Intolerance

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 by several centuries: first, a contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; second, a Biblical story: Christ's mission and death; third, a French story: the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572; and fourth, a Babylonian story: the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC. Each story had its own distinctive color tint in the original print. The scenes are linked by shots of a figure representing Eternal Motherhood, rocking a cradle.

Griffith chose to explore the theme of intolerance partly in response to his previous film, The Birth of a Nation (1915), being derided by the NAACP and others for perpetuating and supporting racial stereotypes and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan. Intolerance was not, however, an apology, as Griffith felt he had nothing to apologize for; in numerous interviews, he made clear that the film was intended as a rebuttal to his critics, whom he believed were themselves intolerant. In the years following its release, Intolerance strongly influenced European film movements and is regarded by critics as one of the most influential films of the silent era and one of the greatest films ever made. In 1958, the film was voted number seven in the World Expo film poll. In 1989, it was among the first films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".