They share a quote from Vidor which I liked:
> The march of man, as I see it, is not from the cradle to the grave. It is instead, from the animal or physical to the spiritual. The airplane, the atom bomb, radio, radar, television are all evidences of the urge to overcome the limitations of the physical in favor of the freedom of the spirit. Man, whether he is conscious of it or not, knows deep inside that he has a definite upward mission to perform during the time of his life span.
But I would also add, that after physical to spiritual, the path completes with spiritual to physical again.
I think it is in some way why he chose the ending of the film between the seven candidates that he had:
> “Since he managed to enjoy life, and therefore conquer it, in this simple and inoffensive way”, explained the director, “the camera moved back and up to lose him in the crowd as it had found him.”
"Modern Times" with Charlie Chaplin has much the same theme, is much better known, but not as good.