Someone once asked a friend of mine that if it were possible to time travel, where would he like to travel to? My friend replied “right here and now.” “Why?” she queried. He responded with a one word answer,”dentistry”. Good point. One might add health care to that as well although the way things are now, who knows? Leaving aside the question of time travel, I would like to say that since I wasn’t around during the silent era, I’m happy to be living in a time where new technology makes old technology possible. We now have the opportunity to view silent films as if they were made yesterday. Restorations on films like NOSFERATU, METROPOLIS and more recently WINGS and THE BIG PARADE show how powerful and amazing these films can be when properly presented.
You can now add D.W. Griffith’s INTOLERANCE to that list. As a silent film enthusiast who teaches courses on silent film at the local college, I have always bemoaned the fact that up until now, no one had bothered with a decent restoration of any of Griffith’s films. Part of this is due to the politically correct fallout over the racist content in BIRTH OF A NATION and while the outrage over that film is unfortunate but perfectly understandable, one film does not a filmmaker make especially one as important as Griffith. If a Griffith film was going to be selected than INTOLERANCE is the perfect candidate. Even after almost a century its meaning is still being debated and its influence on the films that followed can be seen as late as the recent sci-fi epic CLOUD ATLAS.
I’ve had every major video version of INTOLERANCE from the CRITIC’S CHOICE VHS edition that was projected at the wrong speed (too fast it clocked in at a little over 2 hrs) to the recent KINO GRIFFITH MASTERWORKS edition that runs 197 minutes and puts back in every scrap of footage possible. One of the glories of this new restoration is that it is tightly edited so that while Griffith’s groundbreaking cross cutting remains, there doesn’t seem to be any extraneous footage so that it flows smoothly from one scene to the next. The running time of this version, which doesn’t seem to be missing anything, is 2hrs and 47mins. We know that the original was longer but this edition represents the most consistent version that I have ever seen.
Then there’s the picture quality. Astonishing! I never, ever thought that I would see INTOLERANCE look like this. The wealth of background detail now available in the crystal clear, tinted images is staggering. Just check out the opening Jenkins party scene or the tapestries when the Huguenot sequence is introduced and the literal cast of thousands in the Babylonian sequences. Last and certainly not least, possibly the most important element of all, is Carl Davis’ magnificent orchestral score which helps to underscore the images and give them extra meaning just as would have been the case in 1916. This is an edition of INTOLERANCE for the 21st century and beyond. I don’t know who funded or supervised the restoration but a very special thanks to the Cohen Group for making it available to the general public.
The Capsule Critic 