Greed Is Disordered Desire

Greed (1924) is a classic silent film by the German director, Erich von Stroheim, although no one alive has seen its full nine hours, and few have seen the reconstructed version acclaimed as a masterpiece. Like the similarly-themed but more recent There Will Be Blood, Greed explores the ultimate results of what Augustine called "disordered desire." What happens to us when we enshrine "Mine!" and "I deserve" as our core beliefs? Greed tells us. At the film's end, the main character, McTeague (Gibson Gowland), fleeing with a treasure for which he has already killed once, finds himself in the desert handcuffed to the pursuer he has also killed. His pack horse is dead, the desert stretches off as far as the eye can see, and we know that his desire has doomed him. All his wealth will avail him nothing; he will die handcuffed to the one he cheated of wealth.