INTOLERANCE: LOVE'S STRUGGLE THROUGH THE AGES (1916)

Hard to fathom, but the most ambitious/ audacious film yet conceived came out (to under-performing confusion) more than 100 years ago. In scope, if not in execution, it has yet to be topped. Stung by criticism on the blatant racism of his epic-grossing BIRTH OF A NATION/’15, D. W. Griffith struck back at ‘intolerant’ cavils with this awesome Four-in-One epic.* And while the film remains both thrilling & absurd, it’s so packed with gobsmacking creativity & daring effect, to say nothing of advanced hopscotch construction, cast of thousands upon thousands & sets upon sets, it’s an irresistible force. Love, war & destruction as seen in a Babylonian tale of sabotage; in highlights from the Life of Christ; in the St. Bartholomew Massacre of French Protestants by French Catholics; and in a modern story of strikes, urban crime and over-zealous loveless welfare ladies. The first half of the film (about two hours long, though editions vary) carefully lays out the separate narrative threads (in physically spectacular fashion, Griffith’s technical chops far ahead of its production date, with Billy Bitzer’s lensing & camera tricks still packing a wallop). The second half (not much over an hour) is looser and more action-oriented, extraordinarily free in cutting between storylines, held together by some sort of mad logic. Even when naive elements raise an inappropriate smile, you’re never confused. Uncharacteristically, Griffith comes up with some fine comic relief, thanks to Constance Talmadge, hoydenesque Mountain Girl of the Babylonian story. (Graced with one of filmdom’s most magical ends, stilled by death into a heroic tableau). And while much of the cast still throw their arms about to denote emotion, most of the acting is very advanced. Especially so in the modern story, with its stunning factory strike scenes (INTOLERANCE was a one-film revolution for the Russian cinema), with Mae Marsh’s childish, but heartbreaking young mother and Robert Harron’s alternately harrowed & unaffected manner as he goes to the gallows for a crime he didn’t commit. (And look for a pre-tubby Eugene Pallette as heroic Huguenot Prosper.) At times, the production is so stupendous, so spendthrift with resources, you’ll hold your head in wonder; at other times, so bizarre & silly, you’ll hold it in disbelief. But you’ll never look away; you can't. Go for the recent Cohen Media edition with improved visual elements and Carl Davis’s thrilling full-orchestra score.

DOUBLE-BILL: Buster Keaton sends this up hilariously in his first feature-length film, THREE AGES/’23 (Caveman; Ancient Rome; Today). But he saved the name Brown Eyes, the doomed Huguenot girl, for the female lead in GO WEST/‘25. She’s a cow; a cow with big brown eyes.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Oddly, the concept of intolerance only drives the Huguenots/St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre storyline. Intolerance is tangential in the other three sections.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: At one particularly daring moment, a shootout is interrupted with an explanatory flashback.  (Audiences at the time must have thought D.W. mad.)  Something not seen again till Sergio Leone did it in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST/’68.