Intolerance

Director: D.W. Griffith

Overview

"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

Product Details

Release Date:	11/18/2003
UPC:	0089218428790
Original Release:	1916
Source:	Alpha Video
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	2:43:00
Sales rank:	34,762

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Lillian Gish	Cradle Rocker
Mae Marsh	Girl,Debutante
Robert Harron	Boy
Constance Talmadge	Mountain Girl
Bessie Love	Bride of Cana
Seena Owen	Princess Love
Alfred Paget	Belshazzar
Miriam Cooper	Friendless One
Eugene Pallette	Latour
Elmer Clifton	Rhapsode
Fred Turner	The Girl's Father,The Dear One's Father
Sam De Grasse	Jenkins
Vera Lewis	Mary Jenkins,The Governor
Eleanor Washington	`Uplifter'/Reformer
Pearl Elmore	`Uplifter'/Reformer
Lucille Brown	`Uplifter'/Reformer,The Warden/The Bride's Father
Mrs. Arthus Mackley	`Uplifter'/Reformer,"Uplifters"
Luray Huntley	`Uplifter'/Reformer
Walter Long	The Musketeer of the Slums
Tom Wilson	The Kindly Policeman,Brown Eyes
Lloyd Ingraham	The Judge
A. W. McClure	Father Farley
J. P. McCarthy	Prison Guard,Prison Guard
Dore Davidson	The Friendly Neighbor,The Kindly Neighbor
Monte Blue	Strike Leader
Tod Browning	A Crook
Edward Dillon	A Crook
Billy Quirk	Bartender
Tully Marshall	A Friend of the Musketeer/High Priest of Bel
Barney Bernard	Attorney for the Boy
Jennie Lee	Woman at Dance of Jenkins's Employees,The Wife of the Friendly Neighbor
Clyde Hopkins	Jenkins's Secretary
Howard Gaye	The Nazarene/Cardinal Lorraine
Lillian Langdon	Mary
Olga Grey	Mary Magdalene
Gunther von Ritzau	First Pharisee,First Pharisee
Erich von Stroheim	Second Pharisee
George Walsh	Bridegroom
W.S. Van Dyke	A Wedding Guest
Spottiswoode Aitken	Brown Eyes' Father,Brown Eyes' Father
Ruth Handford	Her Mother
A. D. Sears	The Mercenary
Frank Bennett	Charles IX
Maxfield Stanley	Duc d'Anjou
Josephine Crowell	Catherine de Medici
W. E. Lawrence	Henry of Navarre,Henry of Navarre
Joseph Henaberry	Admiral Coligny
Chandler House	A Page
Morris Levy	Duc de Guise
Louis Romaine	A Catholic Priest
Carl Stockdale	King Nabonidus
George Siegmann	Cyrus the Persian
Elmo Lincoln	The Mighty Man of Valor
Gino Corrado	The Runner
Wallace Reid	A Boy Killed in the Fighting
Ted Duncan	Captain of the Gate/Bodyguard to the Princess
Felix Modjeska	Bodyguard to the Princess
George Fawcett	Judge
Robert Lawlor	Judge
Kate Bruce	Old Babylonian Woman
Ruth St. Denis	Solo Dancer
Mary Alden	Uplifter
Lucille Browne	Uplifter
Edmund Burns	The 2nd Charioteer of the Priest of Bel
Donald Crisp	Extra
Ruth Darling	Actor
Eagle Eye	Barbarian Chieftain
Ruth Handforth	Brown Eyes' Mother
Roben Lawlor	Judge
Jennifer Lee	Woman at Jenkins' Employees' Dance
Loyola O'Connor	Attareo's Slave
Alma Rubens	Actor
Howard Scott	A Babylonian Dandy
Winifred Westover	The Favorite of Egibi
Mildred Harris	Harem Girl
Pauline Starke	Harem Girl
Wilfred Lucas	Actor
Joseph Carl Breil	Composer
Carl Davis	Composer
D.W. Griffith	Composer

Technical Credits

D.W. Griffith

Tod Browning

D.W. Griffith	Screenwriter,Producer
Tod Browning	Screenwriter

Scene Index

Side #1 --
1. Chapter 1 [18:05]
2. Chapter 2 [20:36]
3. Chapter 3 [14:50]
4. Chapter 4 [17:36]
5. Chapter 5 [19:02]
6. Chapter 6 [6:40]
7. Chapter 7 [21:44]
8. Chapter 8 [19:40]

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Editorial Reviews

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).