Chang

Chang (1927)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

A rather remarkable and at times eye-opening documentary about a family living in the deep jungles of Northern Siam. The film follows their daily lives and shows us how they work, live, play and eventually hunt game. CHANG has been called a documentary but I do wonder how much "story" actually went on and it sure seems that a lot of the footage was probably shot and prepared in such a way that the filmmakers could tell a more dramatic story. That's certainly not a negative thing or a strike against the movie because there's no question this film is rather incredible considering when it was made and some of the footage that they gathered. I'm sure some people might be bothered by some of the animals that are killed but the way I look at it is that the people living in these villages were fighting for their lives so it's understandable that they'd kill the creatures that were trying to kill them. The filmmakers are quite respectful as we never see any of the actual deaths on screen so those sensitive to the material won't find anything graphic. I think the animal footage is some of the most amazing that I've seen. When you think of various animal footage from this era you think of poorly done stock footage but there were several times during the film that I was stumped as to how they got the shots that they did. The tiger hunt sequence is certainly one of the highlights of the film as it appears several times that the camera is right in the path of the beast. Another memorable moment comes at the end when the chang (elephants) stampede. There are countless animals on display from bears to snakes to anteaters to tigers and of course the elephants. Seeing these creatures in their natural homes was quite a bit of fun and it was also a reminder of how dangerous these things could be. The most interesting thing about this film is seeing how certain people lived during this time. Going into these jungles just makes one grateful that they weren't born there and at the same time you have to watch this and wonder if you could have done the things the people in these villages did.

Although crippled by a little too much comic relief from "cute" intertitle cards and an overacting monkey, this is a fascinating look at life in the jungles of Laos in the 1920s. You come away from this film with a respect for the cunning viciousness of wild tigers and leopards. Sure elephants are huge and can destroy a whole village when they stampede but the tigers and leopards seen here are just plain mean. Highly recommended is the audio commentary on the DVD which gives the listener a wealth of background information on the hell of making a film in the 115 degree jungle heat and constant danger of death from disease and animals.

Previously Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack made Grass, a very great silent documentary inspired by the success of Nanook of the North (which they hadn't even seen when they were flying off to the Middle East to film the long migration of a group of nomads). Grass was a real documentary, with little staging. Nanook, however, had a lot of staging, and has suffered a ton of criticism since its first release because of it. No matter how clearly Nanook is staged, Cooper's and Schoedsack's Chang is a hundred times more staged.

I don't care. It's an amazing film. Call it a fictionalized documentary, or a fudged one. Whatever. Chang is an awesome movie. The story is gripping, the cinematography is great, and the filmmaking in general is wonderful. I'm sitting there wondering how the hell they got these shots of tigers and elephants and stuff. I'm thinking Carl Denham, the risk-taking filmmaker from their own later King Kong. This whole movie seems like a preparation for King Kong. A couple of the scenes are repeated there. This may be preparation, but it is as amazing in its own way. 10/10.

Kru, wife Chantui and their three children live a fairly subsistence life in this silent film set amongst the wilderness of the Siamese forest. Here they try to peacefully co-exist with nature - providing they keep their livestock in an heavily fortified coral and build their home high up on stilts where coconut milk and freshly milled rice sustains them. A visiting leopard makes short work of his animal's defences though, and he decides that he must ensnare this beast before it eats him out of house and home (and quite possibly family, too). He carries on cultivating his land using a water buffalo whilst their pet - a perfectly wild - monkey makes short work of the larder and Chantui weaves herself a basket. Night-time brings an a operation that might make Noah's ark look straightforward as they get their animals snug, and hopefully safe for the night. Sadly, more bad news awaits them in the morning when they discover that the buffalo went for an early morning stroll and encountered a tiger! What of the leopard, though? Will it take the bait and find self ensnared too? Kru realises he needs help so travels to the local village to get help building more, sometimes quite complex, traps and tracking down the beast of prey. Pits, nets, razor sharp bamboo spikes. Battles lines are drawn as man hunts beast and beast hunts man. There's something authentic about this. Aside from some pretty risky natural world photography, we see that the ingenuity and weaponry of man is usually more than a match for the instinctive power of those wild creatures who are simply no match for ropes and the bullet! Until, that is, an herd of elephants prove that even bullets won't stop everything and the villagers must resort to camouflage and stealth to drive and contain this marauding menace! At times it's quite exciting to watch and it builds well to a dangerous and chaotic if, I felt, entirely unsatisfactory denouement. All sorts of critters feature here and it's worth watching to illustrate just how nature gets on when mankind is part of it's matrix, not all of it. "Brain outweighs brawn". Pity, that, sometimes.

Thanks to those other reviewers for filling in the background to what is now an antique-- but no less fascinating-- oddity. The movie reflects a time period when enterprising (and intrepid) filmmakers like Cooper and Schoedsack were discovering the audience potential for semi-documentaries showing exotic peoples and locales.

Here it's an adventure in northern Siam (Thailand). The rough storyline follows a Laotian family and villagers as they compete against a fierce jungle for livelihood. As expected, scenes are filled with wild beasts and clambering natives. Some scenes are obvious pandering —the gamboling monkey, the cute baby; others are pure spectacle—the rampaging elephant herd, the marauding big cats. Of course, much of the animal spectacle-- though not the killing-- is familiar in our age of 24-hour cable TV. Still, seeing how the natives cope under primitive conditions remains fascinating.

A couple points, I think, are worth noting. Though the exact locale is not pin-pointed on a map, the location appears roughly within what has since become known notoriously as The Golden Triangle (northern convergence of Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam). Whatever its status in 1927, the Triangle has grown into one of the world's biggest sources of heroin-grade opium. I can't help wondering whether the advance of a money economy has since turned villagers like those of the movie into cash-crop farmers.

Also, the movie's theme writes confidently of the jungle's permanent presence. Eighty years later with new waves of extractive technology, and I wonder if that permanence is as assured now as it was then. Looks to me like the rainforests are under industrial siege and may well be losing their presence in the face of human advancement. A rather ironical turn of events.

Neither of these points is meant to detract from the overall excellence of the film. However, I don't think the movie should be viewed as a dead historical document. Instead, it can be used as an informative lens for looking at the age-old struggle between man and nature.