Intolerance (1916)

From The Book:
"Perhaps in part a retort to those who found fault with the racial politics in The Birth of a Nation (1915), D.W. Griffith was equally concerned to argue against film censorship.  This was addressed more directly in the pamphlet issued at the time of Intolerance's exhibition, The Rise and Fall of Free Speech in America.  Griffith's design for this film, which he finalized in the weeks following the release of his earlier epic production, is to juxtapose four stories from different periods of history that illustrate 'Love's struggle throughout the ages.'  These include a selection of events from the life of Jesus; a tale from ancient Babylon, whose king is betrayed by those who resent his rejection of religious sectarianism; the story of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of French Protestants by King Charles IX of France on the perfidious advice of his mother; and a modern story in which a young boy, wrongly convicted of the murder of a companion, is rescued from execution at the last minute by the intervention of his beloved, who gains a pardon from the governor.  These stories are not presented in series.  Instead, Griffith cuts from one to another and often introduces suspenseful crosscutting within the stories as well.  This revolutionary structure proved too difficult for most filmgoers at the time, who may also have been put off by Intolerance's length (more than three hours).  Griffith may have invested as much as $2 million in the project, but the film never came close to making back its costs, even when recut and released as two separate features, The Fall of Babylon and The Mother and the Law."

Apparently, the "revolutionary structure" was too difficult for me as well.  I didn't much care for this film...the cutting back and forth between the 4 stories was choppy, and there wasn't much transition between them.  The characters weren't really given names, simply referred to as "Brown Eyes", "Mountain Girl", etc.  Griffiths went extremely heavy on the use of filters, nearly every scene was tinted glaring pink, blue, or green.  Almost every time a slide with text came up, the word "intolerance" was there, and it wore a little thin after the first hour. 

I don't really have much more to say about it, because I don't have much of an opinion. 

Next movie: Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligeri) (1919)