Intolerance

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages, a silent film directed by D. W. Griffith in 1916, is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era.^[2] It has also been called "the only film fugue".^[3][4][5] Professor Theodore Huff, one of the leading film critics of the first half of the twentieth 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.^[3] It was made in response to critics who protested against Griffith's previous film, The Birth of a Nation, for its overt racist content, characterizing racism as people's "intolerance" of other people's views.

Backgroun

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:

1. The "Babylonian" period (539 B.C.) depicts the fall of Babylon as a result of intolerance arising from a conflict between devotees of different Babylonian gods.
2. The "Judean" era (circa 27 A.D.) recounts how intolerance led to the crucifixion of Jesus.
3. The French Renaissance (1572) tells of the failure of the Edict of Toleration that led to the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
4. Modern America (1914) demonstrates how crime, moral puritanism, and conflicts between ruthless capitalists and striking workers helped ruin the lives of Americans.

Griffith began shooting the film with the Modern Story (originally titled "The Mother and the Law"), whose planning predated Birth of a Nation, then greatly expanded it to include the other three parallel stories under the theme of intolerance. 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 most 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.

Actual costs to produce Intolerance are unknown, but best estimates are close to $2 million (approximately $41 million in 2008 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 Triangle Studios went bankrupt.

The film 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 went on to become important and noted Hollywood directors in the subsequent years.

A detailed account of the film’s making is told in William M. Drew's 1986 book titled D.W.Griffith's Intolerance: Its Genesis and Its Vision.