Tag Archives: drama

#5- Intolerance

Quick recap: It’s about intolerance. The end.

Oh, you want more? It’s actually a movie with 4 different stories spanning thousands of years. It’s still about intolerance though. First story is about the fall of Babylon, second is Jesus because why not, third is the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and the fourth is a modern story about jealous old women. Or something. Did I mention the theme was intolerance? And just in case you thought this would be fun and light hearted, there is a woman rocking the cradle of Humanity in between scenes.

Have to say this creeped me out a little bit

fun (?) fact– This film was DW Griffith’s response to Birth of a Nation because he totally didn’t think it was racist. Interesting to note that this movie does not feature African-Americans either. Lesson learned?

My thoughts– Ok, so this film was a tad bit preachy. I started watching it at 11 at night thinking that I would maybe watch an hour and then go to bed. Somehow I ended up watching the entire 3 1/2 hours. What can I say? This film is impressive on all accounts. Griffith was so detailed for all 4 story lines, even changing the music to reflect the time period. It was also an easy film to get through because the stories are interwoven. When I started getting a little tired of one, the creepy Humanity lady would come on and I would breathe a sigh of relief. I’ll rank the stories by how they kept my interest:

4. Jesus because it’s been over done. It’s also the shortest story so maybe even Griffith felt he was a little preachy.

3. St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre- I knew absolutely nothing about this and read up on it after the movie

2. the modern story- The Dear One (she didn’t have a name) really knows how to act. She is featured in many of Griffith’s films. It was predictable but also a good lesson, even now

1. fall of Babylon- I can’t believe the amount of detail involved! Each uniform looked painstakingly made and the wall of Babylon was most impressive. Plus, the Mountain Girl was amazing. I could have watched her for the entire 3 hours.

Final Review- 5/5 Watch it. I was hesitant going into this movie because I did not like Birth of a Nation but ended up loving it.

where I watched it: Netflix instant

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#3- Birth of a Nation

Quick recap: This is a Civil War era film, directed by the great DW Griffith. There are two plot lines involving the North and the South and how each is effected. The first part of the movie (it was originally two parts) is pre Civil War up to the end and the second part is all about the Reconstruction. In the second part of the film, African-Americans are given rights and wreak havoc on everything and everybody. The KKK rises up to protect all those innocent white people and everything is ok.

Fun (?) fact: The KKK used this movie as a recruiting tool. Of course they did.

My thoughts: So the first part was really no different than Gone With the Wind, with all its epic-ness. Nothing I haven’t seen before but I suppose for its time, I can see why people loved it. I sat through this part thinking, ‘This isn’t so controversial!” and then I got worried that the internet has desensitized me too much. And THAT’S when the second part started. Wow. It’s like I can almost imagine Griffith had a checklist of everything offensive to African- Americans and laughed maniacally as he put it into the film.

man in blackface eating fried chicken. Yeah.

Besides being offensive, this film did not interest me at all. I love historical movies as you shall see in later posts, but nothing kept me glued to the screen.

Final review: 2 out of 5. Not going to recommend this one, unless you want to watch it for its value to film. I watched the movie on archive.org.

Where I watched it: http://www.archive.org

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