THE RIVER (1937) B/W 32m dir: Pare Lorentz

narrated by Thomas Chalmers; music by Virgil Thomson

This fine documentary examines the effects of the Tennessee Valley Authority on the farmers and their families who lived along the Mississippi River during the Great Depression. It was produced by President Franklin Roosevelt's Resettlement Administration, an agency whose purpose was to expose the devastation caused by rural poverty. Rexford Guy Tugwell, the head of the agency, chose Lorentz, who had never made a film before, to direct THE PLOW THAT BROKE THE PLAINS (1936), about the dust bowl crisis. THE PLOW ... was met by opposition in Hollywood and fraught with production and financial problems. In this situation, Lorentz undertook the making of his second film for Tugwell, THE RIVER.

From Erik Barnouw's Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film: "Lorentz had lived through months of unrelieved, almost inhuman pressures, and felt he had had enough. In mid-1936 he visited the office of Tugwell ... to announce his resignation, but stayed to urge a new film idea --- The River. 'You people,' he told Tugwell, 'are missing the biggest story in the world --- the Mississippi River.' Within days this discussion seemed to produce miracles. The suggested topic reached into numerous issues of concern to the New Deal: flood control, hydroelectric power, soil conservation, rural electrification. At home Lorentz received a phone call from Tugwell, saying he had talked with the President; Roosevelt was providing a budget of $50,000 for The River. ... A fiscal expert would accompany the unit to handle finances. They were to begin at once. By the fall of 1936 Lorentz had completed research and hired several cameramen ..... By January 1937 the planned shooting was done and the crew was disbanded, when it became clear that a flood along tributaries of the Mississippi was about to produce a thousand-mile catastrophe. Lorentz hastily recalled [cameramen] Crosby and Van Dyke. The Department of Agriculture provided additional funds. The cameramen, improvising as they went, were in action for one of the great film climaxes --- and momentous ammunition for the New Deal.

"... the music of Virgil Thomson and the sonorous voice of Thomas Chalmers became part of the project. This time narration took an incantatory style, reminiscent of Walt Whitman .... There was constant use of cadenced catalogues --- of the names of places, rivers, trees. In a review of the insensate destruction of primeval forests ---

"NARRATOR: ... Black spruce and Norway pine. Douglas fir and red cedar; scarlet oak and shagbark hickory --- we built a hundred cities and a thousand towns, but at what cost!

"Repetition was part of the style. The words 'we built a hundred cities and a thousand towns' were used as a refrain. Lorentz sometimes called the film an 'opera.' ...

"When President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw the film at a screening at his home in Hyde Park, N.Y, he turned at once to Lorentz and said: 'That's a grand movie. What can I do to help?' This led to talk of a U.S. Film Service, to make such films for various agencies.

"During the months that followed, The River won several prizes, including best-documentary award of the Venice festival."