In spite of the flaws of the movie "Intolerance"(particularly of its indisputably racist director) I think the concept is incredible and highly interesting. If there was a remake of this movie, what do you think should be kept? changed? or should it be completely redone? I've already got my own ideas.
One of the great charms of INTOLERANCE was the use of the enormous sets, especially during the Babylonian sequences. No miniatures or hardly any matte paintings, which would have controlled the cost, but since Griffith wanted everything BIG, his studio that produced this movie, ultimately went bankrupt. In reading Roger Ebert's review of CABIRIA (1914), a movie that would greatly influence Griffith for INTOLERANCE, I do agree with what he says in the following statement:
The sets for Griffith's "Intolerance" possibly grew so large after he saw "Cabiria," and DeMille was also fond of enormous sets. When a modern film like "Troy" creates a vast Greek city out of digital information, we aren't fooled. We may be impressed by the visual effect, but we aren't impressed by the achievement. Watching these silent films, we feel a kind of awe, because we see that the sets are really there, and really that size.
If they wanted to remake this, of course, in this digital age, many sets and backgrounds would be computer animated, and it just won't have the same feel. Remake it like Griffith did. Everything in INTOLERANCE was full scale and our eyes knew it. But in this age, that concept is very unlikely.
Interesting point.
However, I was less interested in the asthetic qualities of the film then how the ideas in the movie would be presented. I personally think that Griffith was too narrow in his focus- three out of four of the stories(Babylon, Reformation Paris, & the Nazarene story) are centered on religous intolerance. This is quite possibly that Griffith did not see other forms of intolerance(such as racial intolerance of course) as a bad thing. But seems a pity to me that such a big idea was still so narrow-minded. Perhaps a 21st century version could do better.
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