Bayflicks.net

 Silent film was great for melodrama and better for comedy, but we don’t think of it as the best medium for serious social drama. Yet few dramas are as enthralling, intelligent, or entertaining as King Vidor’s examination of the failed American dream, and that failure’s effect on a marriage. Using actual locations, realistic and expressionistic sets, and the subtlety of the human face, Vidor creates two very real individuals and tracks the journey from simple American optimism to despair.