King Vidor was one of those directors that I had always heard of but had never exactly watched. I'd seen his "important" films: the silent masterpieces The Big Parade (1925) and The Crowd (1928). But I had remained largely ignorant of his sound films. And yet, it is perhaps in his sound films that Vidor left the greatest impression both as a director and as an auteur. So his 1934 film Our Daily Bread marked the first time that I truly "met" Mr. Vidor. Unapologetically enthusiastic, centering on can-do protagonists, and concerned with individualist triumph over adversity, Out Daily Bread was an unexpected treat. In a strange way, the film is essentially the story of an American Communist farming commune. And yet Vidor managed to mask this fact by insistently focusing on the struggles of a single protagonist. It's Communism by way of Individualism. A strange idea...but Vidor makes it work.
7/10
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