King Vidor's The Crowd 1928

Vidor's is an architectural cinema with none of Lang's determinism or Antonioni's decadence.
--Andrew Sarris

The Crowd is an antidote to the absurdity of "the American dream," a dubious. and undefined term that should be put in the dustbin.  Money, a car, a house -- is that the "dream?"  To me life is a delight if one has people whom you love and who love you, and culture you enjoy:  to enjoy the laughter of your children and the warmth of one's spouse, to read the novels of Nabokov and Trollope, savor the elegant complexity of the paintings of Van Eyck and Poussin, weep with the beauty of Balanchine's ballets and Mozart's music. And these things do not require great wealth or power.  It is pathetic indeed that some governors now don't want to keep state tuition low for French literature majors, only for those who study engineering!  We even have Presidential candidates saying we need more plumbers and fewer philosophers!

The Crowd is about a family's struggle to make it in New York, to stand out from the crowd, mainly by making more money.  Vidor's style here is very influenced not only by D.W. Griffith (Vidor's directing started only a few years after Griffith made his first films) but also by the expressionism of German directors such as F.W. Murnau. From the time John Sims's father dies to Sims's job in New York to the final scene in a vaudeville theatre, Sims is overwhelmed by the crowds and architecture of the city.  A trip to Coney Island when he courts his wife and a train trip to Niagra Falls for his honeymoon are more ordeal than pleasure; only when they have a picnic in nature are they able to relax and enjoy themselves, before returning to their tiny apartment and Murphy bed. Sims is trying to make it big by writing advertising slogans in his spare time, but even when he wins $500 it leads to the death of his daughter playing on the street and his own serious drinking problem.  He is finally redeemed by landing a low-paying job and by the love of his son and his wife.

The Crowd is silent filmmaking at its peak, just before sound took over.  The camera moves fluently through the traffic and crowds of New York, where no one stands out and no one can stop to share your grief, where the people and buildings can overwhelm you if you let them.