Movie- Intolerance

D.W. Griffith is considered the father of movie making. Undoubtedly, without him, movies would have been much slower to develop as an art form.

Intolerance (1916) was one of the first epic sagas put onto film. Griffiths made this after 1915's Birth of a Nation. That first film is considered one of the best films of all time...and also one of the most racist. Now I have not yet watched Birth, but Intolerance was made partially to show that Griffiths was not racist.

For whatever reason it was made, the silent film is still one of the more incredible ever made...with a cast of hundreds at least, this film had huge, magnificent sets with four story lines, each illustrating that intolerance is what killed Jesus, and is still killing people in the modern era.

You can really see the ideas the Griffiths had for film-making...I shudder to think what his capabilities would be if he had today's tools...James Cameron would be eating his hat!

The 3 hour film does take some patience, as we are not used to the pacing of the silents. And if ever a film needed restoration, and full digital enhancements, this is the one. But Intolerance is an amazing film...because we can see what this new medium could be capable of...we could see that film could be more than just recording what was happening, but could record what we imagined was, and could be. And today's filmmakers owe a debt of gratitude to Griffiths for showing that so early in the life of this new art.