Friday, August 2 - Thursday, August 8
D.W. Griffith's powerful storytelling is demonstrated Intolerance (1916) The first three cards in the film, subtitled "Love Throughout the Ages," announce the film's theme and its ambitious structure: "Our play is made of four separate stories, laid in different periods of history, each with its own set of characters. Each story shows how hatred and intolerance, through the ages, have battled against love and charity. Therefore, you will find our play turning from one of the four stories to another, as the common theme unfolds in each."
The modern story, sometimes called the American story, has Jenkins (Sam de Grasse), a rich mill owner, establish a charity for the poor. His foundation quickly becomes a magnet for socially minded women and their intolerant ideals. Memorable title card: "When women cease to attract men they turn to reform." The Film Forum audience groaned and laughed at this.
A boy, a very handome Robert "Bobby" Harron and a girl, known as "the dear one," Mae Marsh, are forced to the slums due to labor-management disputes at their mill, including a strike in which the boy's father is killed by company guards. The boy, who turns to a life of crime to support himself, meets, courts, and marries "the dear one."
A husband and a new father, the boy decides to go straight but is framed by his crime boss (Walter Long) and ends up in prison. Wrongfully declaring the girl an unfit mother, the ladies of the Jenkins Foundation seize her baby and place it in an institution. High drama for 1916.
After the boy's release, the gangster who framed him takes an interest in "the dear one" and is fatally shot by his jealous girlfriend, a beautiful Miriam Cooper. The boy is arrested for the crime, found guilty and sentenced to death. Ultimately, the real murderer confesses and a governor's pardon saves the boy from the gallows at the last possible moment. An exciting car versus train race adds to the story's drama. At end, boy, girl, and baby are happily reunited as a family.
The Judaean story, the weakest and most ploddingingly told of the four narratives, relates three key episodes in the life of the Christ (Howard Gaye): the miracle at Cana, the tale of Jesus' merciful treatment of the woman taken in adultery, and the crucifixion, an impressive scene.
The French story is an account of religious intolerance in medieval times. King Charles IX (Frank Bennett), a Catholic, orders an attack on Protestants that results in the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. Battle scenes are a bit much. The French interiors are most elaborate and impressive. A very young Eugene Paullete stars. He had supporting roles in the sound era and impressed audiences with his deep voice in the memorable 1936 "My Man Godfrey" with William Powell.
The fourth story, my favorite, is set in the Babylon governed by peaceable and religiously tolerant King Nabonidus (Carl Stockdale) and his son Belshazzar (Alfred Paget). The intolerant and traitorous High Priest of Bel (Tully Marshall) conspires with Persian ruler Cyrus (George Siegmann), to conquer Babylon. The Persians' first attack on the city fails, but as the Babylonians are rejoicing in their victory Cyrus strikes again. This time the Persians are successful.
Among the casualties are the prince and his princess, Attarea (Seena Owen), who commits suicide, and a feisty and attractive Mountain Girl (Constance Talmadge, 1898-1973), who dies fighting to defend Babylon and its ruler and her idol Belshazzar. The Babylon story contains scenes of frontal nudity as a young woman bathes in a public bath. In other scenes, nipples of young women can be seen through their costumes. Elmer Clifton, a frequent Griffith player, is most impressive as a young and muscular Rhapsode attracted to the Mountain Girl (Talmadge).
The Babylon story also contains scenes of violence, including beheadings, spearings and crushings. These scenes still draw gasps. A brief scene of night battle is also impressive with white billowing smoke. The Film Forum audience applauded the camera shoot of The Babylon Gate.
Rather than telling these stories successively, the film moves back and forth among its foursome of of injustice tales among the ages, punctuated intermittently by a long, static shot of a woman (Lillian Gish), covered head to foot, eternally rocking an old-fashioned wooden cradle at times with her hand and at times with her foot. This scene was inspired by a Walt Whitman poem. The film begins and ends with Miss Gish rocking the cradle.
Griffith had virtually completed The Mother and the Law, which became the American story and he intended to release it as a single feature film of conventional length. He fatefully decided to use it in Intolerance. The film involved many months of work and unprecedented expense.
The construction of Babylon was the largest set ever to have been created for the screen. It inspired the acclaimed 1987 US-French-Italian film "Good Morning Babylon." Intolerance was the most spectacularly lavish and ambutious film critics and audeinces of 1916 had ever seen. It required patience that many filmgoers would not give it. A conservative estimate of the film's cost is $1.5 million in 1916 dollars. (Are we now at the point where all of the reconstructions and restorations on Intolerance have risen above the film's actual cost?)
Over the years, Griffith relentlessly edited the film to appeal to larger audiences in an attempt to make the film fiancially successful. In 1919 he attempted to cut his losses by re-releasing reworked versions of the Babylon and modern stories as two solo features: The Fall of Babylon and The Mother and the Law.
Intolerance's sets, costumes, compositions, and mass deployment of bodies in motion on a grand scale are still impressive, especially in the battle of Babylon sequence. The famous parallel editing near film end is undeniably exciting and educated scores of filmmakers. The attractive Constance Talmadge is spirited as the Mountain Girl. The Raphsode, a young and muscular Elmer Clifton (1890-1949), is one handsome hunk of man and has many impressive scenes.
The Film Forum audience did not find the film a chore to watch. They did offer a 10-minute intermission. When too many characters and too much plot (multiplied by four) are woven into a fast-moving epic of considerable length, some filmgoers could become exhausted. Still. Griffith's ambition, herculean effort, historical detail, and most honorable intentions, make Intolearnce a film to study, watch and marvel over nearly 100 years after release.
Critical acclaim for Intolerance
"SURPRISES EVEN TODAY WITH ITS VITALITY! Four tales across history are told in dizzying and masterly alternation, all linked by the broad themes of intolerance and hatred. The poignant, the brutal, the hair-raising and the sentimental churn together in meticulously composed spectacles." - Nic Rapold, The New York Times, also Film Comment
"A MOVIE OPERA! The plunging and roving camera provides visceral thrills... and Griffith's trademark closeups lend a quivering lip or a trembling hand the tragic grandeur of historical cataclysm." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker
"THE ULYSSES OF THE CINEMA!" - Dave Kehr
Notes: Constance Talmadge worked with Griffith on only Intolearnce and The Fall of Babylon, in 1919, a release of only the Babylon story from Intolerance.
Elmer Clifton, 1890-1949, worked with Griffith on several films including Way Down East in 1920. In 1922, he directed Clara Bow in Down to the Sea in Ships.
James Patterson
Adviser, Gish Theater BGSU
Co-chair Development
415 516 3493
JamesPatterson705@gmail.com
D.W. Griffith's powerful storytelling is demonstrated Intolerance (1916) The first three cards in the film, subtitled "Love Throughout the Ages," announce the film's theme and its ambitious structure: "Our play is made of four separate stories, laid in different periods of history, each with its own set of characters. Each story shows how hatred and intolerance, through the ages, have battled against love and charity. Therefore, you will find our play turning from one of the four stories to another, as the common theme unfolds in each."
The modern story, sometimes called the American story, has Jenkins (Sam de Grasse), a rich mill owner, establish a charity for the poor. His foundation quickly becomes a magnet for socially minded women and their intolerant ideals. Memorable title card: "When women cease to attract men they turn to reform." The Film Forum audience groaned and laughed at this.
A boy, a very handome Robert "Bobby" Harron and a girl, known as "the dear one," Mae Marsh, are forced to the slums due to labor-management disputes at their mill, including a strike in which the boy's father is killed by company guards. The boy, who turns to a life of crime to support himself, meets, courts, and marries "the dear one."
A husband and a new father, the boy decides to go straight but is framed by his crime boss (Walter Long) and ends up in prison. Wrongfully declaring the girl an unfit mother, the ladies of the Jenkins Foundation seize her baby and place it in an institution. High drama for 1916.
After the boy's release, the gangster who framed him takes an interest in "the dear one" and is fatally shot by his jealous girlfriend, a beautiful Miriam Cooper. The boy is arrested for the crime, found guilty and sentenced to death. Ultimately, the real murderer confesses and a governor's pardon saves the boy from the gallows at the last possible moment. An exciting car versus train race adds to the story's drama. At end, boy, girl, and baby are happily reunited as a family.
The Judaean story, the weakest and most ploddingingly told of the four narratives, relates three key episodes in the life of the Christ (Howard Gaye): the miracle at Cana, the tale of Jesus' merciful treatment of the woman taken in adultery, and the crucifixion, an impressive scene.
The French story is an account of religious intolerance in medieval times. King Charles IX (Frank Bennett), a Catholic, orders an attack on Protestants that results in the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. Battle scenes are a bit much. The French interiors are most elaborate and impressive. A very young Eugene Paullete stars. He had supporting roles in the sound era and impressed audiences with his deep voice in the memorable 1936 "My Man Godfrey" with William Powell.
The fourth story, my favorite, is set in the Babylon governed by peaceable and religiously tolerant King Nabonidus (Carl Stockdale) and his son Belshazzar (Alfred Paget). The intolerant and traitorous High Priest of Bel (Tully Marshall) conspires with Persian ruler Cyrus (George Siegmann), to conquer Babylon. The Persians' first attack on the city fails, but as the Babylonians are rejoicing in their victory Cyrus strikes again. This time the Persians are successful.
Among the casualties are the prince and his princess, Attarea (Seena Owen), who commits suicide, and a feisty and attractive Mountain Girl (Constance Talmadge, 1898-1973), who dies fighting to defend Babylon and its ruler and her idol Belshazzar. The Babylon story contains scenes of frontal nudity as a young woman bathes in a public bath. In other scenes, nipples of young women can be seen through their costumes. Elmer Clifton, a frequent Griffith player, is most impressive as a young and muscular Rhapsode attracted to the Mountain Girl (Talmadge).
The Babylon story also contains scenes of violence, including beheadings, spearings and crushings. These scenes still draw gasps. A brief scene of night battle is also impressive with white billowing smoke. The Film Forum audience applauded the camera shoot of The Babylon Gate.
Rather than telling these stories successively, the film moves back and forth among its foursome of of injustice tales among the ages, punctuated intermittently by a long, static shot of a woman (Lillian Gish), covered head to foot, eternally rocking an old-fashioned wooden cradle at times with her hand and at times with her foot. This scene was inspired by a Walt Whitman poem. The film begins and ends with Miss Gish rocking the cradle.
Griffith had virtually completed The Mother and the Law, which became the American story and he intended to release it as a single feature film of conventional length. He fatefully decided to use it in Intolerance. The film involved many months of work and unprecedented expense.
The construction of Babylon was the largest set ever to have been created for the screen. It inspired the acclaimed 1987 US-French-Italian film "Good Morning Babylon." Intolerance was the most spectacularly lavish and ambutious film critics and audeinces of 1916 had ever seen. It required patience that many filmgoers would not give it. A conservative estimate of the film's cost is $1.5 million in 1916 dollars. (Are we now at the point where all of the reconstructions and restorations on Intolerance have risen above the film's actual cost?)
Over the years, Griffith relentlessly edited the film to appeal to larger audiences in an attempt to make the film fiancially successful. In 1919 he attempted to cut his losses by re-releasing reworked versions of the Babylon and modern stories as two solo features: The Fall of Babylon and The Mother and the Law.
Intolerance's sets, costumes, compositions, and mass deployment of bodies in motion on a grand scale are still impressive, especially in the battle of Babylon sequence. The famous parallel editing near film end is undeniably exciting and educated scores of filmmakers. The attractive Constance Talmadge is spirited as the Mountain Girl. The Raphsode, a young and muscular Elmer Clifton (1890-1949), is one handsome hunk of man and has many impressive scenes.
The Film Forum audience did not find the film a chore to watch. They did offer a 10-minute intermission. When too many characters and too much plot (multiplied by four) are woven into a fast-moving epic of considerable length, some filmgoers could become exhausted. Still. Griffith's ambition, herculean effort, historical detail, and most honorable intentions, make Intolearnce a film to study, watch and marvel over nearly 100 years after release.
Critical acclaim for Intolerance
"SURPRISES EVEN TODAY WITH ITS VITALITY! Four tales across history are told in dizzying and masterly alternation, all linked by the broad themes of intolerance and hatred. The poignant, the brutal, the hair-raising and the sentimental churn together in meticulously composed spectacles." - Nic Rapold, The New York Times, also Film Comment
"A MOVIE OPERA! The plunging and roving camera provides visceral thrills... and Griffith's trademark closeups lend a quivering lip or a trembling hand the tragic grandeur of historical cataclysm." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker
"THE ULYSSES OF THE CINEMA!" - Dave Kehr
Notes: Constance Talmadge worked with Griffith on only Intolearnce and The Fall of Babylon, in 1919, a release of only the Babylon story from Intolerance.
Elmer Clifton, 1890-1949, worked with Griffith on several films including Way Down East in 1920. In 1922, he directed Clara Bow in Down to the Sea in Ships.
James Patterson
Adviser, Gish Theater BGSU
Co-chair Development
415 516 3493
JamesPatterson705@gmail.com
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