The River

"This is the story of a river, a record of the Mississippi. Where it comes from, where it goes, what it has meant to us... and what it has cost us." With these words, THE RIVER starts. The words "we" and "us" return regularly in the spoken commentary, because the film may deal with one river, but it represents the whole American nation in the years of the great economic depression. Little streams become rivers, and eventually they turn into the mighty Mississippi. On the banks of the fertile river the cotton industry is thriving. The film goes back in time. Cotton was followed by iron and steel. Trees were cut down, which caused erosion. Floods caused a lot of damage. The government tries to solve the problem by means of the Tennessee Valley Authority project: reforestation and the construction of dams. With consummate skill, Lorentz has linked the poetry of separate images to the expressiveness of the commentary. THE RIVER actually deals with the reconciliation of two great American institutions: free enterprise and the Mississippi. In doing this, the film stresses the regulating role of the government.