Films and Environmental History
On several occasions H-Environment members have discussed films relevant to environmental history. The original discussions can be found by searching the H-Environment discussion list.
Please note that the annotations are taken from the original H-Environment discussions but for the sake of simplicity the authors of these comments are not individually identified here. The annotations describe the films and suggest courses in which they might be useful.
Other resources to consult on films and environmental history are:
DOCUMENTARIES
Adam’s World (1989, Canada - NFB)
The Adirondacks: The Lives and Times of an American Wilderness (1987, USA - Florentine Films)
Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film (2002, USA - Sierra Club/Steeplechase)
Arctic Refuge: A Vanishing Wilderness (1991, USA - Audubon
- Current wilderness politics
Cadillac Desert (1997, USA)
- A four part series based on Marc Reisner's book, Cadillac Desert.
- Pt. 1: Mulholland's Dream, about the development of LA's water system.
- Segments from the PBS series "Cadillac Desert" featuring ideas and
writings from John Wesley Powell may prove useful, though the films also focus on more recent struggles over water resources in the West. These films worked well in a graduate seminar, but should be accessible to freshmen.
- I've shown the second segment, _An American Nile_, which compliments well the Worster reading I have them do an technocracy and the arid West.
- It is directed by Prof. John Else, Stanford University. A study guide has been prepared and is available by sending a message to cadillac_desert@cpri.org. The series will be available for sale after July 15 [1997] from Public Media Home Vision at 1 800 826 5456 x334, in a five-part set also including the film, "Chinatown" for $99.95 Catalog no.: CAD 030. ISBN: 0-7800-1926-1.
DAM/AGE (2002, USA - First Run/Icarus Films)
Reviewed for H-Environment by Cynthia A. Melendy
Dead River Rough Cut (1976, USA)
- It is a documentary about two trappers in the north woods of Maine.... it would be very
helpful if you discuss the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Domesticating a Wilderness (1972, UK - BBC)
- In the same time period, there are two films that tell the iconic story of the taming/settlement/development of the western wilderness, one glorifying it and the other lamenting what was lost. They represent two competing cultural perspectives prominent in the early environmental era.
These films are: Once upon a wilderness" (Stanton Films, 1971) and
"Domesticating a wilderness" (BBC-TV, London, and Time-Life Films, 1972).
Edward Abbey: A Voice in the Wilderness (1993, USA - Eric Temple Productions)
- bio/tribute produced by Ed's family & friends, which I usually pair with The Monkey Wrench Gang.
The Environmental Tourist: An Ecotourism Revolution (1991, USA - PBS)
- Current wilderness politics
From Ashes to Forest (1984, Canada - NFB)
Grizzly Man (2005, USA)
- Werner Herzog's new documentary about the amateur filmmaker fascinated with (and ultimately eaten by) grizzly bears.
Paired with Krakauer's Into the Wild, it could make for a very good reading about the allure of Big Nature and just how wrong it can go.
Hoover Dam: American Construction Epic, 1931-1936 (c. 1990, USA)
- I bought a video, "Hoover Dam: American Construction Epic,
1931-1936," at the gift shop of Hoover Dam several years ago. At the
time, I was under the impression that it was the movie produced during construction about the project. (On a side note, they show the circa 1935 movie _unproblematically_ as the "history of the dam" in their big movie room as part of the tour.) Unfortunately, the video is not the original movie. It's a circa 1980s or 1990s video, which includes lengthy excerpts of the 1930s movie. I was disappointed, but it's still useful to show because of these excerpts, to give a sense of the scale and the sheer grandeur (the French term is apt!) of the construction site, and to talk about narrative, memory, and (re)interpretation of history,particularly in light of the use of the 1930s movie as an authoritative historical narrative.
Influenza 1918 (1998, USA - PBS)
Inheritance (2003, USA - First Run/Icarus Films)
Reviewed for H-Environment by Cynthia A. Melendy
In Our Own Backyard: The First Love Canal (1983, USA - Bullfrog Films)
Keeping the Earth: Religious and Scientific Perspectives on the Environment (1996, USA)
The Living Edens: Denali, Alaska's Great Wilderness (1997, USA - PBS)
Meltdown at Three Mile Island (1999, USA - PBS)
- I do not recommend the American Experience episode on Three Mile Island. It is merely a blow by blow detailing of the accident with virtually no effort at historic context.
No Room for Wilderness (1968, USA - Sierra Club)
- ...a useful documentary on strip mining in Kentucky.
- ...examines strip mining and the role of broad form deeds in eastern Kentucky.
On Our Own Land (1988, USA - Appalshop)
- ...a useful documentary on strip mining in Kentucky.
- ...examines strip mining and the role of broad form deeds in eastern Kentucky.
Once Upon a Wilderness (1971, USA - Stanton)
- In the same time period, there are two films that tell the iconic story of the taming/settlement/development of the western wilderness, one glorifying it and the other lamenting what was lost. They represent two competing cultural perspectives prominent in the early environmental era.
These films are: "Once upon a wilderness" (Stanton Films, 1971) and
"Domesticating a wilderness" (BBC-TV, London, and Time-Life Films, 1972).
The Plow the Broke the Plains (1936, USA)
- For 20th C. I love to drag out the 16 mm and show the Plow That Broke The Plains, with all the wobbling sound etc. I point out it gives the mood of showing what Malin felt was anti-farmer propaganda, and the militarism of the mid-1930s propaganda is unmistakable to modern students. It helps get students jolted into the cultural debates of the past. A video of it wouldn't be as good (Yes I know it is available).
- For Pare Lorentz's New Deal films, Kino Video based in NY, NY has a video available called Power and the Land. It has both the Plow that Broke the
Plains and the 1937 film The River (on the Mississippi and the TVA). I love
them both: students, though, have tended to find the River in toto unbearable, but they do much better with the Plow (I'm sure they'd get into more if I had the actual 16mm!). The last part of the River can be used quite well to set up discussion of New Deal approaches to nature, especially damming.
The Poisoned Dream: The Love Canal Nightmare (1997, USA)
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1993, USA - PBS)
- An outstanding film for an environmental history course is "Silent Spring" which was part of the American Experience series that airs on PBS. It was first broadcast several years ago and should be available in most university film libraries. The film provides biographical treatment of Rachel Carson and a fine analysis of the rising controversy over pesticides in the 1950s and early 1960s.
- The pro-pesticide propaganda footage in the film was amazing --
absolutely verbatim use of the war with the insects story, and cartoons of mosquitoes and ants with Asian faces (the war with the insects as the continuation of World War II). The chemical companies' war with Miss Carson was no less illuminating -- she's attacked as a Communist and a spinster.
- Meryl Streep does the readings. It is well-done and I use it in my survey courses as well as my Western Civ courses.
- ...available for purchase through PBS. It is a very compelling film and one that my students are always deeply touched by.
Redwood Summer (1993, USA - Bullfrog)
Stepan Chemical: The Poisoning of a Mexican Community (1992, USA)
- 18 minutes. On recent transnational pollution associated with the
multinationals located across the Mexican border.
Surviving the Dust Bowl (1998, USA - PBS)
TR: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (1999, USA - PBS)
The Wilderness Idea: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the First Great Battle for Wilderness (1989, USA - PBS)
&
Wild By Law: Bob Marshall, Aldo Leopold, Howard Zahniser and the Wilderness Act of 1964. (1991, USA - PBS)
- - a two-part yet concise history of the wilderness movement...
- There is a beautifully produced documentary film titled "The Wilderness Idea" by Lawrence Hott and Diane Garey (Florentine Films: L.A. 1989) that provides exactly the background material you are looking for. In particular it focuses on the differences between Pinchot and Muir, profiling both personalities, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also traces the struggle to articulate a wilderness preservation ethic in the 20th century. Lots of good historical footage, talking heads, including Nash, and a thoughtful narrative. I highly recommend it.
- I use the first one, which I think is quite well-done, though by comparison the second is weak.
- The Idea of Wilderness, part 1 of a 2 parter is also good for giving Hetch Hetchy, but the second tape is weak, although it has Aldo Leopold. I don't
use it.
Wilderness - An American Ideal (1975, USA - West Wind)
Wind River (2000, USA - High Plains Films)
- The 30 minute film, "Wind River" is an excellent documentary on
Native American water rights and more specifically, the battle for in-stream flow in Wyoming. The filmmaker is Dru Carr.
Yellowstone's Burning Question (USA - PBS)
- PBS/Nova about fire management and the 1988 fires.
Yosemite: The Fate of Heaven (1989, USA)
- Oscar-winning documentary contrasting the first white exploration of the valley with the overrun park of the late 1980s.
- One of the best films I've ever used with undergraduates is “Yosemite the Fate of Heaven”. It presents the problems of all Parks in the face of urban consumption of wilderness. The narrator (Robert Redford) reads from the diary of the military doctor with a group of soldiers pursuing indigenous peoples into an unknown (to them) canyon. Meanwhile the visuals show the modern park and we hear the everyday experience of why people go there. It is filled with the unexpected and connects very well with the lives of young campers. There is a tremendous literature of historic
material to use with it. I use it to raise more universal discussions about the complexity of parks and society. The film is filled with humour and deep questions. It is required viewing for all my doctoral candidates.
- ... is wonderful and a big hit with students. You can
use it and then lecture about Muir, Pinchot and Hetch Hetchy. It does not discuss Muir/Pinchot but is the best film ever made on parks issues. $20 from the Yosemite Gift shop online.
- ... takes a kind of anthropological look at various users of the valley.
FEATURE FILMS
Aguirre: The Wrath of God/Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972, West Germany/Peru/Mexico)
- (dir by. W. Herzog) - small band of Spanish
conquistadores lose themselves and their minds going down the Amazon River
in the 1500s, blown away by too much water, too much trees and hostile
natives (not particularly violent, operistic, extreme)
Blade Runner (1982, USA)
The China Syndrome (1979, USA)
Chinatown (1974, USA)
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961, UK)
Fitzcarraldo (1982, Peru/West Germany)
- I recalled another candidate for a cinematic "culture versus wilderness" reflection: Fitzcarraldo (dir Werner Herzog). It mixes refined European opera and the rough and tough Amazonian rubber trade, deep in the Amazonian section of Peru.
- American dreamer and entrepreneur tries to strike a fortune during the rubber boom in Peruvian Amazon, with the secret intent of bringing Caruso to sing opera in the forest.
How Tasty was my Frenchman/Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês (1971 Brazil)
- (Dir by Nelson pereira dos
Santos) - French prisoner of Tupi natives on the Brazilian coast in the
early 1500s sees his time click away as he is prepared for execution and
ingestion by his captors - and has a great time (nudity, violence)
Island of Lost Souls (1933, USA)
- Island of Lost Souls suits the bio-engineering debate from 1896 to the present, although it is more heavily influenced by 1920s genetic engineering. Wells hated according to Pringle. I would only use it in a graduate seminar as a document to be "read" outside class: Sealand, Primate Visions, Lords of the Fly, Lysenko, that sort of thing.
The Land Has Eyes/Pear ta ma 'on maf (2004, USA/Fiji)
- A fascinating portrayal of contrasting attitudes to the land and nature's power, on the Pacific Island of Rotuma (Fiji) is "The Land Has Eyes," directed by Vilsoni Hereniko. Based on a Rotuman proverb: The land has eyes/
The land has teeth/And knows the truth.
Limbo (1999, USA)
- This suggestion is a little off-center, but I had success with John Sayles's "Limbo," ... It's more than just a film about wilderness. Like most of Sayles's films, it tries to deflate numerous myths, especially the rugged individualism of the frontier, and the pristine wilderness of modern-day Alaska. Be careful, though. It has a very controversial ending that might make your students hate you.
The Lorax (1972, USA)
- Dr. Seuss, which I ended up showing in all three of my classes this fall. I often show it the Tuesday before Thanksgiving as a sort of break, though it is great for discussion about development.
The Mosquito Coast (1986, USA)
- Harrison Ford is the know-it-all
Genius who rejects the U.S. for its hyper-consumerism and the insanity of
bureaucratic red-tape. He goes to the Central American jungle, an eden, where
he can build a new society, and the he destroys it in a botched attempt to
improve upon nature, by bringing to the jungle airconditioning and ice. The
film (and the book) were originally thought of as allegories for nuclear
contamination, but the film has much to say about the way nature, and the
relationship between people and environment, are imagined.
Never Cry Wolf (1983, USA)
- Based on the book by Farley Mowat, is a great resource for this type of class--humorous, beautiful scenery, and a thoughtful exploration of the different ways of seeing wilderness.
Phase IV (1974, USA)
Quest for Fire/La Guerre du Feu (1981, Canada/France/USA)
- Quest for Fire (J. J. Annaud dir) is a powerful tale about pre-historic humans living almost at the mercy of wilderness. Not for the squemish or politically correct, though.
- ... small band of hominids travel in search of fire 80000 years ago, and learn how to make it (violence, nudity, no understandable language spoken or captioned)
Silent Running (1972, USA)
- w/Bruce Dern, about the last biological reserve in space.
Them! (1954, USA)
- It's about an atomic blast that causes ants to grow to gigantic proportions. The ants terrorize the Arizona region and end up in the Los Angeles sewers. It's great fun, yet well shows the attitudes towards atomic energy at that time.
- One of the films I like best for portraying concerns about fallout (including its impact on non-human species) in the 1950s is the scifi classic "Them," with James Whittemore. The story is that the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico caused local ants to mutate into human-eating giants. The response is classic cold war (making it an excellent candidate for a course on post-WW2 history or history of science too): local police, the FBI, the Department of Agriculture (entomologists are central to figuring out what to do), and the army work together to fight the menace; they decide to keep the public in the dark and a pilot, who spied one of the ants, committed to a mental hospital. An entomologist delivers a suitably apocalyptic warning about "man" having crossed a boundary in creating an atomic bomb, giving the insects the chance to win the everlasting battle for supremacy of the earth. Don't miss the climactic scene, in which the army battles a giant queen ant that has taken refuge in the sewers of Los Angeles.
Whale Rider (2002, New Zealand)
TELEVISION
Northern Exposure (1990-1995, USA)
- Teaching a senior undergraduate seminar in ecological philosophy, I use a number of episodes of the television series "Northern Exposure" as very popular lecture supplements, notably "Old Vicki" (about an old cottonwood) and "Singing Trees" (poststructuralist explorations of language and environment).
