In 1980 I brought to Toronto for three days a man who, at 16, had played first violin in the orchestra which accompanied THE CLANSMAN (THE BIRTH OF A NATION) for 365 days during its Los Angeles premiere at Clune’s Auditorium in Hollywood.
Film writers generally say THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) no longer has the power to move audiences as it originally did.
I felt that properly scored the film would be as Woodrow Wilson described it, “History written with lightning.”
Yes, I know Wilson recanted. Few politicians have a spine.
That man was Bernard B. Brown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_B._Brown
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0113094/
I had him as a personal tutor.
I learned a lot in those three days.
Shortly after The Toronto Film Society ( https://torontofilmsociety.com/ ) asked if I would present THE BIRTH with my score in their series.
The score was created on reel to reel tape with the projectors run at silent speed.
I arrived to discover the tape recorder I was to use ran slower while the projector at silent speed ran faster.
There was no way to sync the score with the film.
However the projectors were in a sound proof booth.
I decided to run parts of the film in silence while I used the in booth monitors to sync the score.
To say I sweat blood is to put it mildly.
When the film ended that audience was on its feet cheering and whooping just like audiences had in 1915.
The director of the series ran up to me. He said, “That score was brilliant. I especially admired your inspired use of silence.”
The brilliance was David Wark Griffith’s. The silence was from necessity.
I learned a lot in that Baptism of Fire.
We are now living in the most intolerant moment in human history.
Lives are being destroyed by muck raking journalism.
How many people know that after investigating THE OLD VIC in London found no evidence to support the mass media hysteria that has destroyed Kevin Spacey to name just one.
If ever there was a moment to bring David Wark Griffith’s INTOLERANCE before the public now is the hour.
I do not like any of the current scores on the digital releases of this film.
They are too much like jazz in a church when they should be jazz in a bordello.
I have been working on creating a new compositional collage for this film.
Out of the blue the thought came to me, “PINK FLOYD.”\
I thought, “Yes, but it needs a HALLELUJAH chorus at the end.”
Then I thought, “Leonard Cohen.”
Having presented THE WIZARD OF OZ to PINK FLOYD I knew there is a precedent.
“Wow!” said the first folks to see it.
This is D. W. Griffith’s INTOLERANCE as no one, including myself, ever imagined it could be experienced.
All I can say is, “Wow!”
My cut of INTOLERANCE includes vital footage missing from the Cohen Blu-ray.
It can be experienced only at The CineForum which is located in my home in Toronto.
–Reg Hartt.
https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-male-orators/reference
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