The Living Desert is a prime film containing a well-written story along with splendid cinematography and staged encounters of the animal and plant kingdom in the desert lands of United States.
The film begins a drawn animated map about the history of ships and the trade winds meeting the west coast of the U.S. I enjoyed the introduction on how deserts are formed as a paintbrush narrates the travel of the winds into the formation of the clouds; then eventually blocked by the Cascades and Sierra Nevada mountains. The other side of mountain chain creates the desert. Side note, desert land is represented in the parts of the west side due to other mountain ranges. Overall, the viewers comprehend how deserts are formed by weather and topography regardless of my personal technicalities and knowledge.
First, we learn about the lowest point with Death Valley, the boiling point of the Salton Sea, and ugly yet fascinating beauty of Monument Valley and other popular rock formations. The film sets a clear backdrop how desert are set in this visual stage. The settings were well-executed and fine tuned with clarity. The lighting and colors made me jump and desire to be part of the picture. I believe that this simple thought should be in the minds of camera operators, film editors, directors, and actors should keep to suddenly turn and look at the screen and make the audience come and join them. You can capture the urge by mere psychological babble and actions. This is a great experiment. If you walk along a ridge of mountain and playing a character who trek on the Pacific Crest Trail or Appalachian Trail, you feel as a camera is viewing every move. Think about how you could demonstrate through body language and showmanship how someone or something could join you. Throw a rock or scale up a rock wall. Encounter wild spearmint and cook a cup of tea. Get naked and pour the tea all over yourself. One can gesticulate the thought and visual.
As I described the actions for pulling the audience, the film demonstrated great sets of how animals and plant interact based on courtship/mating, survival, and pure digestive purposes. The person who created and directed the scenes must had a background in Shakespearian or stage play character writing. The way the film portrayed character encounters and movement dialogue - tarantula versus wasp or snake versus kangaroo rat or red-tail hawk versus snake or male tortoise versus opponent male tortoise or other displays were greatly emphasized and dramatized. Along the actions, the musical score was superb. The way of a successful storytelling described in smooth transitions with in and out characters either animals or humans are involved. I believed that the film did exactly this method in its great measure. The Sea Around Us, the previous film I viewed, lacked this format which lost my interest in its greater loop holes especially the propaganda overload. I am guilt of being a non-conformist. I need a good story to be told and shown in great visualization; not lectured to me.
The beauty of the film was the attention to detail to every animal and plant involved. I felt that I had a greater understanding of every creature and its relation to the desert. I think that the audience purely enjoyed the wild boars chasing the bobcat up the cacti, the courtship of the female tortoise, and wasp versus tarantula. I enjoyed the viewing due to my numerous camping trips out in the desert. I have an appreciation of the natural world. At the end, the film showed changing weather from dry heat to rainstorms, as result, showed the power of the flash floods in the canyons, badlands, and flat dry lands. As devastating destruction occurs, the desert showed the vibrant and showmanship of the cacti and the desert plant blooms. It is strategically smart of the filmmaker to show the colors of the flowers at the end and cascading between sunrise and sunset and the seasons. Therefore, I am swayed to plan a desert camping trip soon versus an ocean trip. I must find an oceanic film to which is equivalent to this film if I want to break the though.
I think that I could make good practice if I could write scenes based on non-human objects and show how the viewers want to watch or be part of the act. The act is what others want to act in. At least, they do not need to work rather then watch and enjoy the show. The hardest part is done for them. I rather be part of the scene even though being surrounded by a rattlesnake or a bobcat or a wild boar as a camping buddy would show me as an insane person. At least, I can see it on screen. As for now, tamarisk trees, prickly pears, Bighorn Sheep, tortoises and numerous small creatures from scorpions to tarantulas are harmless when we co-exist in this greater vast of hot, dry, and desolated living desert - full of life with minimal destruction.
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