The Crowd (1928)

 

Genre: Drama/Romance

Time: 1h 44mins

Director: King Vidor

Quick Summary: The life of a man and woman together in a large, impersonal metropolis through their hopes, struggles, and downfalls.

I find this fascinating that even back in the 1920s they knew the American dream was impossible to achieve. 

This is a masterpiece. It goes from our main character laughing at people in the street and comparing them to sheep as they work their dead-end jobs, poking fun at people who stay with the crowd; to then becoming one of them himself and he falls downward into a pit of despair about it as he realising he can no longer support his wife and kids become he chose to be an individual and stand out then stay with the crowd. 

Lots of sequences are memorable and ironic but also sad at how true they are. The tiny flat where even the bed must be folded though the couple are at their happiest, the huge office where employees are doing the same job at the same time, where everybody acts alike when they leave their job. There is so much depth to this film that I praise so much. 

Another thing I praise this for is the cinematography. The shots are stunning; impressive high-angled shots of skyscrapers; massive shots of hundreds of people doing the same thing, close-ups of expressions. Visually this is very clever with its shots.

This has many themes that a lot of people even now can relate to; the drive to succeed, the likelihood that most by definition will not, beauty being in the eye of the beholder, and trying to hold a family together after a tragic and sudden loss.

I think the relationship between the couple is so sweet and very realistic. It's not romanticised at all. It's real and full of hardships. They learn to forgive each other after harsh moments, they learn to be happy with what they have and each other, and they love each other for what they are and not what they say they want to be. Even during their hardest moments, they stuck together and tried to support each other even when one let the other down.

This is a masterpiece to me that I fully recommend. Even if this will be your first silent film, it's very much worth watching and honestly more emotional than most modern films.

10/10

" The crowd laughs with you always... but it will cry with you for only a day."

"We do not know how big the crowd is, and what opposition it is... until we get out of step with it."