Which 1916 silent epic film directed by D.W. Griffith interweaves four parallel historical stories? The answer is Intolerance.
Griffith’s ambitious silent epic connects four stories separated by centuries: the fall of Babylon, events in Judea during the life of Jesus, the 1572 St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France, and a modern American tale of crime, poverty, and redemption. The narratives are cut together more rapidly as they approach their climaxes, creating the film’s signature parallel structure.
Intolerance was conceived partly as Griffith’s response to criticism of The Birth of a Nation, whose racial politics had provoked intense controversy. He expanded an earlier project, The Mother and the Law, into a much larger meditation on persecution and social division. Its lavish Babylonian sets, enormous crowds, and elaborate staging made it one of the era’s defining spectacles.
A common mix-up is to choose The Birth of a Nation because it was also directed by Griffith and released earlier. That film is a single historical drama; Intolerance is the one built around four interwoven stories spanning roughly 2,500 years.