Directed by D.W. Griffith

Position on the list (at time of viewing): 102

This is Griffith’s lesser-known, but arguably greater, epic that he made in response to criticisms of his first film by people who realized even in 1915 that it was really not cool to make a pro-Klan movie. As opposed to what is often thought, the title and subject matter of the film are not, in fact, an apology for the previous film, but rather an indictment of those critics whom Griffith viewed as “intolerant” of him as a filmmaker. So, not really a very humble guy. Another Griffith monster of a film, this one’s a whole 10 minutes shorter than ‘Birth’ (although it does depend upon the cut you get), so it comes in just under three hours, and I will tell you that it’s going to feel that long, if not longer. It is a colossal epic in every sense of the word, both for good and ill. You definitely need to be in the right mood for this one in the same way that you have to be in the right mood to pick up War and Peace.

The biggest takeaway from this movie is how insanely revolutionary its narrative structure is. In the briefest summary possible, it tells four separate stories that span almost 2500 years of history, and intercuts between the stories throughout the film, increasing the rate of the cuts as the stories build toward their climaxes. Lillian Gish actually gets a bit part again here as the lady who rocks the cradle that transitions the viewer between time periods. While it’s far from her best role, I like to always note her presence because she’s cool. The intense cutting continues Griffith’s tradition of being the master of excitement through editing, developments which are still being used today. The subtle increase in cutting speed as the movie goes on pulls the viewer into the pace of the film, and makes some of the endings quite exciting. In addition to this (again, difficult to overstate) brilliance, its scope also outstrips any other film before (and honestly most films since). The sheer number of extras (over 3000!), the size and grandeur of the sets, the lavish costuming, and the overall opulence of the production defy belief even a century later. If nothing else, the Babylonian story has rarely if ever been rivaled even to this day in terms of production value or execution. Griffith makes his best effort at completely recreating a Babylonian city, and does a surprisingly convincing job of it thanks to the miracles of Hollywood backlots and costuming. 

It’s not all amazing revolutionary brilliance, though. The four segments of the film are absolutely not created equal. I don’t know if the Huguenots were considered a really timely and relevant reference in 1916, but they certainly aren’t to me. They’re definitely not on the same level of historical relevance as Jesus himself, who is the central character of one of the stories. In fact, pretty much any time they went back to the French Renaissance I kind of tuned out. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but it really didn’t captivate me like the more historical sections or the contemporary one. In all honesty, the story set in Griffith’s own day was the one that held my attention best. Even if the story were recut into its own standalone narrative I think it would work very well. It deals with the seedier side of 1910s society and the moral puritanism that did more harm than good to marginalized people. It also builds to an excellent and very exciting race against the clock to save an innocent man. It’s really fun even without the added coolness of the other narrative.

Unfortunately, although Griffith was a narrative revolutionary, the whole thing feels egomaniacal–I would not go so far as to say pretentious, but Griffith’s very high opinion of himself is fused into every frame of celluloid, and that can definitely grate. He’s very very self-satisfied, and in my opinion that is probably the greatest weakness of the film. If you know the story behind the film’s production you really can’t forget it. The movie was basically an ego trip by a self-important racist asking the world, “How dare you question ME?” Because of that attitude, even though this movie doesn’t feature the overt racism of Birth of a Nation, it still feels tainted by that film’s legacy. Maybe it’s just me being too much of a uber-sensitive SJW loser or whatever, but the tone still doesn’t sit right with me. Regardless of those weaknesses however, this movie basically invents modern film narrative structure, and establishes tension incredibly well, especially in the “modern” story. There are countless movies even today that don’t even try to do anything this ambitious and amazing, let alone accomplish it. Honestly a recommended starting point for Griffith film, if you are in the mood for an epic three-hour experience.

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