A hand plunges into mud to seek the gold within, and Stroheim's
unrelenting tale of human degredation begins. Critics bemoan the
mutilation of Stroheim's original conception, infamously cut by MGM
from ten hours to two, but the surviving film - despite a somewhat choppy
narrative development - remains a work of matchless intensity. The
epitome of physical realism (its fidelity to the minutiae of everyday
life is startling), it's also one of the cinema's bleakest parables,
and it unfolds with the logic of a myth towards the searing Death Valley
climax. With stunning performances from Zasu Pitts and Gibson
Gowland, this is one of the silent cinema's supreme masterpieces.
