The Crowd

This has to be w/ out a doubt my favorite film of all time (althought Metropolis is a very close second). What King Vidor brought to the silver screen when he made this film was pure genius. Few films compare to this one. The Techniques used are way ahead of their time and reminiscent of few directors before him. Not even Griffith could obtain such amazing crowd footage as Vidor did. The story line is one that we can still relate to today, wanting to achieve our dreams but just falling short. Today it's called depression or something of the sort but then in an age of new development it was different. Not being able to achieve greatness wasn't uncommon but it felt that way. And the character in this film is no exception, I truly recommend this film to anyone who doesn't mind a good drama and to anyone who wants to see what life was like in the late 1920's.

I recently watched this silent movie and I was amazed by its timelessness.

People work everyday on an eight-hour job and has dreams to make it "BIG". In that way, he could stand out of "The Crowd". Eighty years later and people still go through the same routine. Any working person can symphatize with John Sims.

In my humble opinion, the movie is a precursor of the neo-realist movies produced in Europe during the post-World War II era. The movie, in a way, also prophesied the worse: The Great Depression. John Sims, who symbolizes the common man, found it difficult landing a stable job after he quit his previous one.

A great movie, I hope this one must be watched by the viewers of today.

Silent drama about John (James Murray) and Mary (Eleanor Boardman) meeting in NYC, falling in love and marrying. John wants to make it big--to be somebody. He looks down on those who, he feels, have failed. But, after marriage and two kids, he's still stuck in the same dead-end job and sees no way out. Then tragedy strikes and John starts to crack.

A failure when first released (it's easy to see why--it's very depressing) but now considered a masterpiece. The story is grim but the ending is happy and realistic. Murray and Boardman give superb performances (especially Murray during a scene with his son on a bridge) and King Vidor's direction is superb. The visuals in this film are decades ahead of their time. His use of the crowds and the individuals lost among them are just great.

Hard to describe but a definite must-see. Just don't expect a barrel of laughs.

This wonderful silent movie depicts the individual who gets swallowed up by the uniformity of society yet also represents the yearnings and aspirations for the want of a better life. Our main character is forever waiting for his ship to come in and sadly it never does. King Vidors sweeping shot of the rows and rows of desks and the image of John being a faceless number in the crowd. Despite him thinking that he is better than others and it's only a matter of time before his situation improves. It sadly never does and he loses the respect of his wife. Perhaps if there is a moral to this movie, then it should be that life can be a bitter pill to swallow but we should take pleasure in the small things in life and recognise that we have to accept lifes disappointments which will inevitably occur. Don't let the year that the film was made put you off or it being in black and white. This movie will grab you by the throat and won't let go. A classic!

The most remarkable thing about 'The Crowd (1928)' is that is manages to cover so much emotional ground. John (James Murray) is a young man who knew from an early age that he would become somebody special, that he would stand out from the crowd. At age 21, he travels to New York, the towering metropolis introduced via a montage of impressive high- angled shots that resemble Robert Florey's 'Skyscraper Symphony (1929).' John joins the accounting sector of a large insurance firm, and studiously assures himself that he need only work his way up. Years pass. John marries, has two children. It takes him five years to realise that he has become what he swore never to become: a member of The Crowd.

Vidor's message is a double-edged sword. Early in the film, The Crowd is something to be loathed: the camera, in a virtuoso display of technical brilliance, swoops down upon a seemingly-endless room of seated accountants, each man turning pages in mechanical unison. (Billy Wilder later paid homage to this scene in 'The Apartment (1960)'). But when John finally determines to break free from The Crowd, his world falls apart around him – he can't maintain a job, his wife threatens to leave him, he loses his dignity. The film's ending is intriguing in its ambiguity: John is absorbed into the crowds of a laughing theatre audience.

Is it a happy ending, an embracing of conformity? Is it ironic, an acknowledgment of mass delusion? Is Vidor integrating his character into the cinema audience? In 'The Bicycle Thief (1948),' a similar disappearance into the crowd is viewed as tragic, but here I'm not so sure. F.W. Murnau's 'The Last Laugh (1924)' told a similar tale, depicting the bleak prospects of a working-class doorman, played by Emil Jannings. UFA studio thwarted that film by enforcing a ludicrous happy ending that Murnau included only with a snide introductory title card. M-G-M also toyed with a happy ending to 'The Crowd,' but fortunately Vidor's version ultimately won out, a conclusion genuinely unsettling in its uncertainty, and sure to inspire discussion.