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Intolerance [DVD] [1900] [Region 1] [738329026721]

1 disc
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

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.
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 2672
Credits

Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, Constance Talmadge, Elmo Lincoln, Eugene Pallette
Critic Reviews

"...There has never been a movie quite like INTOLERANCE, and few, if any, have been so influential..."
Los Angeles Times
"...Here Griffith's remarkable editing scheme takes the film into virtually abstract realms, making it also a large-scale meditation on the nature of cinematic space and narrative construction..."
Sight and Sound
"...[With] miraculous cinematography, and charismatic performances..."
Entertainment Weekly