Intolerance (1916) :
Brief Review -
An Immortal Masterpiece. There's nothing in the entire vocabulary of Cinema world that hasn't been influenced by this. These are Orson Welles's lines about this film and i liked it so kept it. He also said one more interesting thing that, "Intolerance is way too complex for 1916 audience and it is still a very complex for today's audience". I agree. I am 28, have watched 1000+ Classic films made all over the World. I am done with all those complex stories told by Stanley Kubrick and current time sensation Christopher Nolan and then this 104 years old film comes, i start watching it and don't understand what the hell is going on. It took me almost an hour to understand the ongoings and characters of those parallel stories. Like Welles said, Intolerance has every single element of cinema like drama, romance, betrayal, history, devotion, tragedy, war and bla bla you name it and you find it right here. One of best line said by Welles was about getting the credit. You see, there are many classic films made in silent era and then talkies took influences from them so the credibility of those talkies was not there. Because every classic film of talkies era has been influenced by some film made way before it but Intolerance was made when there were no influeneces available. Hence, the credibility sticks to it, you can't just take it away. And like I said it has all the elements of cinema that means it has left influences for so many genre discovered after 1930s. Intolerance is not about one man or one time period, it tells four stories set in four different centuries, simultaneously. This intercut idea is brilliant because you stay with all four storyline at the same time as all of them run together, no one is left behind nor is kept ahead. The begining and ending of all four stories doesn't take place at different time, it all ends together. I don't remember any film being so clever in storytelling especially those having multiple storylines. Intolerance is undoubtedly the Greatest Storytelling I've ever seen in Hollywood. Apart from storytelling it has got huge scale and grandeur which is also without any doubt among the Biggest Cinematic Experiences ever. Perhaps, the Biggest Ever and not one of the biggest. I mean this grandeur was made in 1916, seriously how big it was for that time. And it was made without any VFX work, right? Then it's certainly BIGGEST EVER! I never imagined that watching great films from silent era, especially before 1920 would make me feel pity on talkies. This is my 3rd film from 1920s and I'm expecting more surprises as i continue watching more films from the same decade. Overall, Intolerance is an immortal masterpiece, the greatest storytelling in the format, poineer of almost all cinematic elements and the grandeur ahead by a century.
RATING - 9/10*
By - #samthebestest
An Immortal Masterpiece. There's nothing in the entire vocabulary of Cinema world that hasn't been influenced by this. These are Orson Welles's lines about this film and i liked it so kept it. He also said one more interesting thing that, "Intolerance is way too complex for 1916 audience and it is still a very complex for today's audience". I agree. I am 28, have watched 1000+ Classic films made all over the World. I am done with all those complex stories told by Stanley Kubrick and current time sensation Christopher Nolan and then this 104 years old film comes, i start watching it and don't understand what the hell is going on. It took me almost an hour to understand the ongoings and characters of those parallel stories. Like Welles said, Intolerance has every single element of cinema like drama, romance, betrayal, history, devotion, tragedy, war and bla bla you name it and you find it right here. One of best line said by Welles was about getting the credit. You see, there are many classic films made in silent era and then talkies took influences from them so the credibility of those talkies was not there. Because every classic film of talkies era has been influenced by some film made way before it but Intolerance was made when there were no influeneces available. Hence, the credibility sticks to it, you can't just take it away. And like I said it has all the elements of cinema that means it has left influences for so many genre discovered after 1930s. Intolerance is not about one man or one time period, it tells four stories set in four different centuries, simultaneously. This intercut idea is brilliant because you stay with all four storyline at the same time as all of them run together, no one is left behind nor is kept ahead. The begining and ending of all four stories doesn't take place at different time, it all ends together. I don't remember any film being so clever in storytelling especially those having multiple storylines. Intolerance is undoubtedly the Greatest Storytelling I've ever seen in Hollywood. Apart from storytelling it has got huge scale and grandeur which is also without any doubt among the Biggest Cinematic Experiences ever. Perhaps, the Biggest Ever and not one of the biggest. I mean this grandeur was made in 1916, seriously how big it was for that time. And it was made without any VFX work, right? Then it's certainly BIGGEST EVER! I never imagined that watching great films from silent era, especially before 1920 would make me feel pity on talkies. This is my 3rd film from 1920s and I'm expecting more surprises as i continue watching more films from the same decade. Overall, Intolerance is an immortal masterpiece, the greatest storytelling in the format, poineer of almost all cinematic elements and the grandeur ahead by a century.
RATING - 9/10*
By - #samthebestest