D.W. GRIFFITH'S INTOLERANCE
Beyond Home Entertainment / Region 4 / Released September 09
Featuring Lillian Gish, Dougklas Fairbanks, Mae Marsh, Constance Talmadge
One of the great epic movies of the silent era, Intolerance directed by the legendary D.W. Griffith, is a given a smart DVD release by Beyond this month.
The movie, which is basically four stories looking at themes of intolerance through the ages (Ancient Babylon, Judea, France during the revolution and the then present day 1916) is the very definition of the lavishness of Hollywood in the silent era. Massive of budget and huge of scale, seen to greatest effect in the amazing Babylon sequences.
Intolerance was Griffith's follow up to equally large scale The Birth of a Nation and he felt he had been unfairly criticised over certain aspects of that movie, most notably charges of racism, so naturally enough he was determined to pull out all the stops here.
Amazingly the movie failed to set the box office alight and ended up bankrupting Griffith's own Triangle film studios but its reputation has grown enormously since then. Techniques introduced by Griffith are still in use today and his epic sense of scale has influenced countless directors over the years. This is a great new release, part of the Landmarks of Cinema range with great packaging and an excellent booklet offering plenty of background written by film historian Geoff Gardner.
back to DVD Reviews | Home
