INTOLERANCE
US, 1916, 175 minutes, Black and White.
Lilian Gish, Mae Marsh, Constance Talmadge, Bessie Love, Elmer Clifton, Erich Von Stroheim, Eugene Pallette.
Directed by D.W.Griffith.
Intolerance is a famous epic by director D. W. Griffith. A director of short films in the early decade of the century, he made The Birth Of A Nation, the first major full-length feature film in America. He was criticised for his attitudes towards the negroes and his seeming favouring of the Ku Klux Klan.
His next long epic was a weaving together of several stories all on the theme of intolerance. With almost no precedents, he does a very interesting job in his editing of the stories. However, later sophistication shows a lot of loopholes and lack of dramatic impact in the editing. However, as with the photography, styles of acting, the captions and titles, the explanations, the sentiment - Intolerance sets precedents which could later be developed.
Griffith had great scope in his treatment and also had enormous resources - these are most evident in the sets for the Babylonian story. Originally the film was to run for about 8 hours. This means it has been extensively cut. The Judean and the French story are the main stories cut. The modern story was originally planned as a separate film, The Mother And The Law, and it was based on the records of an actual murder case and a Federal Industrial Commission report. Many of the actors and actresses who were to make a name for themselves appear in this early full length feature film e.g. Lilian Gish was the woman who rocked the cradle, Mae Marsh, the Dear One of the modern story and Constance Talmadge the mountain girl of the Babylonian story.
The film is in many ways sentimental, melodramatic but it does have great impact and shows that there is nothing new in the cinema. The modern story predates many of the gangster films and the later cliches. The Babylonian story is Cecil B. de Mille's style - a mixture of sanctity with King Belshazzar (and naked dancing girls and a lecherous court!). It is interesting to note that in the Judean story there is a portrayal of Jesus and this is intercut especially with the modern story and execution to make the boy of that episode a Christ-figure. Intolerance should be seen as an example of the earliest film-making. Its complexity meant that it was not such a commercial success on its first release.
1. The status of this film as a classic? Its lack of precedent, its establishing precedents which later became cliches? The transition from stage presentation to cinema? Intimate dramatics, pageantry? The nature of photography at the time and its limitations? The clarity of the film - sense of movement even with fixed cameras? Black and white photography, tinted episodes? The acting styles of the time - and the transition of stage techniques to screen? The broader scope of pageant, outdoor sequences, close-ups? The slow pace especially for the reading of the titles? The importance of the editing and the juxtaposition of the stories - without subtlety, with subtlety e.g. the mounting intolerance, the various climaxes, the Christ-figure comments?
2. The importance of the captions - the jargon at the time, the sentiment in the names, the footnotes and explanations? Impact in their time, now?
3. How entertaining a film? How moralising? optimism, critique of intolerance, sentiment? The ending and the hope that there would not be intolerance in the 20th. century? The lessons of history man disaster? Hope with the modern story and the learning of the lessons to avoid intolerance?
4. The significance of the title and its use throughout the film? Human and religious intolerance and their interrelationship? Human rights, the ordinary man and woman and oppression, self-righteousness and intolerance, the Pharisees and the do-gooders, the uplifters? The do-gooders as do-badders? Audience judgment on authority, intolerance?
5. The selection of stories - the range of period, the
differences and similarities, editorial comment, the cumulative effect, the intellectual response to the themes, emotional response?
6. The chorus of the mother rocking the cradle and the universal values, the eternal truth? The three fates sitting behind the mother? The way that the cradle was interspersed and its comment on the various stories?
7. The modern story and the considering of 1915 as modern - and its comparisons with the late 20th. century, similarities? The influence of this story on later gangster and romance stories? A more socialist view? A critique of the factory owners, the do-gooders? The basic ingredients of love, oppression, gangster melodrama, crime, victim being framed, jealousies, prison, the build-up to execution, reprieve, the chase? These becoming stereotypes and conventions?
8. The do-gooders and the uplifters - the satirical tone about them, Vestal virgins and their responsibility, repression and interfering in people's lives? Miss Jenkins, her age, her influence on her brother, draining the funds for doing good and therefore the cut in wages, the oppression of the dances, ending the dance after 10 p.m.? The repercussions in strikes, military putting down of strikes, oppression? The cleaning up of the cities? Ill-fate and the intertwining of people's lives? The portrait of factories, social conditions, revolution? The idealising of the simple life in the homes?
9. The portrait of the Dear One and the boy - the simple life in contrast with that of the Jenkins? Miss Jenkins and her brother as oppressors? Sorrow, deaths? The Friendless One and her father? The irony of her becoming a moll, her drinking, jealousy, murder, allowing the boy to be framed? Her finally being persuaded to confess? The Dear One and her father? The marriage to the boy in the city, the baby, the lack of money, her cold and her drinking, the ironies and the cruelty of her baby being taken? The reaction to the murder, her presence at the court case? The boy and his being mixed up with the gangs, robberies, the gun, his being framed? The musketeer of the streets and the gangsters? The boy and his experience of prison, the trial, the chaplain, the final words, the Sacrament? How moving despite the familiarity of themes and stereotyped characters?
10. The life of the aristocracy and the ironic way in which this was presented, wealth, enjoyment, entertaining? The headquarters of the uplifters? The father and his piety? The contrast with the young girl and her simplicity of life -the imitation of the walk of the street girls to get attention? Her simplicity and losing the baby? The foundation and her looking at the baby with its happier life? The atmosphere of the city?
11. The boy, the trial, the attempt to get the truth. the Governor, the train. the chase, the last minute reprieve?
12. The cutting in of the Babylonian sequences with this chase? The Christ-sequences and Cana. the woman taken in adultery, suffer the little children., Pilate and the cross and the modern story?
13. The figure of Jesus - tableau, expectations from Gospel readings? Jesus and His smile? The contrast with the distant picture of the Crucifixion? The intercutting with the boy and his troubles - making him a Christ-figure?
14. The French story - audience knowledge of the Medici history., the details of court life, the Huguenots - their place in the court. the mutual massacres? The family, the courtiers? Prosper Latour and Brown Eyes? The love atmosphere, the mercenary and his jealousy? The regal marriage, Brown Eyes' marriage? The King and his weakness, the portrait of Catherine de Medici and her cruelty, the King and his fit and his signing? His being pressurised? The visuals of the massacre, the mercenary and his intervention, the death of Brown Eyes and Prosper? The film's comment on Protestant and Catholic intolerance?
15. The Babylonian story and its exotic pageantry? The lavish sets and their use? The sex and violence later to become stereotypes in the de Mille tradition? Crowds and sets? The length and vigour? The point of the story - Belshazzar and his tolerance and justice, his losing his city? The Beloved and her relationship with Belshazzar? The softness and the intimacy? The battle and Cyrus' success? Belshazzar betrayed to death?
16. The picture of pagan ritual, the Rhapsode and his selling of the girl, making himself a god, the betrayal of Belshazzar?
17. The mountain girl and her liveliness, her being betrayed, her brother? Belshazzar's seal and her life in the city, her espionage, her warning and her death?
18. The Beloved and her relationship with Belshazzar, the priest? Cyrus and his invasion? The spectacle and the battle? The climax and its being intercut with the train sequence?
19. The quality of conception and execution of the film - its limitations seen in retrospect, its impact at the time? Particular impact on America in 1916, later, its universal insight? Its types, issues, styles? The value of seeing this film and understanding the times, the influence in later history of filmmaking?
