Week 2 Screening 2.

The River. 1938. Written and Directed by Pare Lorentz. Sponsored by USDA and The Farm Security Administration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpz0XI6U97U

The film titles begin accompanied by weighty orchestral music, setting the tone for the subject matter which is to follow. The introductory titles are placed over a map of the Mississippi and give the viewer direct contextual placement, this also conveys that within this film there are elements of the expository documentary. The commentary and the visual narrative are poetic, they trace the sources of the Mississippi beginning with images of clouds and mountains and moving into listing the many tributaries before ending in the gulf. This, like much of the film, is sequenced by linking metaphorical rather than logical connections. Within three minutes the documentary has given a synopsis of the river, a memory template of the sheer size of the river for the viewer to refer to for the rest of the film. Following this short introduction to the river the documentary then moves into telling some of the history that occured along its banks. The chapters or episodes of the documentary are indicated by the change of music with a certain score used for the poetic observations of the documentary and no score used for the expositionary sections. This gives the film the feel of verse chorus verse, as if it were designed in modules. The positivity of the ending gives the film its resolution, but the optimism shown towards the content illustrated has also the slant of triumphalism.