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| Erich von Stroheim |
He was fated to be some sort of a tragic hero. Born in
Austria-Hungary in the late 19th century, he traveled to the United States at
the dawn of the 1900s. With a faith in the American Dream, he slowly climbed up
the rank in the Hollywood film industry. When he finally got his hands on
directing silent films, he quickly became a rebel - well, he just instilled
many of his original ideas and was willing to deliver a realism that most of
his peers at that time did not feel committed to. Due to his perfectionism, his
films often became over budgeted and he soon gained the wrath of those in
business suits in the studio. The doors of fortune were closed one by one for
this gentleman. By the 1930s, he was shut out of any possibilities of directing
motion pictures. He has made a couple of silent films, yet he was remembered
for one particular film he made in 1924. His original version ran up to 8
hours, and without doubt this great version was heavily edited to an inferior
theatrical version. While derided by contemporary audience, this film has risen
in reputation and by the 1950s it was considered as one of the greatest films
ever in film history, and this great silent master has continued to inspire so
many subsequent filmmakers. His name is Erich von Stroheim, and his masterpiece
is ‘GREED’ (1924) !
Erich von Stroheim’s shadow may seem distanced, but his
style has inspired so many great filmmakers over the years. Stroheim’s
influence is most evident in the films of Jean Renoir and Orson Welles, the
themes and style of their work are highly inspired by Stroheim’s early work.
Other directors and critics who admire Stroheim include Fritz Lang, Sergei M.
Eisenstein, Josef von Sternberg, Luchino Visconti, Kenji Mizoguchi, Anthony
Mann, Andre Bazin, and most recently, Christopher Nolan. Nolan is known to
admire ‘Greed’ and he has cited this film as an influence to his latest epic, ‘Interstellar’.
Highly inspired by the great French writer Emile Zola, Stroheim was associated
with the idea of Realism / cinematic Naturalism, and he was also seen as one of
the first auteurs of cinema. These 2 aspects are nicely demonstrated in ‘Greed’.
How bad can a lottery destroy human lives? ‘Greed’, which
was adapted from Norris’ novel, may shed
some light on this. The protagonist, McTeague, was a miner, and also an amateur
dentist (which meant he practiced without a license). He was quite elated which
his old friend Schouler, with his lover Trina, came to visit him. McTeague was
immediately attracted to Trina and he asked Schouler if he could court with
Trina, and Schouler accepted. At the same time, Trina decided to test her luck
and bought a lottery ticket. She was lucky indeed – she won and received $5000
(which was quite a lot in their age!). Later, McTeague and Trina were married,
and Schouler started to feel jealous about this and the money. When Schouler
left for a new job, he decided to blow whistle and told the authority that
McTeague practiced dentistry without a license. The authority took action and made
McTeague close down his clinic. Now, the couple became impoverished, but they
had the $5000 to spend, right? Wrong – Trina became obsessed with the money and
she started to hoard it, refusing to spend any. This exposed the dark, brutal
side of McTeague and he attacked and injured her finger. He eventually found
another job to make ends meet, but Trina’s health weakened due to infection in
her finger and she needed money to pay for a surgery. She became a teacher to
earn for extra, and became even more protective of the $5000. McTeague came
back and said he needed more money. After an argument, McTeague accidentally
killed his wife. A $5000 gain for McTeague meant, at the same time, he also
became an outlaw. He exiled to the Death Valley, and the authority was in hot
pursuit. Schouler also caught up with him and this led to one final
confrontation, with bleak consequences for all…
‘Greed’ is a bleak film, and its realism is stunning. Frank
Norris, the writer for the original novel, belonged to the ‘Naturalism’ school
in literature, which was pioneered by Emile Zola. Naturalism can be seen as a
type of literary realism, and it is highly influenced by Darwin’s ideas. The
major thesis is that the character is often decided by heredity and environmental
factors, and in the most extreme cases, fate. This implied that the course of action is
deterministic, and therefore tragic, because exercising free will is really a
Sisyphean struggle. The characters are often reduced to that of ‘human beast’, which
address purely to their own desire. These aspects resonated in ‘Greed’ – the 3
major characters’ situations are driven by fate. Imagine what would happen if
Trina didn’t win the lottery? Life goes on. The 2 male characters were realistically
portrayed, and they were both exemplary of the concept ‘Human beast’. They did
not think, and they did not care. Schouler decided to screw up things because
of his jealousy, and McTeague did not take any steps to solve the problem, only
to become a ‘Darth Vader’ by exposing his dark sides, all because of his desire
for the money. At the end, the 2 men fought like real beasts, and it became a ‘survival
of the fittest’ contest. Trina was a pitiable character, but she was consumed
by fate. Her winning of the lottery led
her to an over obsessive attitude towards her reward, and she was not able to
reason with herself about measures to alleviate the traumas that fell upon herself
and her husband. This rather perverse
value judgment contributed to the ultimate tragic conclusion of the film.
Given the foundation of Zola’s style, how can Stroheim
provide a cinematic naturalism for ‘Greed’? This will be our concern for
tomorrow’s article.
(1/2)
By Ed Law
26/4/2015
Film Analysis - 41
