Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21944 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-12-27
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL, Silent
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 177 minutes

Special Features
Full Screen
Region 2
Profile Of DW Driffith
Each Story Is Enabled For Play In Its Entirety

Synopsis
Silent film director D.W. Griffith's biggest, most ambitious spectacle uses stories from different times and places to illustrate humanity's intolerance of religious differences throughout the ages. The most visually impressive of these chronicles is the fall of Babylon, for which Griffith built the largest sets in Hollywood and filled them with thousands of extras; there's also Christ's crucifixion and the massacre of the Heugenots in 15th century France. The most emotionally involving tale is the "modern" one, about a poor girl (Mae Marsh) whose life is repeatedly ruined by the zealotry of social reformers. The image of a mother (Lillian Gish) rocking her child in a cradle ("the uniter of the here and hereafter") links the stories. At one point, angels reach down from heaven to stop soldiers in midbattle, making it clear that Griffith intended this follow-up to THE BIRTH OF A NATION as a message of global peace and love (and an answer to his critics' accusations of racism). For a nation poised to enter World War I, this was perhaps the wrong message, and INTOLERANCE opened to mixed reviews and poor attendance. It is now rightly recognized as a unique work of cinematic art. The restored version includes color-tinted scenes.

Customer Reviews

A Deep And Complex Moral Lesson But Also A Splendid Film
D.W. Griffith's previous great 'Birth of a Nation' had aroused such controversy that he decided to fight back. Intolerance is a superb piece of filmmaking and one that I most strongly recommend to all true lovers of the cinema. The lesson is made in four stories: The first story is of how the Priest of Bel betrays Belshazzar in ancient Babylon, with the final conclusion being the savage destruction of the great city. The battle scenes more than rival those of Ben Hur, Alexander the Great or any other tale of heroism in old times. The second story is that of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and of those who allowed it to happen. This story is not explored upon much and is given less treatment than the other three, although its impact remains potent. The third story takes place in renaissance France, where the Catholics slaughter the Protestants. The massacre is more violent than one would expect from a film of 1916, and despite its rather crude delivery, it still manages to shock and appal. The final story is set in what was then the modern world. A group of women fighting for decency and a proper society reduce life to a boring and monotonous existence. A man is to be hanged for a murder committed by one of the women who does not confess and when she finally does, a gang of men rush to save the boy just in time. All these stories are linked by an image of Lillian Gish rocking a cradle, symbolic of the innocence she protects.

Intolerance is extremely meaningful and poignant with good performances and shocking moments throughout. Its breathtaking sets and scenes are enough to keep anyone entertained, and this film comes to a superb climax four times. However, it also has to set the scene for four different stories which makes the first forty minutes very dull, but stick with it as it improves.

Griffith could hardly hope to match the brilliance of The Birth of A Nation which was released a year before this, but this film alone is enough to make him worthy of remembrance.

Eureka Videos has done a superb job in restoring this great film. Of the three silent films I owned before this (Nosferatu, Phantom of the Opera and Metropolis) all were badly in need of restoration, which reduced the viewing pleasure. The picture quality is very clean and adds to the experience. The film is also tinted for those of you who prefer a more colourful look, I however do not and always turn off the colour on my TV with tinted films, either have it in colour or in black and white is what I say.

D.W.Griffith And Intolerance In The 21st Century.
Imagine that Steven Spielberg was no longer directing movies and that WAR OF THE WORLDS would be the one film he is remembered for. Would that be a fair assessment of his career? Absolutely not but that is what has happened to cinema pioneer D.W. Griffith. The film he is remembered for today is the 1915 BIRTH OF A NATION which was the first important American epic. Unfortunately its source material THE CLANSMAN (the film's original title) is a Southern view of the Civil War which glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and is extremely racist (although toned down considerably from the book by Thomas Dixon). Griffith made 34 feature films and over 400 shorts between 1908 and 1931. In the overwhelming majority of these he is a social progressive tackling such issues as poverty, political corruption, worker exploitation and interracial romance. He even made an anti-Klan film THE ROSE OF KENTUCKY back in 1912. I mention all of this because in this current climate of political correctness Griffith is being judged and censured on the basis of one film as opposed to his whole body of work and the damage being done to his reputation is still going on. In the recent Oscar nominated film JUNEBUG, one of the characters is a Southern racist Civil War painter who happens to be named David Wark (the D.W. in Griffith's name).

INTOLERANCE, the follow-up to NATION, was the most ambitious and expensive film ever made up to that point (1916) and forever changed the way that movies would be made after it. Because of the lifesize sets of Ancient Babylon and the thousands of extras employed, the movie would cost over $500 million to remake today. Its central theme shows how intolerance through the ages breeds anger, anger then breeds repression and repression breeds more intolerance. Set in four different historical time periods (including then present day 1916), the film shifts back and forth from story to story with ever increasing frequency until it reaches its dramatic climax followed by a fanciful epilogue of what the world would be like if we could only banish our fear and hatred. Virtually every visual film technique you can think of appeared in this film inspiring filmmakers around the world who quickly followed suit. After 90 years it still remains a wonder to be seen. There are several different versions of INTOLERANCE currently available on DVD. This Eureka edition follows Griffith's reissue wishes for the film and has the added bonus of allowing you to separate the four stories so they can be viewed by themselves. AVOID at all costs all the low budget DVDs of this cinematic milestone as they are of inferior visual quality and have uncoordinated sound accompaniment. It's time once again to give D.W. Griffith his due and this is the place to start. Follow this up with his BIOGRAPH shorts and then some of his features such as BROKEN BLOSSOMS or SALLY OF THE SAWDUST and see just what he was capable of. Griffith's wheel of fortune has come full circle a number of times and will continue to do so. That is the measure of a true artist.

Two excellent films from 1916 for the price of one
D W Griffith was provoked into creating Intolerance by the substantial numbers of vocal protesters against his incredibly successful 1915 film "Birth of a Nation".

Intolerance is actually four films set at different periods in history supposedly illustrating the evils of intolerance, and we are cut from one film to another throughout the three hours running time.

Fortunately the DVD permits us to view each film separately, and after an initial viewing as Griffith intended I think this is the way to go.

Griffith's extraordinary concept was beyond the understanding of critics in 1916, and as a result audiences stayed away in droves and the film was probably one of the two greatest box flops in film history, it was sixty four years before the second one in 1980 "Heavens Gate".

However history belies the fact that "Intolerance" includes two excellent feature length films (subsequently released separately), "The Mother and the Law" set in 1916" and "The Fall of Babylon" set in Old Testament times, and two shorts, a French story set in 1592 about the massacre of the Huguenots, and a very fragmentary Judean short about the crucifixion.

"The Mother and the Law" stars Mae Marsh and Robert Harron excellent as a couple whose lives are destroyed in a drama about a group of wealthy "do gooder" women.

"The Fall of Babylon" is a biblical epic with sets of awesome magnitude and a cast of thousands, starring Constance Talmadge (sister of Norma Talmadge) who steals the acting honours as the feisty "Mountain Girl" from Alfred Paget as Belshazzar and Seena Owen as his Princess.

The "French Story" is a competent short of the time, and the "Judean" story is probably best forgotten.

So two excellent silent films (in very good transfers from a good but not perfect source) for the price of one plus an offbeat piece of cinematic history as well.