Three Ages (1923)

Directed by Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline

The rituals of courtship, romantic rivalry, and love play out three times as a man vies with a villain for the girl. In the Stone Age, the rivalry is set off by dinosaurs, a turtle used as a ouija board, and a round of golf with stones. In ancient Rome, the men display their brawn through a chariot race, using dogs instead of horses. In contemporary times, the man finds himself overcome by modernity, including a very fragile car.

I wonder how much of a self-conscious satire of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) this is.