Intolerance (1916) Movie 1-Disc Box Set for Gift Collection Blu-ray

Plot Summary

This film, also translated as' Partisan Anti Partisan ', is D.W. Griffiths' most ambitious work in terms of creative ambition. Due to the astonishing box office success of 'The Birth of the Nation', Griffiths continued to work hard on making a film with larger scenes and deeper content. He spent a year and a half, with a production cost of two million dollars, to shoot a 220 minute epic (the original version was 480 minutes long). Unfortunately, when this film was released in New York in September 1916, it did not receive the expected popularity. There are many reasons why this film failed to sell well, the most important of which is that Griffith's story structure used in this film was too complex, and the director's techniques exceeded the audience's ability to accept it at that time. In addition, the theme was too serious, and the advocacy of tolerance and opposition to violence conflicted with the high morale of the United States at that time, so it was not widely welcomed. However, people cannot deny that this is an immortal masterpiece in film art. The film 'Can't Stand It' consists of four stories from different eras: the fall of Babylon, the suffering of Jesus Christ, the Saint Bartholomew's religious massacre in France, and the labor conflicts in early 20th century America. Ge described his own concept: "The four major cyclical stories are like four rivers, initially flowing in a scattered and calm manner, but eventually merging into a powerful and surging torrent." At the beginning of the film, there is a scene of a mother pushing a cradle, inserted with Whitman's poem: "Today is like yesterday, the world's human emotions change endlessly. The cradle shakes, bringing the same passion, joy, sorrow, and happiness to humanity." After this subtitle, the first modern story that serves as the overall tone of the film unfolds. As the plot progresses, the director often cuts into the other three stories, becoming four parallel developments. Finally, the scene still returns to the mother and cradle, presenting the evolution of "humanity from intolerance to tolerance". Theme. The modern chapter "Mother and Law" as the core of the story The content describes four unemployed male and female workers who came from a small town to the city to find work. Some went astray, while others longed for a normal family life. The righteous male protagonist was falsely accused of murder and was arrested before being sentenced to death. On the day of execution, the real culprit's conscience discovered that he had rescued the male protagonist at the most dangerous moment. From this story, we can see the general social conditions in early 20th century America: rural instability, dark and complex cities, difficult labor life, and numerous legal issues. Griffiths further demonstrates his outstanding talent in "parallel editing" in this film. He uses similar scenes from four stories for comparative editing, making the scattered plots appear unified and powerful, and the repeated use of similar shots creates a passionate and unrestrained emotional climax in the plot. For example, one scene is edited like this: 1. Jesus Christ is led forward by soldiers; 2. A Babylonian village girl runs to her lover to report the danger of the king; 3. A modern girl runs desperately to save her lover; 4. In the Paris Massacre, Protestants attempt to rescue her fianc é e on the streets of mass riots. Griggs uses techniques such as mobile photography, camera, and passing through the camera to connect the four parallel development plots, with a tight rhythm. Smooth. Ge even uses a short flashback technique (FLAXHBACK) in individual story segments To explain the plot, it is evident that his "film grammar" is indeed much higher than that of contemporary directors. In addition, Ge Shi also pioneered the use of "close ups" and "long shots" in this film to enhance the audience's psychological feelings (such as close-up shots of a woman's tightly held hand, showing her anxiety when she heard the news of her husband's death sentence; using a long shot of a capitalist sitting alone in an office, implying his immense power). He also used the method of film coloring to enhance various special effects (such as the use of blue coloring for night scenes, yellow coloring for lit rooms, and red coloring for the burning of Babylon City). Although this method of film coloring was not pioneered by Ge Shi, no one has used it like him in his works. Bold and comprehensive use in a movie. It is astonishing that such a complex production did not have a complete script from beginning to end, but only relied on Griffith's improvisation on the spot. In addition, there are no set design drawings in this film, but Ge Shi was able to have someone build a magnificent Babylonian set. During the filming of the Babylonian attack on Jerusalem, 15000 temporary actors and 250 chariots were simultaneously deployed in one day. His generosity made the historical blockbusters produced in Italy at that time far behind, which also shows how confident Ge Shi was in his creative ability. Perhaps as Ge's own motto goes, "Art is often revolutionary, explosive, and grand." Looking at the behind the scenes performances of "Can't Stand It Anymore," it can be seen that Griffiths is indeed an artist who leads by example.