The Crowd

The Crowd is a 1928 American silent film directed by King Vidor, following an ordinary young man named John Sims who moves to New York City determined to make something of himself, marries a fellow office worker, and struggles through poverty, disappointment and the death of his daughter before the couple finds a fragile reconciliation. The film was nominated for Best Director and for the Academy's short lived Unique and Artistic Production award at the first Academy Awards ceremony. It is widely regarded by critics and historians as one of the greatest films of the silent era for its unusually unglamorous treatment of ordinary urban life, and it was among the first twenty five films selected for the National Film Registry in 1989, entering the public domain in 2024. Enumerated as a replacement candidate after Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans was found already live on the arts atlas (K5 seam pre check).