1916, the year Babylon got into Hollywood: An historical analysis of David W. Griffith’s Intolerance Maria de Fátima Rosa * RES Antiquitatis 2 (2020): 35-57 Abstract This paper aims to study how Babylon was portrayed in the 1916 film by David W. Griffith – Intolerance . This motion picture reveals a Babylon which is the direct result of the diverse visions and ideas the different historical actors had over the centuries. Through a historical analysis of Intolerance , a film that reached vast audiences at the time, one may be elucidated about the way the ancient capital was envisioned in the beginning of the 20 th century, and which were the visual and textual sources used by the director to portray the city and its final fall. Keywords: Mesopotamia, Film Intolerance , Reception of Antiquity, Babylon, Belshazzar. Date of submission: 3/5/2018 Date of approval: 22/7/2020 * CHAM, FCSH, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Universidade dos Açores. E-mail:
[email protected]. 1916, the year Babylon got into Hollywood: An historical analysis of David W. Griffith’s Intolerance Maria de Fátima Rosa CHAM e Departamento de História, FCSH, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa 1. Understanding Babylon in the beginning of the 20 th century In 1916 the famous Polish-American orientalist, Morris Jastrow, made the following observation about a film that had just premiered and which focused on the city of Antiquity that had always fired the imagination of Westerners – Babylon: «You have succeeded in conveying to the audiences a remarkably vivid picture of the art, architecture, costumes, public and private life of Babylonia» (Hanson 1972, 502).