Earth (1930)

IMDb plot summary: In the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.

Directed by Aleksandr Dovzhenko. Starring Stepan Shkurat, Semyon Svashenko, and Yuliya Solntseva.

Earth is a 1930 Soviet Union film about a community being pushed to undergo collectivization, where individual farms are integrated into larger collectively-owned or state-owned farms. The film captures the varying responses to this, with the younger characters excited about how the new program will help them farm more effectively and efficiently with technology, and their fathers wishing to hold to the old ways of things and to keep private ownership of their land. Interestingly enough, the movie was initially praised by the Soviet Union and then shortly thereafter began to be seen as having a confusing or ambiguous political message and began to be equally parts praised and lambasted. I think that speaks to the humanness of the story being told, that it's so easy to sympathize with both sets of characters as the story is told. What does make for more compelling story makes for less clear and less desirable propaganda. This was a movie that was more interesting to me as a historical relic than as a story in and of itself but I'm glad I watched it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Earth < The Harder They Fall

Earth > Monkey Business (1952)

Earth < The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Earth < State Fair (1946)

Earth > Gangs of New York

Earth > Sweet Revenge

Earth > Sliding Doors

Earth > Pat and Mike

Earth < Winter's Bone

Earth > The Milagro Beanfield War

Earth > Steel Magnolias

Final spot: #2436 out of 3531, or 31%.