Film and Media Atlas

How Stories Are Broadcast
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Landmark Work

Intolerance (1916 film)

Silent and Early Cinema Landmarks

Intolerance, subtitled Love' s Struggle Throughout the Ages, is a 1916 American anthology silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. The three and a half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines separated by centuries: a contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption, a Biblical story of Christ' s mission and death, a French story surrounding the Saint Bartholomew' s Day massacre of 1572, and a Babylonian story depicting the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC.

Facts
Release Year
1916 1
Country
United States 1
Classification
Original Language
English 1
FAQs

Did Intolerance ruin D. W. Griffith?

It was a costly disappointment but not career-ending; Griffith followed it with two of his most successful films.

Not in the way the legend says. The Library of Congress National Film Registry essay on the film says Griffith struggled with its financial burden and its disappointing popular reception for the rest of his career. The same essay says it was not the ruinous career-ending venture it is reputed to be, because it was after Intolerance that Griffith made Broken Blossoms in 1919 and Way Down East in 1920, two of his most successful and popular films.
Connections

Created By

D.W. Griffith, Figures
Source Intolerance (film) (Wikipedia)

In Medium

Film, Media Forms
Source Intolerance (film) (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases

Original Language

Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationIntolerance (1916 film), Description, original language
Quote, Intolerance (1916 film), Description, original language
Intolerance, subtitled Love' s Struggle Throughout the Ages, is a 1916 American anthology silent film directed by D. W. Griffith.
View the Source
Intolerance (film) (Wikipedia)
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerance_(film), opening sentence
    Intolerance is a 1916 American anthology silent film directed by D. W. Griffith.
  • In Medium: Film, Article lead sentence
    Intolerance is a 1916 American anthology silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. Subtitled as Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages and A Sun-Play of the Ages, the three-and-a-half-hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines, each separated
  • Created By: D.W. Griffith, Article lead sentence
    Intolerance is a 1916 American anthology silent film directed by D. W. Griffith.
  • In Group: Early American Feature Films, 1913 to 1919, Lead
    Intolerance is a 1916 American anthology silent film directed by D.
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.