14. Intolerance (1916)
In an attempt to divert some of the criticism of The Birth of a Nation, D.W Griffith's next film was a conciliatory epic showing the effects of intolerance on four parallel story-lines taking place centuries apart. Though not as groundbreaking as The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance has probably been the better received of the two and contained its fair share of innovation. The movie was the most expensive ever made at that point in time, massive sets were constructed, thousands of extras in full costume were hired, and the production was so vast that when Intolerance flopped at the box office, the studio that financed it went bankrupt. Critics at the time hailed Intolerance as a masterpiece and although it hasn't aged all that well, its influence can clearly be seen in the class epics of the 50's and 60's such as The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur.