# Intolerance (1916) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491 "2004-02-04T15:17:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hipdadiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hipdadiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hipdadiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/21 "2004-02-05T19:23:13Z")
Oops. Stupid browser (and I don’t want to hear any, “A poor craftsman blames his tools…”) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/22 "2004-02-05T19:54:57Z")
I can’t believe I haven’t seen such a famous movie. But I have seen [Good Morning, Babylon](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093104/), which is a pretty good picture about two Italian brothers who come to America and wind up in Hollywood, helping create the sets for _Intolerance_. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/23 "2004-02-05T23:29:42Z")
> [@hipdadiddy](#): > > At least one very famous movie, in fact. Remember the gigantic wall that kept the villagers safe from King Kong…? I think you’re getting confused with the story that the Wall set from _King Kong_ [was recycled in other movies](http://www.aboyd.com/kong/kongfaq2.html) before being destroyed for the burning of Atlanta in _Gone With The Wind_. There were actually two huge sets for _Intolerance_, the one of the walls of Babylon for the battle sequences and the more famous one for Belshazzar’s Feast. The first was demolished during production to make way for the second on the same area of ground - near what’s now the junction of Sunset and Hollywood. That replacement seems to have survived a few years. Griffith moved his entire operation onto the site and the sets for _Hearts of the World_ were built in amongst what remained of the Babylon set. See, for example, the various remarks about the situation in chapter 13 of Karl Brown’s _Adventures …_ ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/24 "2004-02-06T02:41:48Z")
Griffith is amazing, truly amazing. There’s hardly anything in modern cinema that he didn’t use first. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/25 "2004-02-06T03:01:56Z")
> [@plnnr](#): > > Is _Intolerance_ the one that starts “Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking…” or is that _Greed_ ? Yes, that’s “Intolerance”. ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/26 "2004-02-06T03:10:56Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I always imagined that to be someone on the soundtrack going, “Ooooh, look at that! Isn’t _that_ cool? Wow! I _love_ her dress!” What do you mean? 😕 > [@](#): > > And it’s even more mind-blowing when you consider just how primitive the movie-making process was at the time That’s a pretty audacious statement. Film was 20 years old. Not having 1000kilowatt light banks to shoot inside doesn’t equal primitive. _Hearts Of The Wind_ is on the same tape as _Intolerance_ that was made for me. I’ll watch that soon here. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/27 "2004-02-06T07:22:06Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > I think you’re getting confused with the story that the Wall set from _King Kong_ [was recycled in other movies](http://www.aboyd.com/kong/kongfaq2.html) before being destroyed for the burning of Atlanta in _Gone With The Wind_. Actually, _Gone With the Wind_ does not depict the burning of Atlanta. What you see is a smaller event that occurred two and a half months earlier, the burning of the Atlanta Depot. A trainload of munitions and materiél was set afire by a Confederate rearguard to prevent it from falling into the hands of the advancing Union Army. A nearby warehouse and steel rolling mill also burned, but that pretty much was the extent of it. The [courtyard](http://www.soulofamerica.com/images/photosca/la2/BabylonWall_inHnH.jpg) of the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, where the Academy Awards are held, is partly an homage to the Babylonian set in _Intolerance_. ---
**Author:** ![hipdadiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hipdadiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hipdadiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/28 "2004-02-06T16:41:42Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > I think you’re getting confused with the story that the Wall set from _King Kong_ [was recycled in other movies](http://www.aboyd.com/kong/kongfaq2.html) before being destroyed for the burning of Atlanta in _Gone With The Wind_. D’oh!! Yet another thing I’ve known all my life turning out to be dead wrong — thanks for straightening me out on it. However, I’m pretty sure I’m not alone on this; I know got the Walls of Babylon=Walls of Kong Island story out of some reference book or another. I’ll have to dig through my library… ---
**Author:** ![hipdadiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hipdadiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hipdadiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/29 "2004-02-06T17:01:28Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > That’s a pretty audacious statement. Film was 20 years old. Not having 1000kilowatt light banks to shoot inside doesn’t equal primitive. Actually, I think it does. “Primitive” is a relative term, its meaning pretty much defined by how the same thing would be done today. And I’m not saying Griffith’s _techniques_ were in any way lacking — just the _technologies_ available to him. When a setup as elaborate as the ballroom “interior” I refer to could’ve been reduced to pandemonium by a cloudburst — how is that not a “primitive” condition? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/30 "2004-02-06T17:33:36Z")
I believe Kevin Brownlow’s _The Parade’s Gone By_ (possibly the best book ever written on the silent era, and beautifully illustrated) has a photograph of the Babylonian palace set taken circa 1919, still standing but in obvious disrepair. I read the book _The Making of King Kong_, and I don’t recall it claiming that the great wall on Skull Island was adapted from the walls of Babylon set in _Intolerance_. _Kong_ was filmed at RKO Radio Studios in Culver City. If **bonzer** is correct that the _Intolerance_ sets were built near Sunset and Hollywood, that’s miles away from Culver City. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/31 "2004-02-06T19:18:51Z")
[Confirmation](http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry/finearts.htm) that the _Intolerance_ sets were built near the intersection of Hillhurst, Hollywood Blvd., and Sunset Drive. _King Kong_’s [great wall](http://www.sculptureone.com/kong/kk27.JPG) was built in 1932 on the backlot of RKO in Culver City, several miles away. David Selznick later leased part of the studio as the home of Selznick-International Pictures, and hence the great wall ended up being burned in _Gone With the Wind_ in 1938. Other movies that used the great wall set: as the Island of Lemuria in the serial _The Return of Chandu_ (1934), starring Bela Lugosi; and as a Siberian palace in RKO’s exotic adventure film _She_ (1935). ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/32 "2004-02-07T12:42:53Z")
Nice pedantic catch about Atlanta, **Walloon**. > [@Walloon](#): > > I believe Kevin Brownlow’s _The Parade’s Gone By_ (possibly the best book ever written on the silent era, and beautifully illustrated) has a photograph of the Babylonian palace set taken circa 1919, still standing but in obvious disrepair. This may depend on the edition, but it’s not in the recentish University of California reprint. That does however have a photo of the set I haven’t seen elsewhere: similar to the standard still of the Feast, but with workers preparing the set for shooting. Brownlow and Kobal’s _Hollywood: The Pioneers_ (Collins, 1979) has two good photos of the back of the Babylon set, including one taken after production finished. As to narrowing down how long it remained standing, [this extract from Homer Croy’s old book on Griffith](http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/12_cro_9.htm) suggests it was still there 7 years after the film wrapped. ---
**Author:** ![hipdadiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hipdadiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hipdadiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491/33 "2004-02-08T04:14:02Z")
Just ran across this review by the sainted Pauline Kael in her last book, _For Keeps_. What else need be said? “…One of the two or three most influential movies ever made, and I think it is also the greatest…_Intolerance_ is like an enormous, extravagantly printed collection of fairy tales. The book is too thick to handle, too richly imaginative to take in, yet a child who loves stories will know that this is the treasure of treasures. The movie is the greatest extravaganza and the greatest folly in movie history, an epic celebration of the potentialities of the new medium — lyrical, passionate and grandiose. No one will ever again be able to make last-minute rescues so suspenseful, so beautiful, or so absurd. In movies, a masterpiece is of course a folly. _Intolerance_ is charged with visionary excitement about the power of movies to combine music, dance, narrative, drama, painting, and photography—to do alone what all the other arts together had done.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intolerance-1916/227491.md?page=1)