Greed

So much has been written about this extraordinary work of art that little remains to be said. Perhaps it might be useful to consider the three landmark years that are associated with this film:

1924---The badly mutilated and much abridged version that runs 140 minutes is released by M-G-M. Although there are many different views of the original running time of "Greed", it is generally believed to be over nine hours. Key characters and story lines were deleted altogether to accommodate the bureaucrats of the new M-G-M. The deleted footage apparently has been lost forever. All that remains of the deleted portions of the film are archival still photos and unused dialog cards. This 140 minute version is the only one known to modern audiences up until the year 1973.

1973---Herman G. Weinberg, a film historian, published through E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. his monumental book entitled "The Complete Greed." Weinberg attempted through supplementary use of the surviving archival material to assemble a photographic reconstruction of the original film. Obviously, Weinberg was in uncharted territory. The book represents one scholar's serious effort to present us with an approximation of the nine hour film. It is flawed but absolutely indispensable to anyone interested in "Greed."

1999---Turner Classic Movies took Weinberg's concept to the next level by incorporating the surviving archival material into the existing 140 minute version----employing a method similar to that used in the reconstruction of Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon" (1937) and Judy Garland's "A Star Is Born" (1954) directed by George Cukor. However, unlike those films, TCM's version is only a reconstruction and not a reconstruction/restoration. The end result is a film that now runs a little over four hours, where the archival material actually looks better in many respects than some of the elements from the original 140 minute film.

The TCM version is a revelation to people who are unfamiliar with Weinberg's book. It is a superb achievement in itself and allows the viewer for the very first time to see a reasonable approximation of Von Stroheim's film on a screen.

So much has been said about the tragedy of what happened to "Greed." While the TCM reconstruction cannot reverse this situation, we should be grateful for the opportunity to see, ponder and be moved by the "Greed" of "what might have been."