Plow that Broke the Plains
Michael Campos-Quinn,
WAN HANG PO
Deborah Stephens
Spanish Earth
As early as the mid-30's
documentary filmmakers on the left,
including the members of the leftist film and photo
cooperatives we discussed last class
were taking arms against the rise of Fascism in Europe
In the mid to late 30s, political events in Spain became
 the particular focus of intense international attention
 a celebrated cause on the political left...
 and ultimately a glimpse of things to come in Europe.
Between 1936 and 1939, Spain was ravaged by a civil war between
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 right-wing nationalist forces under the leadership of
Generalisimo Francisco Franco,
 and a broad coalition of radical and left-wing popular front
groups defending the democratic Spanish Republic.
Both Germany and Italy eventually provided military and financial aid
to Franco and the nationalists--essentially using Spain to test their
war machines.
The number of casualties of the war is estimated at between 500,000
and 1,000,000 people were killed.
SHOW CLIP (FILMS HUMANITIES)
In both Europe and the US, the Republican Loyalist cause attracted
broad support of
 left wing activists,
 intellectuals,
 artists, writers, and filmmakers.
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The Frontier film group produced two films dealing with Spain in
1937--Heart of Spain and Return to Life. PFA has copy of Heart of
Spain...
In late 1936, at the outset of the Civil War, Joris Ivens (remember him
from "Rain"?) was in the US lecturing and throwing his support
behind the Nykino collective.
During this time he was commissioned by a group of lefty writers
calling itself "Contemporary Historians
that included Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, John Dos
Passos, and Clifford Odets
Ivens was charged with producing a film that would explain the Civil
War to American audiences and raise money for the cause.
This was right up Iven's alley:
"A documentary filmmaker," he remarked, "has to have an
opinion on such vital issues as fascism or anti-fascism . . . if his
work is to have any dramatic or emotional or art value."
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The writers originally suggested that Ivens edit a compilation of
newsreel footage…
Ivens felt that it would be better to produce an original film.
Ivens and his cinematographer John Ferno travelled to spain to
witness and film the war firsthand…often at great personal risk.
The film was edited in the US by Helen van Dongen,
one of few women working in documentary at the time.
(Ivens eventually marries her in 1944)
Interesting Barnow tidbit: addition of sound --earthquake noise--from
the Hollywood Movie, San Francisco, run backwards…
The resulting film--the Spanish Earth--is perhaps the best known and
most widely viewed film in support of the Spanish Loyalist cause.
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Orson Welles, was initially enlisted to record the commentary, wanted
to change some of the lines which he thought sounded unduly
pompous.
At a viewing of the film, described by Welles in "Cahiers du
Cinéma," he and Hemingway came to blows, going at each
other with chairs and fists, as the armies fought it out on the
screen in front of them.
Welles' narration was ultimately deemed "too beautiful" and scrubbed
in favor of Hemingway reading his own lines...
In the US many of those idealists and leftists involved in supporting
the Loyalist cause would latter be branded as "premature antifascists" and hounded by the McCarthy witchhunt…
In January 1939, Franco's Nationalist forces captured the Loyalist
stronghold in Barcelona; in February France and Britain officially
recognized the Franco regime; and by April Franco declared the war
officially over.
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SHOW CLIPS from SPANISH EARTH
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