SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Eric Stevenson "Intolerance" may in fact be the first truly great movie ever created. Some would say that honor goes to "Birth Of A Nation". Unfortunately, it's now regarded as old shame as it's quite racist. As I have now seen both films, I will admit that this one is better. Seeing as how it was made so quickly after BOAN, I thought it would be against racism. It's true that intolerance is obviously the main theme, but it isn't racism that this touches upon. It's a variety of things, but mostly religious tolerance. Nowadays, everyone just hates every kind of religion so it's quite unique.The weirdest part was figuring out where the "modern" part took place. It looked like it could easily pass for the 1950's. I realized it obviously couldn't be at that time because it hadn't happened yet. I guess it works really well as a period piece. It's hard to say that was unintentional, seeing as how it shows years from so long ago. What I love is that these years are so far apart. I'm no mathematician, but he fact that they seem to be equally distant, at least in terms of technology, shows great variety. My favorite is the Babylon part.Of course, most people say that. It's obviously the parts that have the best battle scene with really does hold up. I felt like I was watching an old timey version of "The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King". This is about as epic as it comes back in those days. I also love the way the stories are told. They're mostly separated by a literal story book. The actors are even credited differently based on the segments they're in. I guess it's hard to find the fullest version, but three hours is long enough for me. At the end, they simply show all the different parts together. It does all add up well. This is one of the best silent films, well, one of the best films ever made and everyone should see it and yes, it has a great message of prejudice that holds true now and forever. Perfect ****.

thinbeach In terms costume, design, and size of action, this Griffith epic is rightly considered one of the towering films in cinema's history, for it is a marvel to look at for an audience of any era - with the re-construction of Babylonian sets including towering walls, carved sculptures, and chariots, as the backdrop to religious worship and army sieges. It conjures up all number of memorable images and features a range of impressive technical feats - such as dolly's and what look like crane shots, as well as many close ups - which were very rare for the time.Unfortunately however not nearly as much talent went into the script as the production. It attempts to tell four stories from four different eras and places in history, united by a single theme - that intolerance is bad. The problem is however, the film tells us this in opening title cards before the thing has even started, so that watching this film is not a journey of wonder and discovery and mystery and surprise, but the journey of watching a wealthy group of people make their point in a scripted way with re-creations of history that contain inaccuracies. On top of this, two of the four stories seem to just fall by the wayside and be largely forgotten about. It feels less like a fiction film than a documentary re-enactment, the purpose of which is to provide a moral which everybody understands to be true before they enter the theatre to watch this film anyway. The problem with corruption in politics and religion and wealth in our world, and through the ages, is not that people don't understand morals, it's that they don't act upon them for selfish reasons. This film just uses morals to try and leverage some gravitas. Well, it could have been told in half the time at least! It could have been told in ten minutes! They told it in the first few title cards! The acting is fairly poor throughout, without any suspense the plot really drags, and relies heavily on title cards to progress the pretty pictures, but ironically it is the most modern story, the one with the least impressive set and costume visuals, that is the most affecting, as they choose not to provide a history re-enactment, but set a story of twists and turns in motion, melodramatic as they are.Wikipedia will try to tell us "it has been called the first art film" - but that's rubbish, because all film is art, and Melies, to list just one, was there before Griffith, and Griffith himself made better art before this anyway. In my opinion this is the kind of film that will inspire more blockbusters than unique stories.

SenjoorMutt 'Intolerance' is most definitely the best film by great innovator D.W. Griffith. And it was only possible because of his revoltingly racist 'The Birth of a Nation'. With more lavishing sets and extravagant battle scenes 'Intolerance' was unfortunately that expensive that it caused movie studio to go bankrupt.'Intolerance' was epic in many levels – it was technically superb, it's four parallel cross-cutting stories from different eras and again masterful (and quite gory, we don't see that many heads been cut off even in much newer movies) battle scenes. Each of them four stories could have been good film, but Griffith decided to connect them all with one theme – Intolerance. The connecting scenes with Lilian Gish as The Eternal Motherhood rocking the cradle of love was nice symbolic touch, and Griffith loved symbolism. 'Intolerance' is one of the best films about injustice, betrayal, and of course love, ever made. Griffith's visual style almost makes it a poem on celluloid.This film is awesome for one more reason – it has very strong female hero. In the Ancient Babylonian story The Mountain Girl played magnificent Constance Talmadge.*Quote from the film.

Al_The_Strange Almost a century ago, D.W. Griffith produced this mammoth film as his follow-up to Birth of a Nation, partly to try and be bigger and better, and also to counteract the racial criticisms his previous film garnered. Intolerance is a massive production that spans thousands of years of human history. For the first time in cinema history, massive sets, massive amounts of extras, huge amounts of props and costumes were dispensed to craft a lavish and visual experience. To this day, many folks acknowledge this film as an important landmark of movie-making history.Regardless, it is one long-winded film that runs for three hours, telling four different stories in four different eras. The most interesting and visually impressive story involves the fall of ancient Babylon; it's a brutal tale that boasts some surprisingly violent scenes of war, with the backdrop of massive and exotic setpieces. The film also flips around with the classic tale of Jesus and His crucifixion, and once again it looks fabulous. Scenes in 16th century France show the story of St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Then there's the modern day scenes (1916 that is) showing the struggle of the working class against the adversities of strike, strife, crime, and punishment. All these stories are united with the recurring image of a baby in a cradle, insinuating that the central theme of "intolerance" is a universal trait that carries on with each new generation, from the day we're born to the day we die.All that being said, the film never really captivated me. Not even with the lavish visuals, the sumptuous set designs, and the expansive story; as grand of an effort as this film was, I found it to be dry and stiff. None of the stories had any strong characters to follow, and without a pathological attachment, I found myself disconnected to the events that unfolded. The matter is made worse by the fact that all conflict seems historical in nature - most of them revolve around religious differences that set two sides at each others throats. Personal conflict occurs in the modern story, but is still not all that interesting. Thus, I found myself not really caring for what was going on, and the film overall came off as a bore.I am sorry to say such a thing, because the film clearly shows its quality and passion through its production. It boasts very solid, if not groundbreaking and impressive, photography and editing. Acting is generally good, even by silent-era standards. Title cards tend to be long-winded, and have a tendency to explain a lot of what's going on in a herky-jerky manner. This production spared no expense on the sets, props, and costumes Intolerance is an important landmark film that all serious film fans should attempt to see. It doesn't do much for me personally, I'm afraid, but it is best seen for its ambition, scope, scale, and overall quality and craftsmanship.3/5 (Entertainment: Awful | Story: Average | Film: Very Good)