The Plow That Broke the Plains is a 1936 American documentary short produced by the United States Resettlement Administration and directed by Pare Lorentz, made to explain the agricultural practices, drought and economic hardship behind the Dust Bowl crisis in the Great Plains. It combines newsreel-style footage with a scripted narration and an original orchestral score by composer Virgil Thomson, an approach unusual for a government-sponsored film of its time. Screened in commercial theaters as well as government venues, it is regarded by film historians as a landmark of American New Deal-era documentary filmmaking and an influential model for later government and social-issue documentaries.
Facts
Release Year Classification
Original Language In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: United States, originated there.
- Also in Language Atlas: English, original language there.
Sources
1. The Plow That Broke the Plains - Wikipedia
Lead paragraph, first sentence (release year)
The Plow That Broke the Plains is a 1936 short documentary film that shows the cultivation of the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada following the Civil War and leading up to the Dust Bowl as a result of exploitation of the Great Plains' natural resources.
Lead paragraph, first sentence (country)
The Plow That Broke the Plains is a 1936 short documentary film that shows the cultivation of the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada following the Civil War and leading up to the Dust Bowl as a result of exploitation of the Great Plains' natural resources.
The Plow That Broke the Plains, Description, original language
The Plow That Broke the Plains is a 1936 American documentary short produced by the United States Resettlement Administration and directed by Pare Lorentz, made to explain the agricultural practices, drought and economic hardship behind the Dust Bowl crisis in the Great Plains.
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