The Spanish Earth

Produced and released in 1937, The Spanish Earth was created by a team of leading figures of the US cultural word: script and narration by Ernest Hemingway – although Orson Welles had initially signed on as narrator - music by Virgil Thompson and Mark Blitzstein, on location work by John Dos Passos, and financial support from Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Archibald MacLeish. Their goal was to convince their countrymen that the United States should abandon non-intervention and support the Republic. 

They chose as director Joris Ivens from the Netherlands, a pioneer of politically engaged documentary. He considered the film a “militant documentary”, intended to move viewers to “become active in connection with the problems shown in the film”. John Ferhout’s photo on the gallery page, shows Ivens and Hemingway during the filming.

The Spanish Earth is built around the efforts of the people of the village of Fuentedueña, near Madrid on the highway to Valencia, to build an irrigation system for their land. This story is connected to the war, and made into a metaphor for it, by Julián, a young man who returns to the village on leave from the army. The connection is strengthened by Ivens’ dramatic cutting between the two narratives.

The film conveys a definite political message, but it does so by eliminating the politics of the Spaniards fighting for the Republic. We are not told how the situation in Fuentedueña came about, although the struggle for land is the only cause of the war that is mentioned. The lengthy sequence showing the announcement of the absorption of the militias into the Popular Army does not mention the various political parties supporting the Republic nor is the affiliation of the speakers, all of whom were Communists, indicated. José Diaz is simply a “member of parliament” and La Pasionaria “the most famous woman in Spain”. In another scene, women in the village are buying bread, but when a loaf stamped UGT [the Socialist trade union organization] is shown, the narrator says that it is “good bread, stamped with the union label”. 

The enemy is more clearly defined: Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The Spaniards fighting against the Republic are mentioned only once. During scenes of the fighting in Madrid’s University City, we are told that the enemy fighters are Civil Guards and Moors, brave but professional soldiers receiving support from Germany and Italy. The only time the enemy appear on screen they are exclusively Germans and Italians. 

The final sequence, shown here, ends the film on a victorious note. Republican troops save the road to Madrid as water flows through the irrigation ditches of Fuentedueña. Hemingway’s triumphant narrative blends with the sounds of battle, popular music and, finally, the Republican anthem.

The Spanish Earth was first shown at the White House for President Roosevelt and his wife. This was followed by a series of screenings in Los Angeles which raised a considerable amount of money, but despite this initial success, the film was not released generally.