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| nmstevens |
 Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 3:58 pm |
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So I just watched the D.W. Griffith "Intolerance" -- which is a movie
that I hadn't seen since undergraduate days back in film school.
That's a long time ago. Believe me. We're talking now something like
thirty years.
So it's not surprising that most of it, I don't remember at all.
What's really surprising to me is the stuff that I remember so
vividly
-- in fact the very things that I recall as being *most memorable*
about Intolerance -- that are just plain not there at all.
What I remember from Intolerance, and what I would have -- until just
a very short time ago -- have sworn was in this movie, were parts of
the big final battle scene in Babylon in which these multi-story
siege
machines were being rolled up to the walls, in which soldier's heads
were literally being whacked off -- and you saw the beheaded soldiers
sort of stumble and fall over.
And I not only remember those images, I specifically remember
thinking
at the time, seeing it -- "My God, this is incredibly violent imagery
for a movie being made in whatever -- like 1918."
And not only is there none of it in the movie that I just saw, there
doesn't even seem to be any place where any of it could go. The whole
plot sort of hinges on the gates being opened by traitors and the
Persians rushing in and taking the city unawares, so the whole idea
of
seige engines and a major battle just doesn't even seem to fit in to
how I recall the sequence unfolding.
Which leads me to wonder -- just what the hell was it that I saw? I'm
pretty sure that I didn't imagine it or dream it. So I suspect I must
have seen something else and somehow (as you sometimes do with movies
and memory) mixed that movie up with Intolerance.
But I'll be damned if I know what that other movie involving multi-
story siege engines and massive battles and ancient soldiers lopping
each other's heads off -- in a silent movie -- could possibly have
been.
Might there have been an alternate version of the Babylon sequence of
Intolerance that included this material -- or is it some other movie
altogether?
Any thoughts, anybody?
NMS |
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| Eric Stott |
| Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 11:52 pm |
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On Apr 28, 9:58 pm, nmstevens <nmstev...@msn.com> wrote:
Quote:
But I'll be damned if I know what that other movie involving multi-
story siege engines and massive battles and ancient soldiers lopping
each other's heads off -- in a silent movie -- could possibly have
been.
Might there have been an alternate version of the Babylon sequence of
Intolerance that included this material -- or is it some other movie
altogether?
Any thoughts, anybody?
NMS
I know that CABIRIA has a great tinted battle sequence with siege
engines.
Eric |
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| Jerry |
| Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:09 am |
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Quote:
Every print of "Intolerance" I've ever seen has battle scenes with huge
seige engines and one shot of a guy getting his head chopped off.
What version did you watch?
Mar de Cortes Baja
Ditto what Lloyd said. The film is long and so is the battle. |
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| nmstevens |
| Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:42 am |
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On Apr 29, 8:09 am, Jerry <jerf...@aol.com> wrote:
Quote: Every print of "Intolerance" I've ever seen has battle scenes with huge
seige engines and one shot of a guy getting his head chopped off.
What version did you watch?
Mar de Cortes Baja
Ditto what Lloyd said. The film is long and so is the battle.
I rented it from Netflix, so I'm afraid I can't identify the specifc
version -- although the DVD was taken from a pretty bad print. I'm
sure there are better versions out there and, I suspect, longer
versions.
NMS |
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| Lloyd Fonvielle |
| Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:19 am |
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Eric Stott wrote:
Quote: On Apr 28, 9:58 pm, nmstevens <nmstev...@msn.com> wrote:
But I'll be damned if I know what that other movie involving multi-
story siege engines and massive battles and ancient soldiers lopping
each other's heads off -- in a silent movie -- could possibly have
been.
Might there have been an alternate version of the Babylon sequence of
Intolerance that included this material -- or is it some other movie
altogether?
Any thoughts, anybody?
I know that CABIRIA has a great tinted battle sequence with siege
engines.
Every print of "Intolerance" I've ever seen has battle scenes with huge
seige engines and one shot of a guy getting his head chopped off.
What version did you watch?
Mar de Cortes Baja
www.mardecortesbaja.com <http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/blog> |
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| Lloyd Fonvielle |
| Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:11 am |
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nmstevens wrote:
Quote: On Apr 29, 8:09 am, Jerry <jerf...@aol.com> wrote:
Every print of "Intolerance" I've ever seen has battle scenes with huge
seige engines and one shot of a guy getting his head chopped off.
What version did you watch?
I rented it from Netflix, so I'm afraid I can't identify the specifc
version -- although the DVD was taken from a pretty bad print. I'm
sure there are better versions out there and, I suspect, longer
versions.
The Kino edition is the one to see. It's got the seige engines and the
head-chopping.
Mar de Cortes Baja
www.mardecortesbaja.com <http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/blog> |
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