INTOLERANCE (DVD/SILENT/REMASTERED) DVD

Intolerance
Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann). Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast Lillian Gish as The Woman Who Rocks the Cradle Mae Marsh as The Dear One Robert Harron as The Boy Miriam Cooper as The Friendless One Walter Long as The Musketeer of the Slums Tully Marshall as High Priest of Bel Alfred Paget as Prince Belshazzar

Crew D.W. Griffith - Costume Designer Joseph Henaberry - First Assistant Director Erich Von Stroheim - First Assistant Director Tod Browning - First Assistant Director D.W. Griffith - Director James Smith - Editor D.W. Griffith - Editor Rose Smith - Editor Carl Davis - Composer (Music Score) D.W. Griffith - Composer (Music Score) D.W. Griffith - Production Designer Karl Brown - Cinematographer Billy Bitzer - Cinematographer D.W. Griffith - Producer Tod Browning - Screenwriter D.W. Griffith - Screenwriter

Intolerance
Stung by criticism of The Birth of a Nation (1915), D.W. Griffith decided to add three stories to his new feature about modern social inhumanity to create a vast epic discourse against the evils of intolerance. Even more ambitious in scale and structure than The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance moves forward through cross-cutting among four tales of injustice: the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 16th century France, the crucifixion of Christ, a modern workers' strike, and a story of ancient Babylon. The four are initially linked by the transitional image of a woman rocking a cradle, but Griffith speeds up the cross-cutting as each story reaches its climax, creating a quadruple action denouement. His virtuoso technical talents in handling both large-scale scenes and intimate personal moments are amply displayed in the landmark three-hour saga, but when Intolerance was released, it failed to match its predecessor's popularity. Its audience appeal was hampered by Griffith's preference for solemnly arguing ideas over creating involving characters, by its complex structure, and by its allegedly pacifist message as the U.S. was about to join World War I, so Intolerance became an expensive flop. Regardless, its formidable artistic influence can be seen from the work of Soviet montage master Sergei Eisenstein to Cecil B. DeMille's epics to Francis Ford Coppola's dual cross-cut narrative in The Godfather Part II (1974). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
 

Library of Congress, U.S. National Film Registry (winner)

General Specifications: Language Options: English Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: 2: PCM stereo Additional Features: Restored and constructed to 178 minutes from fine-grain archival master prints Color tinted to the original 1916 specifications Digital stereo organ score by Gaylord Carter Visual essay by Russell Merritt Includes: Extra footage cut from the original release, copyright registration frames, publicity materials, background and production photographs, and more MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 178 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 0. Chapter Index 1. Program Start/Introduction [1:18] 2. "Our First Story- Out of the Cradle of the Present" [5:12] 3. The Judean Story [2:44] 4. The French Story [4:31] 5. Miss Jenkins Joins the Reformers [3:32] 6. The Babylonian Story [8:31] 7. A Great Strike [7:33] 8. And Again in Babylon [8:14] 9. "In the Love Temple" [4:48] 10. The Modern Story Continues [7:44] 11. The Bride of Cana [3:59] 12. "Love's Silent Mystery" [5:58] 13. Equally Intolerant Hypocrites of Another Age [2:30] 14. "The Committee of Seventeen..." [2:39] 15. The Boy Follows The Straight Road [4:44] 16. "The High Priest of Bel Courts Public Homage" [5:02] 17. Motherhood [8:04] 18. The Huguenots [1:59] 19. "Cyrus Moves Upon Babylon..." [14:01] 20. The Mighty Man of Valor Strikes a Blow! [3:47] 21. Act II/The Musketeer Gains The Dear One's Confidence [2:47] 22. "The Feast of Belshazzar" [7:48] 23. "The Rapsode...Turns The Thought of Love" [2:13] 24. "...The Order of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew" [4:37] 25. In The Temple of Love [4:33] 26. The Musketeer Visits The Little Wife [9:15] 27. "Let Him Be Crucified" [3:12] 28. "...Cyrus Awaits The Priests" [:43] 29. "The Day Before The Boy's Execution" [3:19] 30. "The Hangman's Test/A Question of Guilt" [2:35] 31. "St. Bartholomew's Morn" [1:23] 32. "...Appeal to the Governor Denied" [1:50] 33. Warning Belshazzar [3:10] 34. Four Currents Flow into One Mighty River [19:41] 35. "When Cannon and Prison Bars Wrought in the Fires of Intolerance..." [2:01] 36. End Credits [1:22]