Land (1941)

Genres - Culture & Society  |   Sub-Genres - Social Issues, Politics & Government  |   Run Time - 45 min.  |   Countries - United States  |  
  • AllMovie Rating
    6
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

Share on

Synopsis by Hal Erickson

The Land, documentarian Robert J. Flaherty's first production since 1937's Elephant Boy, was produced on behalf of the US Department of Agriculture. The film dealt with the sort of sociopolitical themes generally avoided by Flaherty in his other works: Specifically, this is the story of how the Depression-ravaged farms of America had been turned around financially through government intervention. Certain problems, such as soil erosion and wholesale unemployment caused by farm machinery, are still in evidence, but Flaherty and screenwriter Russell Lord seem convinced that these difficulties can be surmounted. Begun in 1939, The Land seemed rather anachronisitic in 1942, when the biggest problem facing American farmers was not a lack of jobs but a lack of able-bodied personnel to till the soil.