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Chevrolet Motors "American Harvest" (1951)

1951 · Short film · 30 min

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Synopsis

Originally released in1951, "American Harvest" was designed to promote Chevrolet's corporate citizenship rather than any specific model of automobile. The film shows how important auto manufacturing and use are to the American economy while simultaneously showing the effects of the automobile upon the American landscape. John Forsythe's narration is accompanied by images of automobile manufacturing, the extraction and processing of raw materials including oil from the earth, and mid-1950s consumerism. This story is the life story of America production. Somewhere with someone on the job everything we have is started. Somewhere a farmer is ploughing the land and although he ploughs alone, he’s not alone. His life is tied with many others, everyone depends on him and he also depends on all of us as seen at mark1:20. At mark1:40, he is herding his cattle. Somewhere, someone sets off a blast to reach up to metals of rocks and set people off to smelting and blast furnace in mills and factories as seen at mark 2:00. From this many interdependent people come to fashion a product of human inventiveness from the bounty of nature. At mark 2:27, a farmer is seen with his wheat plantation. At mark 2:54 is a sugar farmer. He is seen with his sugarcane plantation. At mark 3:18, cotton is seen. It is a raw material for fabrics and plastics in the Alabama and throughout the whole south, also in Texas and California. At mark 4:12, cottons are also derived from goats. At mark 4:40, herds of…

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Details

Running time
30 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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