Video Details
A classic adventure by the makers of "King Kong." In 1924, neophyte filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack hooked up with journalist and sometime spy Marguerite Harrison and set off to film an adventure. They found excitement, danger and unparalleled drama in the migration of the Bakhtiari tribe of Persia (now Iran). Twice a year, more than 50,000 people and half a million animals surmounted seemingly impossible obstacles to take their herds to pasture. The filmmakers captured unforgettable images of courage and determination as the Bakhtiari braved the raging and icy waters of the half-mile-wide Karun River. Cooper and Schoedsack almost froze when they filmed the breathtaking, almost unbelievable, sight of an endless river of men, women and children--their feet bare or wrapped in rags--winding up the side of the sheer, snow-covered rock face of the 15,000-foot-high Zardeh Kuh mountain.
Review
Inspired by Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North (though its creators had only heard of that film when they set out to make their own), Grass is the first documentary epic, shot under conditions that would daunt even a contemporary crew. Filmmakers Merian C. Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack, and Marguerite Harrison persuaded the Bakhtyari (the film's spelling) tribe to let them come along on their amazing migration. Watching a portion of 50,000 people and 500,000 animals ford a swiftly moving river, find their way up a nearly sheer rock wall, climb a 12,000-foot snow-covered mountain, and ford an icy stream, you're amazed that the filmmakers had the strength to compose their shots, let alone keep up with the tribe. It's not clear what Harrison's role here was; she is sometimes glimpsed on a horse, serenely making her way along a trail. The narration, contained in the title cards, is short on any hard information, there is no depiction of anyone or anything dying, sick, or injured, and there is little context supplied. This is, in other words, a cut and dried visual record, but its artful compositions make it exceptionally impressive on those terms. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
