Perhaps the saddest film ever made, for its history is so inseparable from the work itself, Greed will never cease to astonish audiences with its sheer power and its undying vision of art in the face of adversity. Destroyed in the age where cinema was seen as mere entertainment, the remaining fragments of the nine hour epic that once was still display the utter brilliance of Stroheim in his prime, a man driven by undying vision to bring film to the standards of high art. Self-destructive and lovingly made, Greed is a picture of the inner workings of Stroheim himself, a man after a vision before the auteur theory even existed. Stroheim wanted Greed to be the Hamlet of the modern era, a harbinger of doom to all who sought gold over the real glories of life. It is highly unfortunate that many characters were cut from his riveting and bleak tale of human selfishness. Stroheim’s genius still shines like a beacon across eras, and the shortened version of Greed can still be seen and imagined by all those who can decipher its whole meaning in the bits and pieces that remain of this mutilated masterpiece.