Editing King Vidor (section)

====''Truth and Illusion: An Introduction to Metaphysics'' (1964)====

In the mid-1960s Vidor crafted a 26-minute [[16 mm film|16mm]] movie that sets forth his philosophy on the nature of individual perception. Narrated by the director, and quoting from theologian-philosophers [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]] and [[Bishop Berkeley]], the images serve to complement the abstract ideas he sets forth. The film is a discourse on [[subjective idealism]], which maintains that the material world is an illusion, existing only in the human mind: humanity creates the world they experience.<ref>Durgnat and Simmon, 1988: p. 123: "In the unyielding terms of [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)]], which Vidor cites approvingly in Truth and Illusions (1964), the material world exists only in the mind."<br />Reinhardt, 2020: "a documentary that expressed his belief in the wildest subjective idealism. The short film, complete with a passage from [[Bishop Berkeley]], asserts that the material world is entirely a product of the mind…"<br />Baxter, 1976 p. 91</ref>

As Vidor describes in [[Walt Whitman|Whitmanesque]] terms:

{{blockquote|"Nature gets the credit for what in truth should be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent, the [[nightingale]] for its song, the sun for its radiance. The poets are entirely mistaken; they should address their lyrics to themselves and should turn them into odes of self-congratulation."<ref>Durgnat and Simmon, 1988: p. 317: See here for quote and Whitman comment.</ref>}}

''Truth and Illusion'' provides an insight into the significance of Vidor's themes in his work, and is consistent with his Christian Science precepts.<ref>Callahan, 2007: Vidor "expounded directly on his view that man is God and mind is all... and it is very valuable as a summation of most of his themes."<br />Higham, 1972: "...he has created a beautiful short film on 16mm, "Truth and Illusion," an abstract work consisting of images of nature, pure distillations of his vision of life."</ref>

Micheal Neary served as assistant director on the film, and Fred Y. Smith completed the editing. The movie was never released commercially.<ref>Durgnat and Simmon, 1988: p. 317</ref>