The film The Crowd depicts life in a large city, where many people engage in similar activities. This is reflected in the city crowd and the office building where John Sims works. The scene is set so the protagonist can easily get lost in the crowd. Instead, the movie attempts to convey that people are mostly identical, homogeneous masses, making it difficult to stand out.
When John Sims, on a date with Mary, sees a clown dressed ridiculously and remarks that his father must have imagined he would become president (Vidor, 14:36). The irony is that John is also expected to do great things. Still, he ultimately settles for a mediocre job. Another example of irony is that John dreamed of writing advertising slogans and regarded other work as less worthy. Still, by the end of the film, he is content to wear advertisements.
Scene 13:35 depicts the ride of two couples. (Fig. 1) The men sit on the same side as the women, and they are dressed similarly (Vidor, 13:35). The frame is designed with a vertical perspective, allowing us to see not only the characters but also the surrounding city and the fact that the characters are currently in motion.
The movie’s final scene, while initially eliciting positive emotions, eventually evokes ambivalence. The scene depicts a view from above that gradually fades, revealing a crowd of people who are laughing. Instead of evoking positive emotions, this image evokes a sense of loneliness among the audience, implying that laughing at the show is only a fleeting moment of happiness for everyone, not just the lead character.
The film’s ending is like this because the studios had moved to Hollywood by then and did not yet know what kind of ending the movie needed to resonate with the audience. The studio system began in 1910 and was modeled after factory production. The introduction of the CEO, the Head of Production, and the contract system drove producers west.
The Crowd shows footage of people dressed identically, with the same offices and desks, and of women dressed the same. The movie’s scenes are designed to show how the heroes get lost among the crowd, or how the crowd encircles the protagonist in the most critical moments of life, such as a wedding or the death of a child.
Work Cited
The Crowd. Directed by King Vidor, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 1928.