Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) Online

This 1925 silent, inspired by "Nanook of the North," is the story of an incredible people, the Bakhtiari, who annually move over 50,000 people and a half million animals between their summer and winter grazing pastures in Iran. They ford raging icy rivers and climb/descend a 15,000 foot mountain. Incredible footage; the filmmakers nearly froze to death.

A remake of the story is "People of the Wind" (1976), which is beautifully done. "Grass" is the story of the trek from the winter to the summer pastures; "People" is the reverse trip. Both are available (at last!) on video from Milestone Films.

The team of Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack produced a documentary of 50,000 Bakhtiari people and their animals on the Summer migration to winter grazing. The basic worth of this film today is as a time capsule of a "forgotten people" and how they lived during what we in the West knew as the "roaring twenties." A more drastic contrast could not be imagined. Raging river and barefoot mountain crossings are brutally realistic and the animals that disappear under the water do in fact die. To make sure that the audience of the time believed that the story took place, a signed certificate of authenticity is offered up at the end. The version that I saw had fascinating Iranian music that can stand alone and be appreciated without the film. Having said all this, the film is probably of more value to the anthropologist than the casual viewer in search of a good evening's entertainment. The crew had just barely sufficient stock to take the shots that they recorded and there is no fancy camera work resulting from multiple re-takes. The Western inter-titles detract from the experience but are in fact a part of the record since they demonstrate how Hollywood tried to put their spin on the lives of an indigenous peoples lives so that they would be appreciated by the audience of the day. Off-duty entertainment by desert police becomes a "policeman's ball." The producers went on to make the docu-drama Chang (1927) and the totally commercial King Kong (1933). The migration theme is used again in People of the Wind (1976) and in Himalaya (1999). Recommended for those who know in advance what they are getting into -- and then highly recommended for them.

Fantastic documentary of 1924. This early 20th century geography of today's Iraq was powerful. Watch this and tell me if Cecil B. DeMille didn't take notes before making his The Ten Commandments. Merian C. Cooper, the photographer, later created Cinerama, an idea that probably hatched while filming the remarkable landscapes in this film. Fans of Werner Herzog will find this film to be a treasure, with heartbreaking tales of struggle, complimented by the land around them, never has the human capacity to endure been so evident. The fact that this was made when it was shows not only the will of the subjects, but of the filmmakers themselves.

This was soul-provoking! I am an Iranian, and living in th 21st century, I didn't know that such big tribes have been living in such conditions at the time of my grandfather!

You see that today, or even in 1925, on one side of the world a lady or a baby could have everything served for him or her clean and on-demand, but here 80 years ago, people ventured their life to go to somewhere with more grass. It's really interesting that these Persians bear those difficulties to find pasture for their sheep, but they lose many the sheep on their way.

I praise the Americans who accompanied this tribe, they were as tough as Bakhtiari people.

The first collaboration between Schoedsack & Cooper is a compelling documentary on the migration of the Bakhtiari tribe of Persia. Twice a year, more than 50,000 people and half a million animals cross rivers and mountains to get to pasture. You'll feel like a pampered weakling after watching these people herd their animals through ice cold water and walk barefoot through the snow to cross the mountains while trying to get their animals to walk along steep and narrow mountain paths.

This was incredible, meaning that it was hard to believe, that the "forgotten tribe" would make this astounding migration twice a year, and that the filmmakers, Cooper and Schoedsack, didn't stage some of the scenes and shots. But what shots they are! The cinematography, under mostly extreme conditions, is brilliant, and the score of Iranian music added to the video release give this memorable documentary an added richness.

I had the pleasure of seeing this and "Kon Tiki" on the same weekend, which was a thrill and certainly made me see how tough and hardy and brave people can be, whether for primitive survival or the need for adventure or in the name of science.

I am actually outraged at the comment I read stating that this movie was "boring" and the beautiful scenery was marred by the black and white footage. It was made in 1925!!!! I think it absolutely incredible for it's time!

The journey that these people had to go through is utterly remarkable. It took them a week just to cross a river. The women carried their children in heavy wooden cradles on their backs climbing up a solid sheet of rock, sometimes barefoot in the snow. I would like to see Anybody do that now!

I thought it was a wonderful film with some truly amazing shots and an incredible story.

Thanks TCM for bringing this piece of history to a broader audience. And what a slice of the past it is. This is living next to the land, in spades. That thousand-mile trek through Arabia and the Caucuses is not just long, but harrowing, as well. It's men, women, kids, donkeys, cattle, goats, sheep, all winding their way through impossible terrain, with a few skinny dogs tagging along. Sure, it seems they do it every year to get to the mountain grassland, but I can't see it ever gets any easier. When I backpack in the snow, I've got good warm boots and heavy socks—these folks, however, do it in, uh, bare feet!!!-- for better traction, I guess. Anyway, I'm still shivering from that footage. Then there's the river crossing. That alone is worth the price of admission. You've got to admire their herding prowess in the rapids with nothing more than inflated goatskins. In fact, I have a whole new appreciation for the lowly sheep and the gutsy herders who tend them.

As good as the footage is, questions do arise. What, for example, do they do with sick people. It seems they can't stop the trek, so I guess they just pack them along and hope for the best. Also, we don't see them eating along the way or building fires (if they do) or setting up tents. Instead, Cooper & Co. track the snaking caravans only, but then that's more than enough. However, someone should have given second thoughts to some of those ridiculous title cards. But all that is merely incidental to a filmed record of a people who reach far back in time, and ones I would be proud to have as forebears. Then again, I guess I won't be complaining about having to walk to the store, any time soon.

It all started with two guys having the ambition to create a movie as successful as Flaherty's "Nanook of the North". One of the two guys was Merian Cooper: a passionate promoter in both aviation and movie industry, a bomber pilot in WWI, twice shot down in fight. The other was Ernest Schoedsack: during the WWI a cameraman on the front, recording infantry actions under shell fire. The two had met for the first time in Poland, during the war with Soviet Russia. They would meet again in the early 20's and start collaborating in making movies. Meanwhile Merian Cooper had been made prisoner by the Red Army and managed to escape.

Flaherty had gone to the Eskimo. Cooper and Schoedsack set their target to Kurdistan. The expedition started in October 1923 in Angora (today's Ankara). There was a fellow-traveler with them: journalist Marguerite Harrison (she too had the taste for danger in her DNA: risky missions in Germany, Russia Japan, China, imprisoned for a period in Soviet Russia).

It was during the expedition that they decided to go further, to reach a nomadic community of Bakhtiari, some place in central Persia, and to follow them in their seasonal migration in search of grass for their herds.

Twice a year the Bakhtiari have to migrate with their animals, once Eastward, then Westward, between their summer and winter quarters. That means crossing the Kārun river (some identify it with Pishon, one of the four rivers of Eden, as mentioned in Genesis) and escalating Zard-Kuh, the highest peak of the Zagros Mountains. By those times there were no bridges over the river, and all people were barefoot. They had to pass this way over the heavy snowed mountain. As for crossing the river, the animals had to swim, of course many of them were drowning. There were about 50,000 people and half a million animals.

The decision of Cooper, Schoedsack and Harrison to join the community of Bakhtiari proved fortunate: by filming their journey they created a masterpiece.

The movie has two distinct parts. Firstly it chronicles the trip from Angora towards Kurdistan, with a picturesque description of a caravanserai, and some other interesting moments, like the sudden meeting with a troupe of desert police, occasion for the filmmakers to shot a surreal scene with the policemen executing a complicate ballet while on their horses! But it is the second part of the movie that is a masterpiece: simply filming the journey of barefoot people with their animals across the river and over the mountain transmits a great epic sense. It is there the whole drama of this ethnicity struggling for life, rendered with simplicity and greatness.

Many critics have compared "Grass" with "Nanook", giving to the work of Flaherty a better mark, and obviously the merit of having been the first. I found an interesting remark in an essay by Richard Griffith (who was a curator at MoMA Film Library between 1951 - 1965): "Flaherty was an explorer filming a population he knew, while Cooper and Schoedsack were adventurers attracted by the unknown".

The images in "Nanook" could be more skillful worked, while what you see in "Grass" is the "real thing": the epic on the screen is "live".

I watched Grass on Netflix and I give total credit to its admirers: this movie is fascinating.

The copy available on Netflix includes some evocative pieces of Iranian music, composed and performed by Gholam Hosain Janati-Ataie (santur and daf), Kavous Shirzadian (tar, tombak and oud) and Amir Ali Vahabzadegan (Turkish tambur, setar, dohol, daf and voice). I found this very touching: a tribute paid to a courageous community who struggles with nature for their life. Now their herds are carried in trucks and they are no more barefoot, still it's hard.

They probably could have skipped some of the beginning - I'm not sure why this starts out in the Asian part of Turkey. If it was because starting in the Mediterranean, they could have gotten closer starting in modern day Lebanon.

One the cameras and crews get to the Bakhtyari tribe, it's the beginning of an amazing 48 day journey. 50,000 people with about 250,000 goats, camels, cattle, and horses make this amazing trek across what seems to be a very fast moving Karun River. They use rafts that are kept afloat by inflating goat skins - you can see where the head and legs were removed. The other "bank" of the river was very steep - I'm guessing about a 60 degree rise.

Just watching that was incredible, but there was much more to come. To get to the pastures, they also had to cross a major mountain that had about 4 feet of snow, if not more. Being able to climb this mountain was pretty amazing in and of itself, but they (and all of the animals) climbed this mountain barefoot! Yes, barefoot.

The one drawback to this documentary were some of the inter-titles with poor attempts at humor.

If you want to see a documentary from the silent era, or the incredible challenges that this tribe not only face, but conquer. This is just an incredible document of a little known group of people facing all kinds of challenges.

grass if nothing else is a wonderful little documentary about a group of nomadic herders traveling through the harsh realities of post ottoman syria, iraq, and Iran. modern viewers use to the exploits of Micheal Moore wouldn't recognize this as what we commonly refer to as a documentary. today's documentaries are usually have a political axe to grind in some way or another. this documentary is more in the spirit of national geographic, it is quite simply, documentation of something with little to no comment and no discernible agenda. given all that this film might not have a lot of value for general audiences. anthropologists on the other hand would probably love something like this. the track of these through deserts, over rivers, and through mountains in a time and place where modern technology had yet to creep into all corners of the world is stark and amazing. the ingenuity and ruggedness of the people is almost completely absent in todays world of internet and cell phones and supermarkets.

great film, limited appeal. for a general audience i'd give it a six out of ten. students of history might like it better.

Grass (1925)

*** (out of 4)

First collaboration between Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack who would later go onto make King Kong. This documentary takes a look at 50,000 Iranian nomads and they dangerous journey across mountains and rivers to get their herds to grass. Overall this is a very interesting documentary but sadly the crew was running out of film when it came time to cross a deadly river and climb a 12,000 foot mountain. With these two scenes being the most interesting sadly there's only a couple minutes worth of footage here.

Awesome and lovely documentary for particular audiences and cinema friends, especially pro-Iranian film directors. The documentary of the grass actually deals with the Bakhtiar migration. It begins with fragments of the lives of the Arab and Iranian people while traveling to the central and southern areas, and ultimately lead to a huge going out. Their greatness can be understood from Extreme Long Shots. Watching this movie you will familiar acquainted with clan, with almost no urbanization, and this is a very painful topic. Foreign moviemakers are three of them who, with their time-honored facilities, can be said to have done a great deal, and they have worked very hard to show the truth of that time and geography. A striking point in this film is the confrontation with the hardships and difficulties of the going out. Crossing the Karoon River and passing the Yellow Mountain, the third largest mountain in Iran, shows the goodness of the efforts of women and children in rural areas. They do not go without purpose, they live in the grass and the artery of their lives, and they strive for it as they encounter the hardest hardships. They have the thought to succeed and they have all the power to reach the goal. If you like the history and documentary cinema and Iran, you are welcome to watch this movie.

The filmmakers join the Bakhtyari in Angora, Turkey. The Haidar declares that the tribe must travel to find grass for the herd in Persia. Fifty thousand people and their animals struggle across the River Karun on goat skin floats and climb the Zardeh Kuh to find green pastures.

This is yet another documentary of a lost way of live like Nanook of the North (1922). This is a slice of a world long gone but from an outsider western point of view. It doesn't really dig too deep into the culture and the Bakhtyari themselves don't have much of a voice in the film. The goat skin floats river crossing is just amazing and is something that I couldn't even imagine before this.

This documentary by Marian Cooper is absolutely amazing. I saw it tonight on Turner Classic Movie channel. I think I will see if I can order a copy of it on DVD. The film footage doesn't look all blurry and choppy like you might think from 1925 B & W silent film. Set in Iran in 1925, The nomadic tribe people in the documentary leave their desert home and cross a raging river, men, women, children, animals... Then up and over a snowy mountain pass all Barefoot. It is sink or swim and climb or die. In search of grass for their animals. They have cows, goats, dogs, horses, mules. In one scene a man is carrying a mule who is too sick to climb the mountain. The children in the documentary all look happy and healthy. They had such a hard life. I wonder if the nomadic tribes of Iran still live like this. Makes you appreciate modern life in USA.

I read the comment of Chris_m_grant from United States.

He wrote : " A Fantastic documentary of 1924. This early 20th century geography of today's Iraq was powerful."

I would like to thank Chris and people who are interested in Bakhtiari Nomads of Iran, the Zagros mountains and landscapes and have watched the movie Grass, A Nation's battle for life. These traditions you saw in the movie have endured for centuries and will go on as long as life endures. I am from this region of Iran myself. I am a Bakhtiari.

Chris, I am sorry to bother you but Bakhtiari region of Zardkuh is in Iran not in Irak as you mentioned in your comment. Iran and Irak are two different and distinct countries. Taking an Iranian for an Irankian is almost like taking an American for an Mexican. Thanks,

Ziba

Documentary about nomadic Persians making a treacherous traverse of massive mountains to get their herds to grass. Watching this silent, black and white feature, marred in part by a twink-twink-twink Oriental music score that could not have been used in the original exhibition, is even duller than it sounds. The spectacular scenery is lost on a small black and white screen, and there is an utter failure to establish any kind of plot line. I loved Nanook of the North and March of the Penguins, but despised this movie, notwithstanding the similarity of the theme. Physical hardships alone are just not that interesting.

I may be getting ahead of myself here, but although the film itself was a technical masterpiece for its time, I watched it piece-by-piece on TCM last night, the question arises to me: Why did they do that? putting their lives in jeopardy, many of them died on the trek, why would they undertake such a life-endangering journey, just to find food for their animals (!) once they reached the "land of milk and honey", why didn't they just stay there? Would you endanger your life, and that of your entire community, just to find food for a herd of cattle? As dangerous as it was, to do it for that purpose alone, shows the inbred simplicity of these types of people. Risk death for a cow?? Better them than I!