8m 7s | 209 view | rating

SEQUENCE 1: Car with trailer travels across the prairie. More barren land ruined by "reckless cultivation". A convoy of cars drive down an unsealed gravel road. A father and baby sit outside a tent, the mother and another child come out and stand behind them. More cars loaded with furniture drive past two dustbowl farmers, a man sitting outside a tent. Man brushes dust off his jacket while another farmer looks on. Women unload mattresses and furniture from a trailer outside a tent. Two men sit outside a tent, one whittles at a piece of wood with a knife. A windmill lies on the ground, against a whicker chair, with broken sails. Deserted wooden shacks. Pan across a desolate landscape of prairie, trees without foliage, leafless branches silhouetted against the sky. SEQUENCE 2: Brilliant shot of a farmhouse with a disused wagon wheel in the foreground. Close up of horse and plough tilling dry soil. A small unhealthy looking lone wheat plant grows. Woman sweeps the dust off her steps. Great shots of plough attempting to plough the dusty dry land. The farmer and his wife look to the sky. Baby plays in the sandy soil next to a disused plough. Tank comes over the hill and fires one round. Newspaper headline announces the declaration of World War One and the resultant soar in wheat prices. To dramatic Soviet-style music in a montage sequence, a farmer on a tractor tills dusty dry soil, shells explode, newspaper headlines chart the progress of the war and wheat prices, three tractors then a convoy till the soil, mechanical combine harvesters bring in wheat, grain mountains, a container ship on a river with the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco in the background (the bridge was not finished until 1937, so it must be under construction but this is not really visible in this shot), cargo boat leaves New York harbour, more tractors in formation, tanks fighting in formation, American troops march past waving ticker-tape crowds surrounded by American flag bunting, six tractors drive into the sunset, wheat fields, combine harvesters surrounded by an enormous crop.