King Vidor in Focus

<p> King Vidor (1894-1982) had the longest career of any Hollywood director and his works include some of the most dramatic sublime moments in the history of American cinema. Regarded by many film historians as one of the greatest of silent era filmmakers--especially for masterworks <I>The Big Parade The Crowd</I> and <I>Show People</I>--Vidor is nonetheless one of the most underrated of Hollywood's old masters in terms of his overall career. His sound era films include <I>Hallelujah Street Scene The Champ The Stranger's Return Our Daily Bread Stella Dallas The Citadel Northwest Passage Duel in the Sun Beyond the Forest The Fountainhead Ruby Gentry</I> and <I>War and Peace</I>. He also helped to establish the Screen Directors Guild and served as its first president.</p><p> This book charts the ways in which Vidor's vast complex body of work ranges over diverse genres and styles while also expressing his recurring personal interests in spirituality (especially Christian Science) aesthetics metaphysics social realism and the myth of America. The first book since 1988 to give a comprehensive view of Vidor's career it discusses his artistic evolution in a way that appeals to the general reader as well as to the film scholar.</p>