,
 (Sat., February 19, 1921), p.15

        WARK PRODUCING CORPORATION, moving pictures, at 1,476
 Broadway, has filed schedules in bankruptcy, with liabilities of $298,910,
 unsecured claims and assets of $125,042, consisting of films, pictures,
 prints, &c., $65,000; accounts $13,927 and deposits in banks $47,016.
 Copyright on motion picture play, "Intolerance," is given as value unknown.
 Among the creditors are D. W. Griffith, $84,334; D. W. Griffith, Inc. $975;
 D. W. G. Corp., $60,230; H. E. Aitken, $8,136, and Norman Hall, $6,610.
The Restored Digital Cinema Version: Restoration conducted by ZZ Productions in collaboration with the Danish Film Institute and Arte France of the version shown on 7 April 1917 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. This version runs approximately 177 minutes and premiered 29 August 2007 at the Venice Film Festival and on 4 October on arte.[17]
Other versions[edit]
There are other budget/public domain video and Digital Video Disc 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, but even the restored 35 millimeter versions exhibit considerable film damage.
The Internet Movie Database lists the standard running time as 163 minutes, which is the running length of the DVD released by "Public Domain Flicks". The Delta DVD released in Region 1 as Intolerance: A Sun Play of the Ages and in Region 2 as Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages clocks in at 167 minutes. The version available for free viewing on the Internet Movie Archive is listed as 176 minutes, and is presumably the Killiam restoration.
Lost footage[edit]
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 (which were shot by another director, without Griffith's involvement) the scene that Brown describes is not in any surviving versions.[18]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Box Office Information for Intolerance". The Numbers. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c Tim Dirks. "Intolerance (1916)". The Best Films of All Time - A Primer of Cinematic History.
3.Jump up ^ Scott McGee, Intolerance, TCM - Turner Classic Movies, retrieved 13 February 2013
4.Jump up ^ NAACP: 100 Years of History, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), retrieved 13 February 2013
5.Jump up ^ Ruth St. Denis is listed by some modern sources as the Solo Dancer in the Babylonian Story, but she denied this in an interview. However, it is generally believed St. Denis and her "Denishawn dancers" appear on the steps of the Babylon set in the great courtyard scene.
6.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Intolerance: Cast, MovieTome[dead link]
7.Jump up ^ Ted Shawn (1891–1972) at the Internet Movie Database
8.Jump up ^ "Full cast and crew for Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)". Internet Movie Database.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Cross, Mary. 100 People Who Changed 20th-Century America (2013 ed.). ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781610690867.- Total pages: 624
10.Jump up ^ William M. Drew, D.W.Griffith's Intolerance: Its Genesis and Its Vision, Jefferson, NJ, McFarland & Company (1986); (2001). ISBN 0-7864-1209-7
11.^ Jump up to: a b Franklin, Joe: Classics of the Silent Screen, The Citadel Press, New York, NY, 1959
12.Jump up ^ Zito, Stephen F., American Film Institute and Library of Congress, Cinema Club 9 Program Notes, Post Newsweek Stations, Washington, DC, November , 1971
13.Jump up ^ Huff, Theodore quoted in Classics of the Silent Screen, The Citadel Press, New York, NY 1959
14.Jump up ^ "Festival de Cannes: Intolerance". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
15.Jump up ^ Thomson, David (2008), “Have You Seen…?” A Personal introduction to 1,000 Films; New York: Knopf, pg 403.
16.Jump up ^ Knopf, Robert The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton By p.27
17.Jump up ^ Biennale Cinema, 64th Venice Film Festival: The restored version of David Wark Griffith’s Intolerance (1916), La Biennale di Venezia, archived from the original on 3 October 2007
18.Jump up ^ Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) - Did You Know? - Trivia, Internet Movie Database
External links[edit]

Portal icon United States portal
Portal icon Film portal
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Intolerance.
Intolerance at the Internet Movie Database
Intolerance at SilentEra
Intolerance at AllRovi
Intolerance is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
Detailed plot summary and discussion of the film at Filmsite.org
Period poster of the film at the Criterion Theatre, Bridgeton, New Jersey
Intolerance on YouTube

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Categories: 1916 films
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