Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) Movie Script
1
A Sun-play of the Ages INTOLERANCE
A drama of Comparisons ACT I
Our play is made up of four separate stories,
laid in different periods of history,
each with its own set of characters.
Each story shows how hatred and intolerance,
through all the ages, have battled against
love and charity.
Therefore, you will find our play turning from
one of the four stories to another,
as the common theme unfolds in each.
Out of the cradle endlessly rocking.
Today as yesterday, endlessly rocking,
ever bringing the same human passions,
the same joys and sorrows.
Intolerance
Our first story...out of the cradle of the present.
In a western city we find certain ambitious
ladies banded together for the "uplift" of humanity.
Even reform movements must be financed.
"If we can only interest Miss Jenkins...
with her money..."
A little affair is being given by Mary T. Jenkins,
unmarried sister of the autocratic industrial overlord...
Seeing youth drawn to youth,
Miss Jenkins realizes the bitter fact that
she is no longer a part of the younger world.
The girl of our story keeps house for her
father who works in a Jenkins mill.
With a wage of $2.75 a day,
a little garden, four hens, ditto geese, and a
fair measure of happiness and contentment.
The little Dear One.
The Boy, unacquainted with the little Dear One,
is employed with his father in the same mill.
Age intolerant of youth and laughter.
"The vestal virgins of Uplift" succeed in
reaching Miss Jenkins in their search for funds.
In ancient Rome, Vestal virgins were priests of
Vesta who were dedicated to the Roman goddess Vesta.
We must have laws to make people good.
There is dancing in cafes.
Comes now from out the cradle of yesterday,
the story of an ancient people, whose lives,
though far away from ours,
run parallel in their hopes and perplexities.
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke identify
Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus.
Ancient Jerusalem, the golden city whose
people have given us many of our highest ideals,
and from the carpenter shop of Bethlehem, sent us
the Man of Men, the greatest enemy of intolerance.
Near the Jaffa gate.
This gate is one of the eight main gates of
the wall of the old city of Jerusalem,
the Arabic name of this gate is Bab al-Khalil.
The house in Cana of Galilee
Cana is a city in Galilee, north of Nazareth,
where, according to the Gospel of John,
Jesus performed his first miracle there by
turning water into wine.
Certain hypocrites among the Pharisees.
Pharisee...A learned Jewish party,
the name possibly brought into disrepute
later by hypocrites among them.
When these Pharisees pray they demand
that all action cease.
Oh Lord, I thank thee that I am better than
other men.
Amen.
Another period of the past.
A.D. 1572...Paris,
a hotbed of intolerance, in the time of Catherine
de Medici, and her son Charles IX, King of France.
Catherine de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman,
famous for being the wife of King Henry II and
later becoming regent, as well as participating
in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
Charles IX receiving his brother,
Monsieur La France, Duc d'Anjou.
The heir to the throne,
the effeminate Monsieur La France.
Pets and toys his pastimes.
Catherine de Medici, queen-mother who covers
her political intolerance of the Huguenots...
beneath the cloak of the great Catholic Religion.
Note: Huguenots...the Protestant party of this period.
The great Protestant leader, the Admiral Coligny,
head of the Huguenot party.
What a wonderful man, the Admiral Coligny,
if he only thought as we do.
What a wonderful king,
if he only thought as we do.
The King's favor to Coligny increases
the hatred of the opposite party.
Celebrating the betrothal of Marguerite of Valois,
sister of the King, to Henry of Navarre, royal Huguenot,
to insure peace in the place of intolerance.
Marguerite of Valois.
Henry of Navarre.
Brown Eyes, her family of the Huguenot party,
and her sweetheart, Prosper Latour.
Brown Eyes attracts the attention of a
mercenary soldier.
Returning to our story of today,
we find the embittered Miss Jenkins...
aligning herself with the modern Pharisees
and agreeing to help the Uplifters.
A diversion of the mill workers.
To every thing there is a season...
a time to mourn and a time to dance......
He hath made everything beautiful in his time.
Ecclesiastes iii.
The little Dear One having the time of her life.
Want my straw?
Miss Jenkins receives a check from her
brother for the purposed uplift of humanity.
Jenkins studies his employes' habits.
Ten o'clock! They should be in bed
so they can work tomorrow.
And now our fourth story of love's struggle against
Intolerance, in that distant time when all the
nations of the earth sat at the feet of Babylon.
Outside of Imgur Bel, the great gate of Babylon,
in the time of Belshazzar, 539 B.C.
Merchants, farmers, East Indians,
with trains of elephants, Egyptians, Numidians,
and ambitious Persians spying upon the city.
The Numidians were a barbarian
population in northwest Africa.
Imgur Bel and Nivit Bel are the two great walls
of Babylon, which construction was started by
Nabopolassar, the king of Babylon.
The Mountain Girl down from
the mountains of Suisana.
Suisana, which was the Greek name Susa,
is the capital of Ilam and is located on the
border between Iran and Iraq.
The Rhapsode, a Warrior singer...
poet agent of the High Priest of Bel.
Bel is the newer name of Marduk, the main
Babylonian god. Bel had all the attributes of
Marduk, and his position and ritual were almost
the same, but gradually Bel was recognized
as the god of order and destiny.
The priest of Bel-Marduk, supreme God of Babylon,
jealously watches the image of the rival goddess,
Ishtar, enter the city, borne in a sacred ark.
Ishtar: The first Mesopotamian goddess who
has a close relationship with love and war,
this goddess is the first known deity for
whom we have written evidence.
Dearest one...in the ash heaps of my backyard
there will be small flowers; seven lilies...if thou
wilt love me...but a little.
Ishtar, goddess of love, seven times seven
I bow to thee. Let her enjoy this kiss.
On the great wall.
The Prince, Belshazzar, son of Nabonidus,
apostle of tolerance and religious freedom.
Note: ...Replica of Babylon's encircling walls,
300 feet in height,
and broad enough for the passing of chariots.
Belshazzar overthrew King Labashi-Marduk in
a coup and put his father Nabonidus in power.
Through proclaiming his father as the new king,
Belshazzar also made himself the first-in-line to the throne.
The two-sword man, Belshazzar's faithful guard,
a mighty man of valor.
The jealous priest of Bel sees in the
enthronement of Ishtar loss of his religious power.
He angrily resolves to re-establish his own
god...incidentally himself.
The gate of Imgur Bel which
no enemy has ever been able to force.
Hand maidens from Ishtar's Temple
of Love and Laughter.
The Princess Beloved, favorite of Belshazzar,
in a room of scented cedar, plated with pure gold,
in the hareem of My Lord the Prince.
A love blossom from Belshazzar.
Stricken by her pale beauty,
as though by white lightning.
The brother of the Mountain Girl, having some
slight trouble with his high-spirited sister,
takes the matter to the court.
The first known court of justice in the world.
Note: ...Babylonian justice according to the code
of Hammurabi, protecting the weak from the strong.
The Law of Hammurabi, which was engraved
on basalt stone by the order of Hammurabi,
the sixth king of Babylon, contains 282 articles
on criminal law, civil law, and business law.
The Mountain Girl's brother tells
the Judge that she is incorrigible.
The judgment is that she be sent to the
marriage market to get a good husband.
Endlessly rocks the cradle uniter of here and hereafter.
Chanter of sorrows and joys.
Resuming our story of today.
Dividends of the Jenkins mills failing to meet
the increasing demands of Miss Jenkins' charities,
she complains to her brother,
which helps decide him to action.
Order a ten percent cut in all wages.
A great strike follows.
They squeeze the money out of us and use it
to advertise themselves by reforming us.
Hungry ones that wait to take their places.
Clear the property.
The Loom of Fate weaves death for the Boy's father.
The exodus after a time of waiting.
Forced to seek employment elsewhere,
many victims of the Jenkins' aspirations go to
the great city nearby...the Boy among them.
A friendless one...alone...as the result of the strike.
So too, the Dear One...and her father.
Fate leads them all to the same district.
The Boy unable to find work...at last...
Adversity causes the friendless one
to listen to a Musketeer of the Slums.
And again in Babylon.
The marriage market.
Money paid for beautiful women given to
homely ones, as dowers, so that all
may have husbands and be happy.
Lips brilliant with juice of henna;
eyes lined with kohl.
Note: ...According to Herodotus, women corresponding to
our street outcasts, for life the wards of Church and State.
The auctioneer.
Tish tish! 'tis no place to eat onions.
The girl's turn...perhaps not so
different from the modern way.
In distant Nineveh...
One who would give his life if
he were able to buy the merchandise held
so lightly upon Love's market.
And man will be happy with this
sweet wild rose...this gentle dove.
But touch my skirt and I'll scratch your eyes out!
The temper and rough language of the
"wild rose" prove her to be not without thorns.
With her goes a third of a mina of silver.
You lice! You rats! You refuse me?
There is no gentler dove in all Babylon than I.
Belshazzar now ruling for his father.
Oh, lord of lords! Oh, king of kings! Oh, masu!
Oh, scorching sun of the mid-day, these bugs
will not buy me for a wife! I dwell in sorrow.
Probably in Babylon, "Maso" was the title of
Shamash (Sun God) who was the lawgiver
and the son of Bel, and the brother of Ishtar,
also in some sources it is mentioned a mountain
from behind which the sun always rose.
This seal gives you freedom to marry or not to marry...
to be consecrated to the goddess of love or
not as thou choosest.
The Rhapsode, working in the tenements,
to convert backsliders to the true worship of Bel.
Put away thy perfumes, thy garments of Assinnu,
the female man. I shall love none but a soldier.
Asino seems to have originally been a powerful
and heroic man who participated in Ishtar's
festivals as an actor in a religious drama
dressed to interpret gender, but gender in its
unusual form (a man dressed as a woman).
The love-smitten Mountain Girl
vows eternal allegiance to Belshazzar.
In the Love Temple.
Virgins of the sacred fires of Life.
He promises to build her a city, beautiful as
the memory of her own in a foreign land.
The fragrant mystery of your body is
greater than the mystery of life.
Belshazzar the king, The very young king,
of Babylon...And his Princess Beloved,
Clearest and rarest of all his pearls,
The very dearest one of his dancing girls.
The Dear One in her new environment
forced upon her by the Jenkins strike.
The same old love and dreams.
The hopeful geranium.
I'll walk like her and maybe
everybody will like me too.
In the same neighborhood,
the friendless one again.
Across the hall, The Musketeer of the Slums.
The Boy, now a barbarian of the streets,
a member of The Musketeer's band.
Imitating the walk of the girl of the street.
The Boy's news stand, a blind for his real operations.
Their first meeting.
The new walk seems to bring results.
Say kid, you're going to be my chicken.
Pray to be forgiven!
Inability to meet new conditions brings
untimely death to The Dear One's father.
Currently, the city of Nazareth is under the rule
of Israel, according to some, the Domed Church
of the Annunciation in this city is the place where
Gabriel told Mary: She will give birth to a child.
According to some, Jesus lived in this city
until he was 12 years old.
Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking...
The Comforter, out of Nazareth.
There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.
John ii-1.
Note: ...The ceremony according to Sayce,
Hastings, Brown and Tissot.
The first sop to the bride.
Be ye as harmless as doves.
Scorned and rejected of men.
Mary, the mother.
Meddlers then as now. "There is too much
revelry and pleasure-seeking among the people."
The poor bride and groom suffer great humiliation.
The wine has given out.
The first miracle.
The turning of water into wine.
Note: ...Wine was deemed a fit offering to God;
the drinking of it a part of the Jewish religion.
Now for a time the little love god works his small
but mighty way, in other days the same as now.
Brown Eyes and her family happily ignorant of
the web intolerance is weaving around them.
Love's silent mystery.
The mercenary made bold by passion.
In the good old summertime. For the little Dear One,
passing days and youth have healed the wound.
The end of a "Coney Island" day.
Coney Island is a peninsula and recreational
neighborhood in the southwest of
New York City and in the Brooklyn area.
Nothing doing on the good night stuff,
I always go inside to see my girls.
Help me to be a strong-jawed jane.
I told you before...I promised Our Lady
and I promised father that no man would
ever come in this room.
Just for that I'll never see you again!
I was thinking...suppose we get married,
then I can come in.
That's me. Kiss me good night and
we'll call it settled.
The enormous sums supplied by Jenkins to be
distributed as the meddlers see fit...in "charity"...
now make the Uplifters the most influential
power in the community.
Mary T.Jenkins Foundation Fund
General Offices
Equally intolerant hypocrites of another age.
And the Pharisee said: "Behold a man gluttonous,
and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners."
St. Matthew XI-19.
The woman taken in adultery.
Now Moses in the law commanded us that
such should be stoned; but what sayest thou?
...John VIII.
He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her.
Neither do I condemn thee; go thou and sin no more.
Now, how shall we find this Christly example
followed in our story of today?
The Committee of Seventeen report
they have cleaned up the city.
It is peaceful in the...
No more dancing in...
You yourself were with us when we raided...
When women cease to attract men they
often turn to Reform as a second choice.
But these results they do not report:
Each one his own distiller.
Instead of mild wines and beers...
The Boy, strongly braced in the Dear One's sweet
human faith, sets his steps with hers on the straight road.
The Boy tells the boss he won't need the
'cannon' any more; he is through with the old life.
As an example to others of the band,
The Musketeer, with the help of men higher up,
arranges the old familiar frame-up.
The sometimes House of Intolerance.
Stolen goods, planted on The Boy,
and his bad reputation intolerate him away for a term.
The broken love nest...The Dear One... ...alone...
While at the Jenkins home the Uplifters
celebrate their success in righting the world
that was all wrong.
In Babylon.
The High Priest of Bel courts public homage.
The Priest of Bel, frenzied at the worship of Ishtar,
prophecies the loss of their souls
and the downfall of Babylon.
Belshazzar's father has a red letter day.
He excavates a foundation brick of the
temple of Naram-Sin, builded 3200 years before.
Like other Mesopotamian kings, Naram Sin
made stone statues to commemorate his
military victories, this statue is now kept in
the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Incidentally he remarks that Cyrus, the Persian,
Babylon's mighty foe, is nearing the city.
We will begin building your city,
oh dove of Ishtar, when Cyrus is conquered.
The Persian camp.
Cyrus, world-conqueror, preparing for the
titanic struggle with Babylon,
in secret league with the priest of Bel.
Note: ...Situate between the Euphrates and
post road to Egypt.
The treacherous priest of Bel
receives assuring news from Cyrus.
In his tent, Cyrus, before the sacred image of the sun.
The institution of Cyrus.
The Medes and Persians at exercises.
Note: ...It was required that each man perspire every day.
Ethiopians.
Barbarians.
Out of the cradle...endlessly rocking,
Baby fingers hopefully lifted.
The little wife, now a mother,
plans for the day of daddy's return.
The Uplifters, claiming the regular children's societies
are inefficient, now turn to "negligent" mothers.
A cold sends our little mother to an
old-fashioned remedy,
condemned publicly yet used privately by
many physicians and hospitals.
The Uplifters investigate.
"Child...evil surroundings...criminal father."
Whisky!
We are afraid you're no fit mother...
Reporting the case.
Despite the objections of some of the members,
they decide to seize the baby.
The friendly neighbor, with a glass of beer.
Did you see that? A man visitor!
We have a warrant to take your baby.
Suffer Little Children
The Jenkins Foundation
Hoping for a sight of her baby.
Perhaps they are right and baby is happy after all.
Of course, hired mothers are never negligent.
A new dissipation...watching the happiness of others.
In another bitter day, memorable through intolerance.
The threatening attitude of the Huguenots
throughout France is reported to Catherine.
The "old serpent" uses the incident to inflame
the minds of the Catholics against the Protestants.
Remember, gentlemen, the Michelade at Nimes
when hundreds of our faith perished
at the hands of the Huguenots!
Michelade is the name given to the massacre of
Catholics, including 18 Catholic priests and monks,
by Protestant coup officials in Nimes on Michaelmas
And so, our very lives depend upon their extermination.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth...
Cyrus moves upon Babylon; in his hand the
sword of war, most potent weapon forged in
the flames of intolerance.
Belshazzar leaving to take charge of
the city's defense.
My Lord, like white pearls I shall keep
my tears in an ark of silver for your return.
I bite my thumb! I strike my girdle!
If you return not, I go to the death halls of Allat.
Allat is the goddess of the underworld in
Babylonian stories. The same goddess was
later worshiped by the Arabs as one of
the daughters of God.
While the Princess Beloved prays,
the Mountain Girl goes to fight for her Belshazzar.
Babylon's gates close against the foe.
War drums and trumpets!
On the walls of my city, I, Belshazzar,
defy the enemies of Babylon. Allato! Allato! Allato!
It seems that the meaning of Allato is the same
Babylonian goddess that the prince gives
the order to start the battle by naming her.
Great moving siege towers covered with ox hide.
Inside the city walls.
Ancient instruments of war.
Rock-throwers, catapults,
battering rams, mighty crossbows, burning oil.
Prayers in the temples and burning of frankincense.
Burnt offerings.
Ishtar, beloved, though our sins be many,
forgive us. In our behalf seize thou now the
burning sword.
The city assaulted on all sides.
Cyrus, the head of the war machine.
Cyrus repeats the world-old prayer to kill, kill, kill...
and to God be the glory, world without end, Amen.
Help us, Ishtar!
Oh, God! Fight for us! Save us!
The Princess Beloved, frenzied with war's terrors,
watches the battle from afar.
Great timbers against the towers.
Into the night.
Fight for him, Ishtar, fight for him!
The women aid.
Morning brings fresh assaults and towers.
Belshazzar's mighty man of valor and
his legion oppose the threatening tide.
A new and flaming engine of destruction
attempts to burn the towers of Cyrus.
The army of Cyrus repulsed by Belshazzar.
Babylon's paean of victory.
My glorious Belshazzar.
A Sun-play of the Ages Intolerance
A drama of Comparisons ACT II.
In this last act the events portrayed in
Babylon are according to the recently excavated
cylinders of Nabonidus and Cyrus,
that relate Babylon's betrayal by the priests of Bel.
These cylinders describe the greatest treason
of all history, by which a civilization of countless
ages was destroyed,
and a universal written language (the cuneiform)
was made to become an unknown cypher on
the face of the earth.
Nabonidus was absent for about 10 years in
self-imposed exile in Tima Arabia for unknown reasons.
Belshazzar ruled Babylon as regent during
his father's decade-long absence. The cylinders
of Nabonidus refer to the cuneiform inscriptions
of the last king of Babylon, which are 4 in number.
The Cyrus Cylinder is a cuneiform inscription
that Cyrus the Great ordered to be made
during the conquest of Babylon.
In our modern story, The Musketeer, inflamed
by a new face wins the unsuspecting little mother's
confidence with a promise to recover her baby.
Jealousy.
The Boy's return to The Dear One.
The Feast of Belshazzar.
In the great court of the palace,
rejoicing over Babylon's victory.
Before the nobles of Babylon, Belshazzar
pours out the colossal hospitality of an ancient time.
Note: ...This hall over a mile in length.
imaged after the splendor of an olden day.
A golden moment for Belshazzar
and the Princess Beloved.
To thee, oh Ishtar, all praise for the victory.
A gateway of the banquet hall.
The Mountain Girl happy in being
even in the fringe of her hero's glory.
The High Priest looks down upon
the city he seeks to betray to Cyrus.
They give thanks to Ishtar now,
but Oh Lord Bel...tomorrow Cyrus,
thy servant, shall avenge thee!
The Rhapsode, unaware of the dastardly purpose,
is ordered by the High Priest to have chariots
at the great gate for a journey to Cyrus.
In the tenement district, a simpler repast
...her last in Babylon.
The Egibi family was a family from ancient
Babylon that was involved in business
activities and land management.
At the table of Egibi, Babylonia's greatest noble.
Note: ...Following Babylonian custom,
the feasting lasts many days.
Spiced wine, made cool with snow from the mountains.
Soldiers, barbarians and camp followers.
The Rhapsode, having completed his arrangements
for the journey, turns to thoughts of love.
Thinking only of Belshazzar, her hero,
The Mountain Girl leads on the love-sick boy, until...
... ...as always since the beginning of time
between man and maid, boasting,
he tells everything he knows.
I know not why we go, but if I don't return
soon you can use the password to visit me.
The conspiring priests leave the banquet hall.
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572
was a targeted group of assassinations and
a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed
against the Huguenots during the French
Wars of Religion.
Catherine's audience with the King to
secure his signature to the order for
the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
Note: ...Councillors present: Nevers,
Tavannes, Retz and Birague.
I will not consent to this intolerant
measure to destroy any of my people.
After a long session,
the Intolerants sway the King.
"We must destroy or be destroyed."
By God's death, since you wish it,
kill them all! Kill them all!
Let not one escape to upbraid me.
Prosper and Brown Eyes betrothed.
The banns...tomorrow, St. Bartholomew's morn.
Candles out...fading lights.
Prosper puzzled by the ominous activities.
St. Bartholomew's eve.
Upon the doorways of the Huguenots...
the chalk of doom.
Prosper's lodgings across the town.
In the Temple of Love.
The sacred dance in memory of the
resurrection of Tammuz.
In Mesopotamian religion, Tammuz is the
god of fertility, who embodies the power
of new life in nature and spring.
Beloved...a white rose...from Beloved.
The gates manned with their own guards,
the priests are guided by the Rhapsode on
their mission of treason to the camps of Cyrus.
In the interests of her prince...
A little flirtation.
Suspicious of the hated priests' journey to Cyrus,
she uses the password and follows them.
The Musketeer of the Slums seizes
an opportune time to visit the little wife.
You go in and get the address where the kid is.
You know me...I can get your baby for you.
Just saw the boss go up to see your wife.
Nearing the end of the Boy's trial for murder.
Love's brave encouragement.
Yes, it was once my gun...but I...I...didn't do it.
The maiden case of The Boy's attorney.
I mean...can we hang...I mean,
it's only circumstantial evidence.
The verdict...guilty.
Universal justice, an eye for an eye,
a tooth for a tooth, a murder for a murder.
Outside the Roman Judgment Hall,
after the verdict of Pontius Pilate:
"Let Him Be Crucified"
Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of the
Roman province of Judaea, serving under
Emperor Tiberius. he is being the official
who presided over the trial of Jesus and
ordered his crucifixion.
The Boy's sentence.
Please...Mister Judge...
To be hanged by the neck until dead, dead, dead!
The Kindly Officer on the beat learns of the sentence.
The people everywhere are singing your praises.
The irresistible impulse.
In his distant camp, Cyrus awaits the priests.
The Mountain Girl's bold pursuit.
The day before the Boy's execution.
Feeling the Boy wrongly convicted by
some mischance of fate,
the Kindly Heart sees a ray of hope in the
visit of the governor to the city.
And wondered if each one of us
Would end the self-same way,
For none can tell to what red Hell
His sightless soul may stray.
The governor unable to give any hope.
At the tents of Cyrus.
The Mountain Girl from a distance
watches the priests' arrival.
The great conspiracy.
The Boy's last dawn.
The hangman's test.
Desperate, the little wife herself goes to the governor.
Oh God, don't let them do it!
St. Bartholomew's morn.
The bell of St. Germain.
The beginning of the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
For Brown Eyes, a terrible awakening.
The Dear One's appeal to the Governor fruitless.
The Governor leaves.
I killed him! I did it, I did it!
The attempt to overtake the governor
before he reaches the train.
Her long wait rewarded, she goes to warn
Belshazzar of the new advance on Babylon.
The last Sacrament.
No. 8, after the train, leaps with a new impulse.
Intolerance, burning and slaying.
In the doomed city.
"Our marriage will be announced tomorrow."
This bud will blossom...tomorrow.
Beloved, I will begin building your city...tomorrow.
Cyrus sweeps on to Babylon's destruction.
Medici, the old cat, is scratching out
the lives of all your people.
At the house of Brown Eyes.
The mercenary's opportunity.
Prosper, with the badges of safety,
goes to rescue his loved ones.
Even with the password,
Prosper's way beset with danger.
Babylon's last Bacchanal.
The Bacchanal were ancient Roman festivals of
Bacchus, the Greco-Roman god of wine, freedom,
intoxication, and ecstasy.
Brown eyes...ah me, ah me!
Cyrus unites forces with his lieutenant, Gobryas.
As the leader of the Medo-Persian army of
Cyrus, Gobryas took Babylon without battle.
The Mountain Girl's warning delayed by the revelers.
A new appeal.
While Belshazzar doubts, the army of Cyrus
enters through the gates left open by the priests.
Belshazzar at last convinced by his own servants.
Belshazzar finds only twelve guards to defend
his palace gates against the hordes of Cyrus.
The Princess' vain appeal.
To save Belshazzar the disgrace of captivity,
they send him back to his throne.
At the threshold of death.
The farewell.
Honor commands that you go with your king
to the death halls of Allat. Come!
To God the glory! Long live Cyrus,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
When cannon and prison bars wrought in
the fires of intolerance...
And perfect love shall bring peace forevermore.
Perfect love in the Bible is an expression of
God's love for us, and it is only complete
when we reflect it back onto Him.There is no
fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.
Instead of prison walls...Bloom flowery fields.
THE END
Orson Welles's words about the movie Intolerance
George Orson Welles (1915-1985) was an American actor,
director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his
innovative work in film, radio and theatre. In 2002,
he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two
British Film Institute polls among directors and critics.
Also in 1975, the American Film Institute presented Welles
with its third Lifetime Achievement Award (the first two
going to director John Ford and actor James Cagney).
THE SILENT YEARS
Good evening.
This is Orson Welles introducing the Festival of
great films of the silent years.
And we have... we have a great film tonight.
You know, An awful lot of literature is read about
literature much too much and much too much
literature is written on the subject of movies.
And a lot of it has been written about me
is read about all sorts of people
who don't deserve it and they.
Give me credit for innovations which I am
not responsible for and inventions that I
didn't invent.
No other people come along
and say I don't deserve the credit
and I wanted to tell you that
I've never claimed that credit.
I mention all this...
Because the film you're going to see
tonight deserves all the credit that could
possibly be given to it.
It was made just a year after I was born.
And there's almost nothing in the entire
Vocabulary of the cinema But you won't
find it in this film.
There's also a lot of it which is terribly
old-fashioned And it was old-fashioned.
I'd like to point out even at the time
when this film was shown.
because its author and its author and maker
and created was D.W. Griffith, and I may
say parenthetically that the film is intolerance.
had his a grounding came out of every way
was the child of the 19th century the late
19th-century theaters
So you're going to see a lot of the late
19th-century theater in this Film
A lot that was old and dusty
even at the moment this was made.
And you're also going to see an awful
lot that would be new tomorrow.
Because of the genius of the man.
His taste in this culture is background
belongs to quite another time.
Why have to see the film
and it's a great feeling it's enormously complicated.
My notes here say that perhaps it was a
bit too complicated for the 1960 audiences
maybe it's too complicated for an audience today.
Isn't it an immensely, the ambitious project
to put all those stories together and make
them work, and maybe they don't work?!
But that failure remains, One of the great
successes in the history of the cinema.
for a Next week.
Next week we have a movie that I
absolutely adored as a child.
When the style that I worshipped.
And I think you ought to see it.
It's the Mark of Zorro
with Douglas Fairbanks senior.
Don't miss it.
Parts of the film; Cabiria (1914)
...Now consummate the sacrifice in your
throat of flame, o father and mother,
o god and goddess, o father and mother,
o father and son, o god and goddess!
voracious creator! Roaring, ardent hunger...
Sophonisba, the daughter of Hasdrubal,
the passionate "pomegranate flower."
The Numidian king Massinissa is a guest of Hasdrubal,
who promises him his beautiful daughter, Sophonisba.
Massinissa, prince of the knightly cavaliers,
sends a gift to the mysterious virgin and
begs to see her in secret, at moonrise,
in the garden of the cedars.
Parts of the film; The Last Days of Pompeii (1913)
Still under the effect of the potion,
Glaucus cannot comprehend what is happening.
The keepers round up the animals.
The servants open the gate...
...when a pale man with a distorted face
appears and accuses Arbace.
It is Claudius, who has arrived just in time.
The crowd shouts:
Throw the Egyptian to the lions!
Glaucus must be saved!
But a scream pierces the uproar:
Look at Mount Vesuvius!
Following the destruction of Babylon
and her beloved monarch.......
THANKS GOD
Intolerance (1916)
Subtitle released by
Hamidreza Mirforughy
from Persia
v1.8 - 2023
A Sun-play of the Ages INTOLERANCE
A drama of Comparisons ACT I
Our play is made up of four separate stories,
laid in different periods of history,
each with its own set of characters.
Each story shows how hatred and intolerance,
through all the ages, have battled against
love and charity.
Therefore, you will find our play turning from
one of the four stories to another,
as the common theme unfolds in each.
Out of the cradle endlessly rocking.
Today as yesterday, endlessly rocking,
ever bringing the same human passions,
the same joys and sorrows.
Intolerance
Our first story...out of the cradle of the present.
In a western city we find certain ambitious
ladies banded together for the "uplift" of humanity.
Even reform movements must be financed.
"If we can only interest Miss Jenkins...
with her money..."
A little affair is being given by Mary T. Jenkins,
unmarried sister of the autocratic industrial overlord...
Seeing youth drawn to youth,
Miss Jenkins realizes the bitter fact that
she is no longer a part of the younger world.
The girl of our story keeps house for her
father who works in a Jenkins mill.
With a wage of $2.75 a day,
a little garden, four hens, ditto geese, and a
fair measure of happiness and contentment.
The little Dear One.
The Boy, unacquainted with the little Dear One,
is employed with his father in the same mill.
Age intolerant of youth and laughter.
"The vestal virgins of Uplift" succeed in
reaching Miss Jenkins in their search for funds.
In ancient Rome, Vestal virgins were priests of
Vesta who were dedicated to the Roman goddess Vesta.
We must have laws to make people good.
There is dancing in cafes.
Comes now from out the cradle of yesterday,
the story of an ancient people, whose lives,
though far away from ours,
run parallel in their hopes and perplexities.
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke identify
Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus.
Ancient Jerusalem, the golden city whose
people have given us many of our highest ideals,
and from the carpenter shop of Bethlehem, sent us
the Man of Men, the greatest enemy of intolerance.
Near the Jaffa gate.
This gate is one of the eight main gates of
the wall of the old city of Jerusalem,
the Arabic name of this gate is Bab al-Khalil.
The house in Cana of Galilee
Cana is a city in Galilee, north of Nazareth,
where, according to the Gospel of John,
Jesus performed his first miracle there by
turning water into wine.
Certain hypocrites among the Pharisees.
Pharisee...A learned Jewish party,
the name possibly brought into disrepute
later by hypocrites among them.
When these Pharisees pray they demand
that all action cease.
Oh Lord, I thank thee that I am better than
other men.
Amen.
Another period of the past.
A.D. 1572...Paris,
a hotbed of intolerance, in the time of Catherine
de Medici, and her son Charles IX, King of France.
Catherine de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman,
famous for being the wife of King Henry II and
later becoming regent, as well as participating
in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
Charles IX receiving his brother,
Monsieur La France, Duc d'Anjou.
The heir to the throne,
the effeminate Monsieur La France.
Pets and toys his pastimes.
Catherine de Medici, queen-mother who covers
her political intolerance of the Huguenots...
beneath the cloak of the great Catholic Religion.
Note: Huguenots...the Protestant party of this period.
The great Protestant leader, the Admiral Coligny,
head of the Huguenot party.
What a wonderful man, the Admiral Coligny,
if he only thought as we do.
What a wonderful king,
if he only thought as we do.
The King's favor to Coligny increases
the hatred of the opposite party.
Celebrating the betrothal of Marguerite of Valois,
sister of the King, to Henry of Navarre, royal Huguenot,
to insure peace in the place of intolerance.
Marguerite of Valois.
Henry of Navarre.
Brown Eyes, her family of the Huguenot party,
and her sweetheart, Prosper Latour.
Brown Eyes attracts the attention of a
mercenary soldier.
Returning to our story of today,
we find the embittered Miss Jenkins...
aligning herself with the modern Pharisees
and agreeing to help the Uplifters.
A diversion of the mill workers.
To every thing there is a season...
a time to mourn and a time to dance......
He hath made everything beautiful in his time.
Ecclesiastes iii.
The little Dear One having the time of her life.
Want my straw?
Miss Jenkins receives a check from her
brother for the purposed uplift of humanity.
Jenkins studies his employes' habits.
Ten o'clock! They should be in bed
so they can work tomorrow.
And now our fourth story of love's struggle against
Intolerance, in that distant time when all the
nations of the earth sat at the feet of Babylon.
Outside of Imgur Bel, the great gate of Babylon,
in the time of Belshazzar, 539 B.C.
Merchants, farmers, East Indians,
with trains of elephants, Egyptians, Numidians,
and ambitious Persians spying upon the city.
The Numidians were a barbarian
population in northwest Africa.
Imgur Bel and Nivit Bel are the two great walls
of Babylon, which construction was started by
Nabopolassar, the king of Babylon.
The Mountain Girl down from
the mountains of Suisana.
Suisana, which was the Greek name Susa,
is the capital of Ilam and is located on the
border between Iran and Iraq.
The Rhapsode, a Warrior singer...
poet agent of the High Priest of Bel.
Bel is the newer name of Marduk, the main
Babylonian god. Bel had all the attributes of
Marduk, and his position and ritual were almost
the same, but gradually Bel was recognized
as the god of order and destiny.
The priest of Bel-Marduk, supreme God of Babylon,
jealously watches the image of the rival goddess,
Ishtar, enter the city, borne in a sacred ark.
Ishtar: The first Mesopotamian goddess who
has a close relationship with love and war,
this goddess is the first known deity for
whom we have written evidence.
Dearest one...in the ash heaps of my backyard
there will be small flowers; seven lilies...if thou
wilt love me...but a little.
Ishtar, goddess of love, seven times seven
I bow to thee. Let her enjoy this kiss.
On the great wall.
The Prince, Belshazzar, son of Nabonidus,
apostle of tolerance and religious freedom.
Note: ...Replica of Babylon's encircling walls,
300 feet in height,
and broad enough for the passing of chariots.
Belshazzar overthrew King Labashi-Marduk in
a coup and put his father Nabonidus in power.
Through proclaiming his father as the new king,
Belshazzar also made himself the first-in-line to the throne.
The two-sword man, Belshazzar's faithful guard,
a mighty man of valor.
The jealous priest of Bel sees in the
enthronement of Ishtar loss of his religious power.
He angrily resolves to re-establish his own
god...incidentally himself.
The gate of Imgur Bel which
no enemy has ever been able to force.
Hand maidens from Ishtar's Temple
of Love and Laughter.
The Princess Beloved, favorite of Belshazzar,
in a room of scented cedar, plated with pure gold,
in the hareem of My Lord the Prince.
A love blossom from Belshazzar.
Stricken by her pale beauty,
as though by white lightning.
The brother of the Mountain Girl, having some
slight trouble with his high-spirited sister,
takes the matter to the court.
The first known court of justice in the world.
Note: ...Babylonian justice according to the code
of Hammurabi, protecting the weak from the strong.
The Law of Hammurabi, which was engraved
on basalt stone by the order of Hammurabi,
the sixth king of Babylon, contains 282 articles
on criminal law, civil law, and business law.
The Mountain Girl's brother tells
the Judge that she is incorrigible.
The judgment is that she be sent to the
marriage market to get a good husband.
Endlessly rocks the cradle uniter of here and hereafter.
Chanter of sorrows and joys.
Resuming our story of today.
Dividends of the Jenkins mills failing to meet
the increasing demands of Miss Jenkins' charities,
she complains to her brother,
which helps decide him to action.
Order a ten percent cut in all wages.
A great strike follows.
They squeeze the money out of us and use it
to advertise themselves by reforming us.
Hungry ones that wait to take their places.
Clear the property.
The Loom of Fate weaves death for the Boy's father.
The exodus after a time of waiting.
Forced to seek employment elsewhere,
many victims of the Jenkins' aspirations go to
the great city nearby...the Boy among them.
A friendless one...alone...as the result of the strike.
So too, the Dear One...and her father.
Fate leads them all to the same district.
The Boy unable to find work...at last...
Adversity causes the friendless one
to listen to a Musketeer of the Slums.
And again in Babylon.
The marriage market.
Money paid for beautiful women given to
homely ones, as dowers, so that all
may have husbands and be happy.
Lips brilliant with juice of henna;
eyes lined with kohl.
Note: ...According to Herodotus, women corresponding to
our street outcasts, for life the wards of Church and State.
The auctioneer.
Tish tish! 'tis no place to eat onions.
The girl's turn...perhaps not so
different from the modern way.
In distant Nineveh...
One who would give his life if
he were able to buy the merchandise held
so lightly upon Love's market.
And man will be happy with this
sweet wild rose...this gentle dove.
But touch my skirt and I'll scratch your eyes out!
The temper and rough language of the
"wild rose" prove her to be not without thorns.
With her goes a third of a mina of silver.
You lice! You rats! You refuse me?
There is no gentler dove in all Babylon than I.
Belshazzar now ruling for his father.
Oh, lord of lords! Oh, king of kings! Oh, masu!
Oh, scorching sun of the mid-day, these bugs
will not buy me for a wife! I dwell in sorrow.
Probably in Babylon, "Maso" was the title of
Shamash (Sun God) who was the lawgiver
and the son of Bel, and the brother of Ishtar,
also in some sources it is mentioned a mountain
from behind which the sun always rose.
This seal gives you freedom to marry or not to marry...
to be consecrated to the goddess of love or
not as thou choosest.
The Rhapsode, working in the tenements,
to convert backsliders to the true worship of Bel.
Put away thy perfumes, thy garments of Assinnu,
the female man. I shall love none but a soldier.
Asino seems to have originally been a powerful
and heroic man who participated in Ishtar's
festivals as an actor in a religious drama
dressed to interpret gender, but gender in its
unusual form (a man dressed as a woman).
The love-smitten Mountain Girl
vows eternal allegiance to Belshazzar.
In the Love Temple.
Virgins of the sacred fires of Life.
He promises to build her a city, beautiful as
the memory of her own in a foreign land.
The fragrant mystery of your body is
greater than the mystery of life.
Belshazzar the king, The very young king,
of Babylon...And his Princess Beloved,
Clearest and rarest of all his pearls,
The very dearest one of his dancing girls.
The Dear One in her new environment
forced upon her by the Jenkins strike.
The same old love and dreams.
The hopeful geranium.
I'll walk like her and maybe
everybody will like me too.
In the same neighborhood,
the friendless one again.
Across the hall, The Musketeer of the Slums.
The Boy, now a barbarian of the streets,
a member of The Musketeer's band.
Imitating the walk of the girl of the street.
The Boy's news stand, a blind for his real operations.
Their first meeting.
The new walk seems to bring results.
Say kid, you're going to be my chicken.
Pray to be forgiven!
Inability to meet new conditions brings
untimely death to The Dear One's father.
Currently, the city of Nazareth is under the rule
of Israel, according to some, the Domed Church
of the Annunciation in this city is the place where
Gabriel told Mary: She will give birth to a child.
According to some, Jesus lived in this city
until he was 12 years old.
Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking...
The Comforter, out of Nazareth.
There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.
John ii-1.
Note: ...The ceremony according to Sayce,
Hastings, Brown and Tissot.
The first sop to the bride.
Be ye as harmless as doves.
Scorned and rejected of men.
Mary, the mother.
Meddlers then as now. "There is too much
revelry and pleasure-seeking among the people."
The poor bride and groom suffer great humiliation.
The wine has given out.
The first miracle.
The turning of water into wine.
Note: ...Wine was deemed a fit offering to God;
the drinking of it a part of the Jewish religion.
Now for a time the little love god works his small
but mighty way, in other days the same as now.
Brown Eyes and her family happily ignorant of
the web intolerance is weaving around them.
Love's silent mystery.
The mercenary made bold by passion.
In the good old summertime. For the little Dear One,
passing days and youth have healed the wound.
The end of a "Coney Island" day.
Coney Island is a peninsula and recreational
neighborhood in the southwest of
New York City and in the Brooklyn area.
Nothing doing on the good night stuff,
I always go inside to see my girls.
Help me to be a strong-jawed jane.
I told you before...I promised Our Lady
and I promised father that no man would
ever come in this room.
Just for that I'll never see you again!
I was thinking...suppose we get married,
then I can come in.
That's me. Kiss me good night and
we'll call it settled.
The enormous sums supplied by Jenkins to be
distributed as the meddlers see fit...in "charity"...
now make the Uplifters the most influential
power in the community.
Mary T.Jenkins Foundation Fund
General Offices
Equally intolerant hypocrites of another age.
And the Pharisee said: "Behold a man gluttonous,
and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners."
St. Matthew XI-19.
The woman taken in adultery.
Now Moses in the law commanded us that
such should be stoned; but what sayest thou?
...John VIII.
He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her.
Neither do I condemn thee; go thou and sin no more.
Now, how shall we find this Christly example
followed in our story of today?
The Committee of Seventeen report
they have cleaned up the city.
It is peaceful in the...
No more dancing in...
You yourself were with us when we raided...
When women cease to attract men they
often turn to Reform as a second choice.
But these results they do not report:
Each one his own distiller.
Instead of mild wines and beers...
The Boy, strongly braced in the Dear One's sweet
human faith, sets his steps with hers on the straight road.
The Boy tells the boss he won't need the
'cannon' any more; he is through with the old life.
As an example to others of the band,
The Musketeer, with the help of men higher up,
arranges the old familiar frame-up.
The sometimes House of Intolerance.
Stolen goods, planted on The Boy,
and his bad reputation intolerate him away for a term.
The broken love nest...The Dear One... ...alone...
While at the Jenkins home the Uplifters
celebrate their success in righting the world
that was all wrong.
In Babylon.
The High Priest of Bel courts public homage.
The Priest of Bel, frenzied at the worship of Ishtar,
prophecies the loss of their souls
and the downfall of Babylon.
Belshazzar's father has a red letter day.
He excavates a foundation brick of the
temple of Naram-Sin, builded 3200 years before.
Like other Mesopotamian kings, Naram Sin
made stone statues to commemorate his
military victories, this statue is now kept in
the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Incidentally he remarks that Cyrus, the Persian,
Babylon's mighty foe, is nearing the city.
We will begin building your city,
oh dove of Ishtar, when Cyrus is conquered.
The Persian camp.
Cyrus, world-conqueror, preparing for the
titanic struggle with Babylon,
in secret league with the priest of Bel.
Note: ...Situate between the Euphrates and
post road to Egypt.
The treacherous priest of Bel
receives assuring news from Cyrus.
In his tent, Cyrus, before the sacred image of the sun.
The institution of Cyrus.
The Medes and Persians at exercises.
Note: ...It was required that each man perspire every day.
Ethiopians.
Barbarians.
Out of the cradle...endlessly rocking,
Baby fingers hopefully lifted.
The little wife, now a mother,
plans for the day of daddy's return.
The Uplifters, claiming the regular children's societies
are inefficient, now turn to "negligent" mothers.
A cold sends our little mother to an
old-fashioned remedy,
condemned publicly yet used privately by
many physicians and hospitals.
The Uplifters investigate.
"Child...evil surroundings...criminal father."
Whisky!
We are afraid you're no fit mother...
Reporting the case.
Despite the objections of some of the members,
they decide to seize the baby.
The friendly neighbor, with a glass of beer.
Did you see that? A man visitor!
We have a warrant to take your baby.
Suffer Little Children
The Jenkins Foundation
Hoping for a sight of her baby.
Perhaps they are right and baby is happy after all.
Of course, hired mothers are never negligent.
A new dissipation...watching the happiness of others.
In another bitter day, memorable through intolerance.
The threatening attitude of the Huguenots
throughout France is reported to Catherine.
The "old serpent" uses the incident to inflame
the minds of the Catholics against the Protestants.
Remember, gentlemen, the Michelade at Nimes
when hundreds of our faith perished
at the hands of the Huguenots!
Michelade is the name given to the massacre of
Catholics, including 18 Catholic priests and monks,
by Protestant coup officials in Nimes on Michaelmas
And so, our very lives depend upon their extermination.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth...
Cyrus moves upon Babylon; in his hand the
sword of war, most potent weapon forged in
the flames of intolerance.
Belshazzar leaving to take charge of
the city's defense.
My Lord, like white pearls I shall keep
my tears in an ark of silver for your return.
I bite my thumb! I strike my girdle!
If you return not, I go to the death halls of Allat.
Allat is the goddess of the underworld in
Babylonian stories. The same goddess was
later worshiped by the Arabs as one of
the daughters of God.
While the Princess Beloved prays,
the Mountain Girl goes to fight for her Belshazzar.
Babylon's gates close against the foe.
War drums and trumpets!
On the walls of my city, I, Belshazzar,
defy the enemies of Babylon. Allato! Allato! Allato!
It seems that the meaning of Allato is the same
Babylonian goddess that the prince gives
the order to start the battle by naming her.
Great moving siege towers covered with ox hide.
Inside the city walls.
Ancient instruments of war.
Rock-throwers, catapults,
battering rams, mighty crossbows, burning oil.
Prayers in the temples and burning of frankincense.
Burnt offerings.
Ishtar, beloved, though our sins be many,
forgive us. In our behalf seize thou now the
burning sword.
The city assaulted on all sides.
Cyrus, the head of the war machine.
Cyrus repeats the world-old prayer to kill, kill, kill...
and to God be the glory, world without end, Amen.
Help us, Ishtar!
Oh, God! Fight for us! Save us!
The Princess Beloved, frenzied with war's terrors,
watches the battle from afar.
Great timbers against the towers.
Into the night.
Fight for him, Ishtar, fight for him!
The women aid.
Morning brings fresh assaults and towers.
Belshazzar's mighty man of valor and
his legion oppose the threatening tide.
A new and flaming engine of destruction
attempts to burn the towers of Cyrus.
The army of Cyrus repulsed by Belshazzar.
Babylon's paean of victory.
My glorious Belshazzar.
A Sun-play of the Ages Intolerance
A drama of Comparisons ACT II.
In this last act the events portrayed in
Babylon are according to the recently excavated
cylinders of Nabonidus and Cyrus,
that relate Babylon's betrayal by the priests of Bel.
These cylinders describe the greatest treason
of all history, by which a civilization of countless
ages was destroyed,
and a universal written language (the cuneiform)
was made to become an unknown cypher on
the face of the earth.
Nabonidus was absent for about 10 years in
self-imposed exile in Tima Arabia for unknown reasons.
Belshazzar ruled Babylon as regent during
his father's decade-long absence. The cylinders
of Nabonidus refer to the cuneiform inscriptions
of the last king of Babylon, which are 4 in number.
The Cyrus Cylinder is a cuneiform inscription
that Cyrus the Great ordered to be made
during the conquest of Babylon.
In our modern story, The Musketeer, inflamed
by a new face wins the unsuspecting little mother's
confidence with a promise to recover her baby.
Jealousy.
The Boy's return to The Dear One.
The Feast of Belshazzar.
In the great court of the palace,
rejoicing over Babylon's victory.
Before the nobles of Babylon, Belshazzar
pours out the colossal hospitality of an ancient time.
Note: ...This hall over a mile in length.
imaged after the splendor of an olden day.
A golden moment for Belshazzar
and the Princess Beloved.
To thee, oh Ishtar, all praise for the victory.
A gateway of the banquet hall.
The Mountain Girl happy in being
even in the fringe of her hero's glory.
The High Priest looks down upon
the city he seeks to betray to Cyrus.
They give thanks to Ishtar now,
but Oh Lord Bel...tomorrow Cyrus,
thy servant, shall avenge thee!
The Rhapsode, unaware of the dastardly purpose,
is ordered by the High Priest to have chariots
at the great gate for a journey to Cyrus.
In the tenement district, a simpler repast
...her last in Babylon.
The Egibi family was a family from ancient
Babylon that was involved in business
activities and land management.
At the table of Egibi, Babylonia's greatest noble.
Note: ...Following Babylonian custom,
the feasting lasts many days.
Spiced wine, made cool with snow from the mountains.
Soldiers, barbarians and camp followers.
The Rhapsode, having completed his arrangements
for the journey, turns to thoughts of love.
Thinking only of Belshazzar, her hero,
The Mountain Girl leads on the love-sick boy, until...
... ...as always since the beginning of time
between man and maid, boasting,
he tells everything he knows.
I know not why we go, but if I don't return
soon you can use the password to visit me.
The conspiring priests leave the banquet hall.
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572
was a targeted group of assassinations and
a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed
against the Huguenots during the French
Wars of Religion.
Catherine's audience with the King to
secure his signature to the order for
the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
Note: ...Councillors present: Nevers,
Tavannes, Retz and Birague.
I will not consent to this intolerant
measure to destroy any of my people.
After a long session,
the Intolerants sway the King.
"We must destroy or be destroyed."
By God's death, since you wish it,
kill them all! Kill them all!
Let not one escape to upbraid me.
Prosper and Brown Eyes betrothed.
The banns...tomorrow, St. Bartholomew's morn.
Candles out...fading lights.
Prosper puzzled by the ominous activities.
St. Bartholomew's eve.
Upon the doorways of the Huguenots...
the chalk of doom.
Prosper's lodgings across the town.
In the Temple of Love.
The sacred dance in memory of the
resurrection of Tammuz.
In Mesopotamian religion, Tammuz is the
god of fertility, who embodies the power
of new life in nature and spring.
Beloved...a white rose...from Beloved.
The gates manned with their own guards,
the priests are guided by the Rhapsode on
their mission of treason to the camps of Cyrus.
In the interests of her prince...
A little flirtation.
Suspicious of the hated priests' journey to Cyrus,
she uses the password and follows them.
The Musketeer of the Slums seizes
an opportune time to visit the little wife.
You go in and get the address where the kid is.
You know me...I can get your baby for you.
Just saw the boss go up to see your wife.
Nearing the end of the Boy's trial for murder.
Love's brave encouragement.
Yes, it was once my gun...but I...I...didn't do it.
The maiden case of The Boy's attorney.
I mean...can we hang...I mean,
it's only circumstantial evidence.
The verdict...guilty.
Universal justice, an eye for an eye,
a tooth for a tooth, a murder for a murder.
Outside the Roman Judgment Hall,
after the verdict of Pontius Pilate:
"Let Him Be Crucified"
Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of the
Roman province of Judaea, serving under
Emperor Tiberius. he is being the official
who presided over the trial of Jesus and
ordered his crucifixion.
The Boy's sentence.
Please...Mister Judge...
To be hanged by the neck until dead, dead, dead!
The Kindly Officer on the beat learns of the sentence.
The people everywhere are singing your praises.
The irresistible impulse.
In his distant camp, Cyrus awaits the priests.
The Mountain Girl's bold pursuit.
The day before the Boy's execution.
Feeling the Boy wrongly convicted by
some mischance of fate,
the Kindly Heart sees a ray of hope in the
visit of the governor to the city.
And wondered if each one of us
Would end the self-same way,
For none can tell to what red Hell
His sightless soul may stray.
The governor unable to give any hope.
At the tents of Cyrus.
The Mountain Girl from a distance
watches the priests' arrival.
The great conspiracy.
The Boy's last dawn.
The hangman's test.
Desperate, the little wife herself goes to the governor.
Oh God, don't let them do it!
St. Bartholomew's morn.
The bell of St. Germain.
The beginning of the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
For Brown Eyes, a terrible awakening.
The Dear One's appeal to the Governor fruitless.
The Governor leaves.
I killed him! I did it, I did it!
The attempt to overtake the governor
before he reaches the train.
Her long wait rewarded, she goes to warn
Belshazzar of the new advance on Babylon.
The last Sacrament.
No. 8, after the train, leaps with a new impulse.
Intolerance, burning and slaying.
In the doomed city.
"Our marriage will be announced tomorrow."
This bud will blossom...tomorrow.
Beloved, I will begin building your city...tomorrow.
Cyrus sweeps on to Babylon's destruction.
Medici, the old cat, is scratching out
the lives of all your people.
At the house of Brown Eyes.
The mercenary's opportunity.
Prosper, with the badges of safety,
goes to rescue his loved ones.
Even with the password,
Prosper's way beset with danger.
Babylon's last Bacchanal.
The Bacchanal were ancient Roman festivals of
Bacchus, the Greco-Roman god of wine, freedom,
intoxication, and ecstasy.
Brown eyes...ah me, ah me!
Cyrus unites forces with his lieutenant, Gobryas.
As the leader of the Medo-Persian army of
Cyrus, Gobryas took Babylon without battle.
The Mountain Girl's warning delayed by the revelers.
A new appeal.
While Belshazzar doubts, the army of Cyrus
enters through the gates left open by the priests.
Belshazzar at last convinced by his own servants.
Belshazzar finds only twelve guards to defend
his palace gates against the hordes of Cyrus.
The Princess' vain appeal.
To save Belshazzar the disgrace of captivity,
they send him back to his throne.
At the threshold of death.
The farewell.
Honor commands that you go with your king
to the death halls of Allat. Come!
To God the glory! Long live Cyrus,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
When cannon and prison bars wrought in
the fires of intolerance...
And perfect love shall bring peace forevermore.
Perfect love in the Bible is an expression of
God's love for us, and it is only complete
when we reflect it back onto Him.There is no
fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.
Instead of prison walls...Bloom flowery fields.
THE END
Orson Welles's words about the movie Intolerance
George Orson Welles (1915-1985) was an American actor,
director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his
innovative work in film, radio and theatre. In 2002,
he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two
British Film Institute polls among directors and critics.
Also in 1975, the American Film Institute presented Welles
with its third Lifetime Achievement Award (the first two
going to director John Ford and actor James Cagney).
THE SILENT YEARS
Good evening.
This is Orson Welles introducing the Festival of
great films of the silent years.
And we have... we have a great film tonight.
You know, An awful lot of literature is read about
literature much too much and much too much
literature is written on the subject of movies.
And a lot of it has been written about me
is read about all sorts of people
who don't deserve it and they.
Give me credit for innovations which I am
not responsible for and inventions that I
didn't invent.
No other people come along
and say I don't deserve the credit
and I wanted to tell you that
I've never claimed that credit.
I mention all this...
Because the film you're going to see
tonight deserves all the credit that could
possibly be given to it.
It was made just a year after I was born.
And there's almost nothing in the entire
Vocabulary of the cinema But you won't
find it in this film.
There's also a lot of it which is terribly
old-fashioned And it was old-fashioned.
I'd like to point out even at the time
when this film was shown.
because its author and its author and maker
and created was D.W. Griffith, and I may
say parenthetically that the film is intolerance.
had his a grounding came out of every way
was the child of the 19th century the late
19th-century theaters
So you're going to see a lot of the late
19th-century theater in this Film
A lot that was old and dusty
even at the moment this was made.
And you're also going to see an awful
lot that would be new tomorrow.
Because of the genius of the man.
His taste in this culture is background
belongs to quite another time.
Why have to see the film
and it's a great feeling it's enormously complicated.
My notes here say that perhaps it was a
bit too complicated for the 1960 audiences
maybe it's too complicated for an audience today.
Isn't it an immensely, the ambitious project
to put all those stories together and make
them work, and maybe they don't work?!
But that failure remains, One of the great
successes in the history of the cinema.
for a Next week.
Next week we have a movie that I
absolutely adored as a child.
When the style that I worshipped.
And I think you ought to see it.
It's the Mark of Zorro
with Douglas Fairbanks senior.
Don't miss it.
Parts of the film; Cabiria (1914)
...Now consummate the sacrifice in your
throat of flame, o father and mother,
o god and goddess, o father and mother,
o father and son, o god and goddess!
voracious creator! Roaring, ardent hunger...
Sophonisba, the daughter of Hasdrubal,
the passionate "pomegranate flower."
The Numidian king Massinissa is a guest of Hasdrubal,
who promises him his beautiful daughter, Sophonisba.
Massinissa, prince of the knightly cavaliers,
sends a gift to the mysterious virgin and
begs to see her in secret, at moonrise,
in the garden of the cedars.
Parts of the film; The Last Days of Pompeii (1913)
Still under the effect of the potion,
Glaucus cannot comprehend what is happening.
The keepers round up the animals.
The servants open the gate...
...when a pale man with a distorted face
appears and accuses Arbace.
It is Claudius, who has arrived just in time.
The crowd shouts:
Throw the Egyptian to the lions!
Glaucus must be saved!
But a scream pierces the uproar:
Look at Mount Vesuvius!
Following the destruction of Babylon
and her beloved monarch.......
THANKS GOD
Intolerance (1916)
Subtitle released by
Hamidreza Mirforughy
from Persia
v1.8 - 2023