Greed
Erich von Stroheim
Greed, directed by Erich von Stroheim, tells the story of the downfall of McTeague and Trina, a couple consumed by desire, money, and greed.
McTeague, a former miner who has become a dentist in San Francisco, falls in love with Trina, the girlfriend of his friend Marcus. After they marry, Trina wins $5,000 in the lottery and develops a pathological obsession with her money. When McTeague loses his right to practice dentistry, the couple gradually descends into poverty and violence. Trina refuses to spend any of her money and becomes increasingly miserly. McTeague eventually murders her in order to seize her fortune.
On the run in Death Valley, he is pursued by Marcus. The two men confront each other in a hostile environment; McTeague kills Marcus, but finds himself handcuffed to his dead body, condemned to die of thirst alongside the gold he has stolen.
The film is regarded as a masterpiece of naturalist cinema: Stroheim portrays primitive characters dominated by their sexual and physical urges and by their desire for possession. Their downfall results from a combination of social, psychological, and existential forces. The couple’s unbalanced sexuality is notably presented as one of the essential driving forces behind their destruction.
Finally, Greed is famous as one of the most mutilated films in the history of cinema: originally conceived as a film of around nine hours, it was progressively reduced to approximately two and a half hours, with much of Stroheim’s original vision being lost. The director had notably intended to shoot on location, in San Francisco and Death Valley, in order to reinforce the realism of his story.