Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
D.W. Griffith's monumental follow-up to Birth of a Nation is one of cinema's foundational works. The parallel four-narrative structure — weaving Babylon, Judean, French Huguenot, and modern storylines — was genuinely unprecedented and remains audacious. The Babylonian sequences feature production design and crowd staging of staggering scale for 1916, and Bitzer's cinematography pioneered close-ups and camera movement in ways still studied today. Novelty earns a 4 unambiguously: nothing like this existed before and the interlocking structure directly influenced filmmakers for generations. Plot earns a 4 for its sheer structural ambition, even if individual strands are melodramatic and uneven. Cinematography likewise earns a 4 for its pioneering technique and visual grandeur. Acting is constrained by the exaggerated silent-film conventions of the era, earning a 3. The ending is emotionally strained and slightly rushed given the enormous narrative investment built across four storylines — the modern rescue sequence is thrilling but the resolution across all threads feels uneven, landing at 3.