Feature Film
Classic - Art House - Drama - Silent Movie - History
United States 1916 | 210 Min
Subtitles in
Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Genre
Classic Art House Drama Silent Movie History
Subjects
st. bartholomew's day massacre babylon bible jesus huguenots america france capitalism
Language
English
Story
Regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the silent era (though it received mixed reviews at the time, the three-and-a-half-hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines, each separated by several centuries: a contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption, a Judean story: Christ's mission and death, a French story: the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, and a Babylonian story: the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC. Each story had its own distinctive color tint in the original print, but not in the currently available versions. The scenes are linked by shots of a figure representing Eternal Motherhood, rocking a cradle.
Director
D. W. GriffithWriter
D. W. Griffith, Hettie Gray Baker, Tod Browning, Anita Loos, Mary H. O'Connor, Frank E. WoodsCast
Vera LewisProducers
D. W. GriffithCinematographer
Billy Bitzer
Production Designer
D.W. Griffith, Walter L. HallEditors
D. W. Griffith, James Smith, Rose SmithComposer
Joseph Carl Breil, Julián Carrillo, Carl Davis
Musicians