Innovations In Intolerance
The impact of the film Intolerance on the movie industry and its relative critical success is still debated to this very day. Although the majority hold this film to be a masterpiece and an artistic achievement others describe this film as a failure both financially and histrionically and the beginning of the end for D.W. Griffith. The only true consensus lies in the many innovations found in Intolerance. The modern use of camera techniques, the superb editing and the expansive set of Babylon lend great credit to the visualization and innovation of D.W. Griffith.Camera techniques employed during the filing of Intolerance include panning, close-ups and tracking shots. In the court scene of the French story the camera pans the court showing the audience the splendor of the court and its many lords and ladies. During the first encounter with the girl Brown Eyes, also in the French story, the camera does a continuous track ending in an extreme close-up shot of her face. This type of camera work was unprecedented at the time because 'extreme close-ups were so rare' (Koszarski 124) at this point in film history. This same camera technique is used again in the Babylon story when the Mountain Girl is i
Griffith had actual walls and towers built that were in excess of 150 feet tall and were actually wide enough for chariots to ride on. I must admit that I was startled out of my delirium when watching the film for the first time as the mountain girl raced in her chariot to save Babylon and the Dear One raced in a car to save the boy. To make the four stories easier to follow Griffith used different toning and tinting for each story, yet another of the many innovations found in Intolerance. 'The Babylon set and filming of the Babylon battle scenes were the most impressive and the most costly portion of the film. 'Parallel editing' differs in that the two events intercut are not simultaneous. The Babylon set was a mile deep and no other set in film making, at that time in history, came close to the sheer size and immensity of the Babylon set. It was the stunt crew of Intolerance that developed the first dummies that actually appeared more lifelike when falling from the 150 foot walls. Then the camera begins traveling towards the scene and downward on an Elevator tower 'that was 140 feet high and was mounted on six sets of railroad tracks' (Williams 87). It is also during the Babylon story that perhaps the most renowned camera work in Intolerance is seen. The resulting camera effect was similar to a zoom effect, at first capturing all the action but then moving us to the center of the action in the city center. Griffith also broke the standard film making mold by creating a narrative with a nonlinear structure involving four stories from different time periods. Although some of these techniques were not new they were used more effectively in this film which ultimately enhances its overall structure. There can be little doubt that Intolerance lays a foundation for modern filmmaking. Crosscutting involves switching back and forth between two or more different series of images. Griffith does manage to bring together a very suspenseful ending as he makes his cuts and edits faster and faster.
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Acceptance Essays
