| The River | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Pare Lorentz |
| Written by | Pare Lorentz |
| Cinematography | Floyd Crosby Willard Van Dyke Stacy Woodard |
| Distributed by | Farm Security Administration |
Release date |
|
Running time | 31 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The River is a 1938 shortdocumentary film which shows the importance of theMississippi River to theUnited States, and how farming and timber practices had causedtopsoil to be swept down the river and into theGulf of Mexico, leading to catastrophic floods and impoverishing farmers. It ends by briefly describing how theTennessee Valley Authority project was beginning to reverse these problems.
It was written and directed byPare Lorentz and, like Lorentz's earlier 1936 documentaryThe Plow That Broke the Plains, was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", going into the registry in 1990.[1][2] The film won the "best documentary" category at the 1938Venice International Film Festival.
Both films have notable scores byVirgil Thomson that are still heard as concertsuites, featuring an adaptation of the hymn "How Firm a Foundation". The film was narrated by the American baritoneThomas Hardie Chalmers. Thomson's score was heavily adapted from his own concert workSymphony on a Hymn Tune.[3]The River later served as the score for the 1983 TV movieThe Day After.[4]
The two films were sponsored by the U.S. government and specifically theResettlement Administration (RA) to raise awareness about theNew Deal. The RA was folded into theFarm Security Administration in 1937, soThe River was officially an FSA production.
There is also a companion book,The River.[5] The text was nominated for thePulitzer Prize in poetry in that year.
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