SOURCE: "Artistic Influences," in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance: Its Genesis and Its Vision, McFarland & Company, Inc., 1986, pp. 63-101.

In the following essay, Drew highlights the various artistic influences Griffith drew upon during the making of Intolerance.

Utilizing elements from music, painting, theater, poetry and novels, Griffith produced a twentieth-century masterwork, adapting and synthesizing the art forms of the nineteenth century into the new medium of cinema. In addition, he was stimulated by the work of the European filmmakers, absorbing some of their techniques in spectacle and costume productions. As a result, Intolerance is a fusion of romanticism and realism. This blending is a distinguishing characteristic of nineteenth-century art, in which intuition, emotion and the exaggeration of incident and action to intensify the theme merges with a commitment to portray life realistically and project believable characters and situations in order to elucidate their social and historical significance.

Music

With...