Intolerance

Intolerance (1916)

  • 96% of critics liked it
    (24 reviews)

  • 75% of users liked it
    (4,481 ratings)

Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of… More

Unrated,
Directed By
Written By
Tod Browning, D.W. Griffith
Genres
Classics
In Theaters
Sep 5, 1916 Wide

Critic Reviews

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    Intolerance reflects much credit to the wizard director, for it required no small amount of genuine art to consistently blend actors, horses, monkeys, geese, doves, acrobats and ballets into a composite presentation of a film classic.

  • , New York Times

    The verdict Intolerance renders in the controversy concerning its maker is that he is a real wizard of lens and screen.

  • Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

    One of the great breakthroughs -- the Ulysses of the cinema -- and a powerful, moving experience in its own right.

  • Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

    Influential landmark epic silent film.

  • Donald J. Levit, ReelTalk Movie Reviews

    Foreshadows what film could be -- spectacle reinforcing eternal themes of love and death -- and, at its best, would be.

Read all 14 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

  • Anthony L


    Did D W Griffith make Intolerance to exonerate himself of being a racist? No, that is a stupid notion. This was a huge production, made under a year after Birth of a Nation and the wheels were set in motion before the criticism started. Did it help exonerate him? Yes, maybe but yet… More

  • Keiko A


    Project 2 (Epic films) Directed by D. W. Griffith and staring Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh and Robert Harron. Unlike D. W. Griffith Racists town for his blockbuster the Birth of a Nation and the charging that it had overt racist content, characterizing racism as people's… More

  • Cindy I


    Whatever you think of D.W. Griffith's opinions on race -- I think they're despicable -- you cannot deny that he was a brilliant and innovative filmmaker. I had been wanting to see this film for ages, and I was not disappointed...well, not much, anyway, This film… More

  • Steven C


    D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance" is my pick for the most influential film ever made. Try looking at any film that came after it and you will find direct connections. Lofty, gaudy and epic.

  • Cassandra M


    Before 'Pulp Fiction' and 'The Lord of the Rings', at a time when films were just at an age of adolescence, D. W. Griffith produced 'Intolerance', a pure cinematic treat of grand proportions. Involved in practically every aspect of the craft, from… More

Read all 10 featured audience ratings

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