Tierra de España

Spanish Earth, The (1937)

*** (out of 4)

Nice documentary from Joris Ivens about the struggles of the Spanish Republic who were trying to save their lives against forces led by Gen. Franco who was being backed by Nazi Germany. Ernest Hemingway narrates this documentary, which lasts just over 53-minutes. At that short of a running time you know not every aspect of this legendary battle is going to be talked about so if you're needing a history lesson then this here probably isn't going to be for you. We really don't learn too much about how this battle got started and of course there's no conclusion but THE Spanish EARTH remains rather interesting simply because of the images and the heart behind the storytelling. There's no question that the production company and director Ivens wanted to stand up against those they felt were doing evil things against human beings only wanting to put food on the table for their children. There are many striking visuals where we see people waiting in line for food, which of course runs out before everyone could be fed. We get images of the young men going off to war to fight and of course with war comes the images of many who lost their lives. The production is rather crude as the cinematography isn't all that impressive and there are many issues with the sound but this really doesn't take away from the film and in many ways it makes it even more raw. What I was most impressed with where the images that really put us in the middle of this battle and one of the most striking happens at a bread line where we see that even bread has been stamped so that the poor knows who it belongs to. Film buffs will notice that Orson Welles gets credited for "narration" but his vocals were dropped and replaced by Hemingway.

This famous "on the fly" barely-feature-length documentary about the Spanish Civil War was endorsed by the likes of writers Ernest Hemingway (who provides the dry narration), John Dos Passos, Lilian Hellman and actor Orson Welles (whose name also appears on the poster but whose vocal contributions were eventually dropped). Starting out with the images of farmers 'testing' for water sources on their lands, it soon settles down to denoting how the conflict was affecting a besieged Madrid: from the breadlines offering insufficient stamped supplies to the clandestine Loyalist meetings to the destruction left in the wake of the Fascist (read Nazis and Italians) aerial bombings.

Although the Spanish Civil War would be the subject of several Hollywood movies – most prestigiously via Hemingway's own epic FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943) – and cast an indelible shadow over the careers of future native film-makers (especially Carlos Saura), we know precious little about the conflict itself and, tellingly, we do not learn much here either; indeed, Ivens is merely content to observe – panicking villagers mourning their dead and loss of property – and report – we are told that the bearded Loyalist officer seen here organizing and inspecting his troops will die in the next assault! Perhaps the most striking moment occurs when a bike-riding mailman enters a building and has to literally skip over the corpses of victims still blocking the foyer entrance! Interestingly, the U.S. funded production was selected by the "National Board of Review" as one of the year's Top 10 foreign films!

The Spanish Civil War remains as one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts involving a major country, and it's impossible to sum up its many nuances. You'll get one view of the conflict here with incredible footage of war and glimpses of rural Spanish life.

This, however, isn't a documentary as much as it is straight Soviet-style propaganda. The style of the film, from the poor farmers bettering themselves with a homemade concrete irrigation system to the election of soldiers to hear impassioned political pep talks from movement leaders, s straight from the Stalnist manual of Lifestyles of the Glorious Peoples. This isn't meant to Red-bait any of the participants -- they truly believed in a "free" Spain, and fascist-backed Francisco Franco's regime wasn't the answer, either -- but the reality was far different and is only now coming to light after 70 years.

The Spanish Civil War was also very much a fascist/Soviet proxy war, and the Soviet Union had a not-so-hidden hand in its direction. Look carefully at the fighting sequences, and you'll see very atypical people in different-style uniforms guiding artillery and directing troops.

As a historical insight -- despite what now appears to be a ham-fisted approach in propaganda -- the film is priceless. And many thanks for TCM and its ever-expanding programming efforts in broadcasting the film in July 2007; hopefully, we'll always have somebody unwilling to slice, dice and crop something and still call it a classic, ala AMC.

This jumbled and disjointed documentary by the Republican Government of Spain against the Nazi backed Fascist revolt by Franco's military has sufficient civilian carnage and idealism that must have inspired sideline support in its day. It is also a valuable document of eyewitness clarity that informs a mostly forgotten era during the rise of Fascism In Europe. Written and narrated by famed novelists Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos who would later break with each other over Republican practices the film's primitive construct sometimes acts as a metaphor for what was truly a chaotic conflict with poorly trained volunteers manning the front lines with incredible spirit against the well oiled Nazi backed machine. In its day though it must have served its purpose being played for sympathetic audiences cheering the principals and inspiring others to the cause.

Hemingway makes for a weak narrator and the editing and sound is pedestrian obfuscating the flow much of the time but the spirit and determination of this idealistic stand by a group branded as pre-mature anti-Fascists comes thru loud and clear.

Probably more shocking at the time, this dated essay on war documents the good peasants and peoples army vs. the bad professional army and foreign troops. One of the earlier times that a camera was permitted to document the horrors of war, the production attempts to tell the moral message of the righteousness of the Republican cause -- but ultimately the film denounces war itself. Despite its noble crew, the documentary is slow-moving and suffers from what appears to be a voice-over of a silent film. A must see for those who have to see something about the Spanish Civil War or who have to hear Hemingway's voice, but this is not an evening's entertainment. The Why We Fight series done by the US Army during World War II is far superior. The horrors of war were captured for the present generation on their TV screens during the Viet Nam War.