By ROBERT KROLL
The Hagley Library in Wilmington, Delaware, recently uploaded the rarely seen Orson Welles-narrated industrial film A Gift of Harvest to its digital collection for public viewing.
Part of the Dupont Company films and commercials collection, A Gift of Harvest was filmed throughout 1978-79 and released in 1981. The short was produced by Vision Associates for the National Agricultural Chemicals Association.
Welles narrates the 22-minute film, which is about the need of chemical engineering for the future of worldwide crop production. No specific chemical product is endorsed through the film. Rather, the film focuses on selling the idea of chemical use in crop production.
The film was co-directed by Academy Award nominee Lee R. Bobker and Ann Eisner, with Eisner most invested in the success of the film.
“Ann was really devoted to making this look great. I think she felt this was a way to make her mark,” said Tom Hurwitz, ASC, one of the two cinematographers for A Gift of Harvest. (Hurwitz was also one of the cinematographers on Chuck Workman’s 2014 documentary Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles.)
A Gift of Harvest opens over images of the Great Depression with Welles narrating, “There was a time, not so long ago, when this land and its people, knew the pain of hunger. The land lay fallow beneath our feet. We struggled, seeking to feed ourselves, [un]certain of our future.”
Welles continues, “Today, our fields yield a rich and ever-increasing harvest. The power of what we have learned, we have created the very substance of our future.”
The film then moves into a variety of interview subjects. Among those interviewed for the film include Nobel Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug, Purdue emeritus professor Dr. John Osman, and Dr. Boysie Day. Each participant speaks positively of chemical use for increasing crop production.
The second half of the film focuses on Varel Baily, an Iowa farmer, and his family. Footage of Baily farming is interspersed with his family life.
Baily gives high praise to the use of chemicals in his grain production and the use of “microcomputers” for record-keeping.
A song that sounds a little like “Swingtown” by the Steve Miller Band signals the end of the film, pointing out the role of chemicals in farming. But Welles gets the final word, warning, “Consider this: the population of the world is now over four billion and doubling every 35 years. In the next three decades, we must produce as much food as we have produced since the beginning of our history.”
The writer of the film’s narration is uncredited. Whoever it is, they certainly wrote for Welles’ voice. Welles lays on the drama at the start of the film before pure optimism through the rest of the film. Only at the end does Welles revert to a serious tone filled with long pauses, leaving the audience to consider what to do about the future of crop production.
Between the Welles narration and the visuals, A Gift of Harvest is a cut above industrial films of the time, thanks to the film’s prestigious crew.
Co-director Bobker was the founder of Vision Associates, the company that produced A Gift of Harvest. He was nominated for Academy Awards for his documentary films The Odds Against and The Revolving Door. Vision Associates produced a wide variety of documentary and industrial films before shutting down in 1998. Bobker passed away on December 28, 1999.
Joining Tom Hurwitz behind the camera was Herbert Raditschnig. A native of Austria, Raditschnig’s filmography includes the James Bond films For Your Eyes Only and GoldenEye.
Both Hurwitz and Raditschnig frequently shot films for Vision Associates. Raditschnig was Bobker’s preferred cinematographer, while Hurwitz becoming Bobker’s “second call,” and the preferred cameraman of Bobker’s co-director, Ann Eisner.
According to Hurwitz, Raditschnig shot the footage of the tractors plowing the fields in A Gift of Harvest, while he shot the rest of the film.
Hurwitz looks back on A Gift of Harvest fondly, as Bobker gave Hurwitz an early start in his career.
“I had shown him a reel, and I was a really young cameraman. I did not have much to show,” Hurwitz said. “And (Lee) gave me an assignment, all by myself, to go down to West Virginia and film a bridge being built, over the new river gorge. It was at the time the largest arch deck truss span bridge ever built.
“I filmed for a day and managed to get myself kicked out of every American bridge, they made me persona non grata after this, of all American bridge sites, because I kind of pushed the envelope, but that was how I got really, really good footage.”
Indeed, the quality in Harvest is readily apparent. The cameras move swiftly to follow tractors. Close-ups of chemicals, plants, sunsets, and even insects are given equal visually stunning treatment. Domestic scenes on the Iowa farm are unintrusive and feel genuine. Harvest doesn’t suffer from the stilted dialogue or stale angles of other industrial films.
The segment of Harvest where the camera moves through a laboratory at work was used in Hurwitz’s demo reel for a decade. Following A Gift of Harvest, he filmed episodes of PBS’ Nova, along with diverse works such as Creepshow 2, All About Mankiewicz, and the PBS children’s series Ghostwriter.
Ultimately, A Gift of Harvest is an intriguing addition to Welles’ creative output toward the end of his life. As he took on interesting supporting roles, animated voice-overs, and multiple gigs as a commercial spokesman, Welles also added a beautifully shot industrial film to his filmography.
Or as Hurwitz calls the short, “Very well-made propaganda.”
“A Gift of Harvest” may be viewed at the Hagley Library’s digital collection at digital.hagley.org/FILM_1995300_FC111.
(Robert Kroll is an English professor at St. Clair County Community College in Michigan. He is currently working on a book about Orson Welles’ commercials.)
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