list: leonard maltin top 100
genre: history, epic, silent
traces to: gone with the wind, the ten commandments, cleopatra
this film truly defines 'epic,' as well as 'audacious.' in his first attempt to atone for 'birth of a nation,' griffith decided to tell the epic story of man's intolerance throughout the ages. not quite the same thing as tackling racism, but he'll get to that later. the film intercuts 4 stories:
1) ancient babylon - this features a famous epic crane shot with a massive set and thousands of extras. this scene is probably now most recognizable because the hollywood and highland shopping complex was built as a re-creation of this set.
2) the crucifixion of jesus
3) events leading up to the st. bartholomew's day massacre in renaissance france
4) and a modern (modern being 1914) story of a lower class guy wrongly accused of murder and sentenced to hang.
the weaving of 4 story lines is impressive, edited together so that they climax at the same time, making for quite a riveting final act. each section of the film is tinted a different color, as well as each having their own style of inter-title card. while it has a Big Important Message, it is also filled with surprising humor, especially constance talmadge, an expressive character actress who appears in both the french and babylonian stories. she is like betty boop dropped into the set of 'stargate'
the entire film can be viewed on youtube:
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