DW Griffith and INTOLERANCE

THE BIRTH OF A NATION, the world's first blockbuster which also contains sickening scenes of blacks in Reconstruction-era congress jumping up and down like apes, was followed up by INTOLERANCE, D.W. Griffith's 3.5hr silent epic. Furthering contemporary confusion surrounding Griffith's politics, the film centers around acts of intolerance in four different eras of human history, at the fall of Babylon (539BC), Christ's sacrifice, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572), and the modern day (1916). Lillian Gish's Eternal Motherhood rocks the cradle of humanity, as violence breaks out due to intolerance at every stage of advancement. With thousands of extras and some of the biggest sets ever made, to watch INTOLERANCE is to view some of the most incredible achievements at tactilely representing the scale of human civilization. But Griffith's poetry: the quickening intensity of the film afforded to it by his revolutionary use of montage, affect you in the most intricate of ways.