Earth

Saw Earth. It was a 1930s silent piece of Soviet propaganda. The title refers to soil (not the planet) and the story revolves around noble peasants trying to eke out a living in the shadow of a rich neighboring farmer. The film opens with a promising scene of an old man dying, lying in an orchard, surrounded by ripe apples which a nearby child is eating (the symbolism is clear: the circle of life.) Later, the peasants buy a tractor (or, as they later call it, a communist iron horse) and begin tilling the soil and harvesting at super-oxen speed. The rich neighboring farmer kills the young, attractive leader of the peasant commune and the image of a child eating near a corpse is repeated, this time highlighting the uncertain future of the child, as he cumbersomely picks seeds from his mouth. The commune seems set to fall into despair and a dessicated, ancient priest begins hanging around. But then, the noble, Captain Haddock-esque father of the slain leader casts the priest out (an ugly peasant woman offers the thinnest possible defense of religion at this point: "There may be no god... but what if there is!?") and leads the commune in not a funeral march, but a great parade, affirming their glorious future. This scene is awesome and amazing.

The peasants are always shot from below and with a huge sky behind them. It gives them the appearance of enormous colossi, beyond archetypal and into mythic territory. There was a shot of a peasant when the tractor is delivered that struck me. The peasant is so wizened and ugly, and yet iconic and almost picturesque. Religion is truly shafted by this movie. The priest is clearly a villain, later calling on god to "smite the impious." Even in this he is unwittingly aiding the peasants. They are clearly not the impious ones here. Rather, the evil rich farmer goes mad with guilt, faced with the unbreakable resolve of the peasantry. The climactic parade/funeral is truly nuts. There are inter-cut images of horses stampeding (the unbridled passion of the communists,) a woman giving birth (to a new movement?) the rich farmer losing his mind, the priest screaming to god. Even typed out, it seems so wild and over the top! A scene to rival the staircase scene in Battleship Potemkin.

Clearly propaganda (the climactic march is brought back to earth with a stirring speech about their soaring future, soaring like that communist airplane there (airplane noises are heard, but no plane is shown. Indeed.)) but surprisingly good and effective for its reverend age.