IMDb RATING
7.7/10
1.2K
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The struggles of a hardscrabble Iranian nomadic tribe as they journey through bleak country to reach the grasslands that will save their livestock.The struggles of a hardscrabble Iranian nomadic tribe as they journey through bleak country to reach the grasslands that will save their livestock.The struggles of a hardscrabble Iranian nomadic tribe as they journey through bleak country to reach the grasslands that will save their livestock.
- Awards
- 1 win
- Directors
- Merian C. Cooper(uncredited)
- Ernest B. Schoedsack(uncredited)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaVita Sackville-West once 'dragged' Virginia Woolf to see this film with her.
- Goofs(at around 31 mins) The title card states "All the fifty thousand of the Bakhtyari must go the way of Haidar ..." A couple minutes later, a title card states "The tramp of fifty thousand feet!" Either the number of feet should be doubled or the number of Bakhyari halved.
- Quotes
Opening Title Card: The way of the world is west.
- Alternate versionsMilestone Film & Video released a version in 1991 with a new score produced by Richard Einhorn and running 71 minutes.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Last Outpost (1935)
Featured review
A Time Capsule
The team of Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack produced a documentary of 50,000 Bakhtiari people and their animals on the Summer migration to winter grazing. The basic worth of this film today is as a time capsule of a "forgotten people" and how they lived during what we in the West knew as the "roaring twenties." A more drastic contrast could not be imagined. Raging river and barefoot mountain crossings are brutally realistic and the animals that disappear under the water do in fact die. To make sure that the audience of the time believed that the story took place, a signed certificate of authenticity is offered up at the end. The version that I saw had fascinating Iranian music that can stand alone and be appreciated without the film. Having said all this, the film is probably of more value to the anthropologist than the casual viewer in search of a good evening's entertainment. The crew had just barely sufficient stock to take the shots that they recorded and there is no fancy camera work resulting from multiple re-takes. The Western inter-titles detract from the experience but are in fact a part of the record since they demonstrate how Hollywood tried to put their spin on the lives of an indigenous peoples lives so that they would be appreciated by the audience of the day. Off-duty entertainment by desert police becomes a "policeman's ball." The producers went on to make the docu-drama Chang (1927) and the totally commercial King Kong (1933). The migration theme is used again in People of the Wind (1976) and in Himalaya (1999). Recommended for those who know in advance what they are getting into -- and then highly recommended for them.
helpful•253
- Jim Tritten
- Mar 28, 2002
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $12,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 11 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer