Film Forum

(1925, Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack) First-time filmmakers Cooper & Schoedsack, later creators of King Kong, found a real-life adventure in the migration of the Bakhitiari tribe of Persia (now Iran): 50,000 people and 500,000 animals scaling sheer snow-covered mountains, and fording torrential rivers. DCP. Approx. 71 min.

Reviews

“Grass includes some of the best wilderness cinematography of its time. Schoedsack contrasted majestic landscapes, most never seen by Western viewers, with the struggle of the Bakhtiari to overcome them. What Cooper brought to the project was an unerring sense of showmanship. He knew how to equate the Bakhtiari to moviegoers, how to turn them from exotic case studies into people.”
– Daniel Eagan, America’s Film Legacy

“Absorbing, beautifully photographed, and in need of little faking.”
– William K Everson, American Silent Film

“If viewed as a Herzog-like tribute to man’s courage, determination, and ability to tame nature without destroying it, the film has an impressive scale and poetry.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out

“Captures some of the most remarkable and strikingly framed footage of the 1920s.”
– Elliot Stein