Betty Thomas

The Plow That Broke the Plains

            Unlike the lack of narration in Listen to Britain, the question that one may ask is if this documentary can still be classified as poetic because of the role of the narrator? Does poetry differ from prose? British poet and philosopher William Wordsworth says, “A large portion of the language of every good poem can in no respect differ from that of good prose.” Like poetry, prose contains read between the line elements and can be just as rhythmic, just as ambiguous, and just as beautiful or meaningful as poetry. A popular literary example proving this fact is the book House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. So, the mere presence of prose does not make the film less poetic, but the actual words being used by the narrator does not leave the audience with an interpretive meaning and may manipulate or distort the meaning.

            What gives this documentary the ‘poetic’ title is the artistic screen shots; for example, in the opening scene, the sky, the cattle, and the grass-covered plains are symmetrically shown in a panning motion. Wide shots are mainly seen in the beginning to emphasize the open spaces and uninhabited plains. Throughout the film, the shots become busy and crowded with tractors, tilling machines, army tanks, and people; this symbolizes the spoiling of the land. After the land has been exploited, the scenes move from grassy plains to dust storms (standing for the public’s clouded perception), cattle skulls, and struggling farmers. To accompany the drastic change, the music switches from a major mode of cheery folk tunes to a dark, slow, and minor mode. The subject matter deals mostly with nature, the human condition, and mutability, which are all popular poetic motifs. The chronological movement is visually shown through the linear plow lines in the soil; cause and effect is also the progressive driving motif in the documentary. Cause and effect is an element of poetics as Wordsworth explains in his essay “What is a Poet?” He writes, “A poet considers the man and the objects that surround him as acting and reacting upon each other so as to produce an infinite complexity of pain and pleasure.” Cause and effect is referenced centuries before in Eastern Taoism and called yin and yang. Yin and yang is used to explain duality in the world like night and day, masculine and feminine, sadness and joyfulness. All the dichotomies work together to produce balance in nature.  This is represented in the film through plentiful growing seasons, economic success, and increased prices in grain and contrasted with drought, war, and the economic crash. The subjects in the film do not allow for balance to happen because of the exploitation of the land.

If the message of the documentary is poetic and ambiguous, are audiences receiving the correct message? One may wonder if any meaning was taken from this documentary because exploitation of the land is still practiced today. Americans live in an instant gratification society; applying this to agriculture means farmers are not allowed to let the soil rest due to high demand of produce. Perhaps, an interpretation of the documentary is that humans never learn from their mistakes, and exploitation is a cycle we continue even today. This circular imagery of a continuing cycle is seen in the wagon wheel, the turning windmill, and the repetitive music. Benjamin Hoff, author of the “Tao of Pooh” offers an insight related to this idea:

“Looking back a few years, we see that the Puritans practically worked themselves to death in the fields without getting much of anything in return for their tremendous efforts. They were actually starving until the wise inhabitants of the land showed them a few things about working in harmony with the earth’s rhythms. Now you plant; now you relax. Now you work the soil; now you leave it alone. The Puritans never really understood the second half and never really believed in it. And so, after two or three centuries of pushing, pushing, and pushing the once fertile earth, and a few years of depleting its energy still further with synthetic stimulants, we have apples that taste like cardboard, oranges that taste like tennis balls, and pears that taste like sweetened Styrofoam…all products of soil that is not allowed to relax.”