Intolerance is a 1916 epic silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. Subtitles include Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages and A Sun-Play of the Ages. Regarded as one of the most influential films of the silent era (though it received mixed reviews at the time), the three-and-a-half-hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines, each separated by several centuries: (1) a contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption, (2) a Judean story: Christ's mission and death, (3) a French story: the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, and (4) a Babylonian story: the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC. Each story had its own distinctive color tint in the original print, but not in the currently available versions.[3] The scenes are linked by shots of a figure representing Eternal Motherhood, rocking a cradle. In Intolerance, Griffith chose to explore the eponymous theme partly in response to criticism of his previous film, The Birth of a Nation (1915), which was criticized by the NAACP and other groups as perpetuating racial stereotypes and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan. It was not, however, an apology, as Griffith felt he had nothing to apologize for; in numerous interviews, Griffith made clear that the film's title and overriding themes were meant as a response to those who, he felt, had been intolerant of him in condemning The Birth of a Nation. In the years following its release, Intolerance would strongly influence European film movements. In 1989, it was one of the first films to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Intolerance is a 1916 epic silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. Subtitles include Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages and A Sun-Play of the Ages. Regarded as one of the most influential films of the silent era (though it received mixed reviews at the time), the three-and-a-half-hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines, each separated by several centuries: (1) a contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption, (2) a Judean story: Christ's mission and death, (3) a French story: the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, and (4) a Babylonian story: the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC. Each story had its own distinctive color tint in the original print, but not in the currently available versions.[3] The scenes are linked by shots of a figure representing Eternal Motherhood, rocking a cradle. In Intolerance, Griffith chose to explore the eponymous theme partly in response to criticism of his previous film, The Birth of a Nation (1915), which was criticized by the NAACP and other groups as perpetuating racial stereotypes and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan. It was not, however, an apology, as Griffith felt he had nothing to apologize for; in numerous interviews, Griffith made clear that the film's title and overriding themes were meant as a response to those who, he felt, had been intolerant of him in condemning The Birth of a Nation. In the years following its release, Intolerance would strongly influence European film movements. In 1989, it was one of the first films to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.