"Intolerance" (1916)

Robert-Harron-in-Intolerance-1916-director-DW-Griffith-cinematographer-Billy-Bitzer-00

Robert Harron

Directed by             D. W. Griffith
Produced by     D. W. Griffith
Scenario by           D. W. Griffith and Harry E. Aitken
Starring Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, Walter Long, Miriam Cooper (Modern Story), Constance Talmadge, Margery Wilson, Lillian Gish and many others
Cinematography    Billy Bitzer
Editing by    D. W. Griffith, James Smith, Rose Smith
Distributed by Triangle Distributing Corporation, Wark Distributing Corporation
Release date         September 5, 1916
Running time 197 min.
Country          United States
Language    Silent film, English intertitles

"Intolerance" is a historical drama, included in our program to illustrate the work of two of our stars: actor Robert Harron and cinematographer Billy Bitzer.

The film is considered one of the enduring masterpieces of the Silent Era.

"Intolerance, A Drama of Comparisons" consists of four independent stories with their own different plots and casts of actors. The four films are united by a common theme.

Here is a review of the film, written by our esteemed member Zach Snow.

Facing accusations of racism after his landmark feature Birth of a Nation displayed the formation of the Ku Klux Klan in a less-than-horrendous light director D.W. Griffith, often called the father of American motion pictures, responded with this plea for tolerance which was, by far, the most ambitious and epic film ever produced in Hollywood at the time.

The story spans centuries and gives examples of intolerance from four different ages: among the spectacles there is the collapse of Babylon as seen through the eyes of a wild woman, Jesus’ crucifixion, the marriage of a French couple occurring around the same time as the 1572 Massacre, and a modern day story in which an unwed mother has her baby taken by the Women’s League.

Financed independently by Griffith in his pre-United Artists period, this three hour epic is often overlooked in favor of his more controversial landmark: though in all honesty this was Griffith’s masterpiece, a grandiose and absorbing examination of people’s intolerance towards others which almost redeems Griffith his previous racism with more progressive themes. Shockingly, Griffith was not only able to simultaneously tell his various stories without making his narrative confusing, via the use of the same juxtaposition techniques he had pioneered a few years before, but also create a highly entertaining melodrama which stands the test of time better than perhaps any other ‘landmark picture’ from the teens. How he was able to create this spectacle, with battle scenes and grand sets galore, in the primitive year of 1916 still staggers the mind: his epic doesn’t have the same lulls as Birth of a Nation and, overall, accomplishes what it sets out to do by presenting a series of stories unified by one universal theme.

His cast is full of stars from the silent era: among them Mae Marsh as the modern day mother, Robert Harron as her love interest, Constance Talmadge as the Babylonian Girl, Bessie Love as the lead in the French story, and numerous others. Griffith’s muse, Lillian Gish, keeps the narrative in tact as the mother who rocks the cradle, a surprisingly effective poetic element taken straight from Walt Whitman.

Unfortunately, this film was a commercial disaster for Griffith and his career was permanently sidetracked: although he would continue to make classic silents, never again would he be as all-powerful over his own productions. His personal beliefs and prejudices aside, Griffith was one of American cinema’s most important early masters and this was, by far, his greatest accomplishment.

You can find more of Zach Snow's work here.

The film is ranked number 16 in the list of The Top 100 Silent Era Films of the influential website Silent Era.

"Intolerance" was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 1989, the first year it was enacted.

It enjoys an outstanding rating in IMDB.