Intolerance (1916): 3 1/2 hours long. 0 seconds of boredom. The way in which Griffith wove the stories of four separate historical periods into one cohesive narrative is still unmatched after 95 years. The themes are loud, the melodrama is intense. The sets are HUGE.
Griffith made Intolerance because of the reactions of some audiences to The Birth Of a Nation (1915). Nation was undeniably racist: the Ku Klux Klan were depicted as heroes of the Reconstruction, seeking to rid their nation of dark-skinned terrors. Intolerance, by sharp contrast, makes a point of bashing persecution, setting the golden standard for all the social-issue dramas of the 20th century ... although Griffith avoids racial issues and sticks mostly to religion.
Griffith became a prophet through Intolerance by describing Prohibition three years before it ever happened.
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