Why can’t we all just get along?

Intolerance
After pissing off everyone with the release of Birth of a Nation, D. W. Griffith made Intolerance to show that he was not actually racist1. Like Birth of a Nation, Intolerance is a 3 hour epic and a silent film. Intolerance is actually four parallel stories (Babylonian, Judean, French Renaissance and Modern-day America) that depict tales of people being discriminated against. Of the four, the Modern and Babylonia arcs are the most gripping and, towards the end, I found myself hoping to return to one of those stories when the Judean or French stories were on screen. The Babylonia story features a massive sets and thousands of extras. There is also a battle scene that reminded me of the final battle in The Two Towers with a huge fortress being attacked en mass with large siege towers. Intolerance was unable to make back the estimated $2 million (~$40 million with inflation) it cost to produce, which lead to the sale of the production company.

1. That was not the only reason the film was made, as the modern story arc was planned before Birth of a Nation was started.

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