Just one year after his huge success with BIRTH OF A NATION, he was emboldened to prove his faith in the cinematic medium with the superproduction INTOLERANCE. Four separate stories are interwoven: the fall of Babylon, the death of Christ, the massacre of the Huguenots, and a contemporary (early 20th Century) drama -- all crosscut and building with enormous energy to a thrilling chase and finale. Through the juxtaposition of these well-known sagas, Griffith joyously articulates his deterministic view of history, namely that the suffering of innocents makes possible the salvation of the current generation. Griffith's concept and execution of INTOLERANCE are awesome, but audiences of 1916 were generally bewildered by his lofty intentions. He aimed too high and spent the rest of his career paying off the large debts that his vision had incurred.
Intolerance is a 1916 historical movie with a runtime of 2 hours and 43 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.7.
