Louisiana Story (1948)

Lopert Films

Director: Robert J. Flaherty

Starring: Joseph Boudreaux, Lionel Le Blanc

Honors:

National Film Registry

Famed for his works of “docu-fiction,” Robert J. Flaherty showcases life on the Louisiana bayou in this feature. In reality the film actually focuses on the practice of oil drilling, with the attempt to make it appear humane and beneficial set to America’s southern wetlands. Financed by the mammothly wealthy corporation Standard Oil, the film reflects rose colored, positive light of encroachment on natural spaces throughout the country. As a filmmaker Flaherty takes the project on as an opportunity to capture the natural beauty of the bayou and its unique inhabitants. Despite its origins of corporate fabrication, the film would receive some distinctively positive praise capturing on film essences of a lesser known lifestyle on the swamplands of Louisiana and its notable score.

Louisiana Story is a docufiction about a young Cajun boy whose tranquil life in the bayou is disrupted with the emergence of oil drilling near his home. Alexander Napoleon Ulysses Le Tour, or what is simply credited as “the boy” (Joseph Boudreaux), is a carefree Cajun lad who enjoys the simple life in the swampy bayou with his pet raccoon when his father (Lionel Le Blanc) signs a deal for an oil company to drill a well on his property. Curious towards all the new happenings that are completely foreign to him, the boy gets the opportunity to experience up close views at the operations after befriending a pair of kindly laborers on the sight of the temporary oil rig. A pair of side adventures see the boy hunt down an alligator who he believes killed his raccoon while the oil rig experience a near disaster while drilling that is quickly averted. After the well is tapped the drillers and the rig depart with only a small, clean remnant of all the drilling activity, leaving the boy with happy memories.

On the general surface the picture a very bland feature that appears to have no real purpose consisting of some very poor acting. It contains a weak plot, if one can even call it that, amateur cinematography with mundanely staged scenes to go along with the awkward performances that altogether lack timing and drive. However, the visuals of the Louisiana bayou country, the natural activities of the people that live this kind of life, as well as the documenting of the inner workings of the oil drilling  process decently edited comes together into decent film of substance and composition.

Putting the Louisiana Story into perspective of time, place, and background of the production the film becomes much more than what a casual passing glance at the picture provides. Firstly the feature was a commissioned work by Standard Oil to help promote a humanitarian-centric outlook at how the company operates to the general public, a ploy to paint the company is a far better light than the greedy, rich company it would in fact be. To produce the picture was filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty of Nanook of the North fame whose ability to stage a story within his documentary style of filmmaking creates a fictional story that appears very genuine and true.

Financed with $258,000 Flaherty and cameraman Richard Leacock set out to Louisiana with special, lightweight 35mm cameras made popular by the use of German filmmakers of World War II, but instead of trying to make Nazis look good it was Standard Oil.  With a cast of Louisiana locals to deliver the natural behaviors of their settings that Flaherty was attempting to capture, he constructed a simple tale of a boy innocent boy observing this practice in his own backyard. The oil company politely and cleanly enters the area around his home while our boy watches in curiously in awe. Splicing in much of the local nature gave the film its sense of realism, as the picture is semi-documentary, but as it all comes together it is a fiction decorated in realism to serve its proposed message.

The oil company to this boy is portrayed by two men working at the sight played by Frank Hardy and C.P. Guedry, and their portrayal make the actions of this encroaching work practice appear friendly and welcoming to our main character. Their friendliness allows the boy access to get a close look at what these drillers do in this real life loud and dangerous worksite, supplying us for more documentary style moments as we observe the men ply there craft. Not too much actually happens during the length of the movie aside from the boy capturing an alligator, one of the few scenes that have nothing to do with oil drilling. At the end of the picture the oil right pulls away with little to no remnants of what they did to the bayou, making their practice seem beneficial with little to no negativity to the surrounding environment, benefitting everyone.

The overall style of the picture allows the feature to perceive tranquility and harmonious coexistence between an innocent boy, his home, nature, and the practices of the oil drilling appearing as a beautiful cohabitation that is clean and positive for all. Of course in real life this would be far from the truth, especially in days of far less regulation meant to protect the environment and the locals from oil drilling disasters that have plagued recent memory. The feature was in reality corporate propaganda that for the most part audiences would eat right up.

To accentuate the visuals and of Flaherty was the musical score by Virgil Thomson who researched local Cajun musicians inspiring him in creating a composition that pays tribute to that areas unique culture. The local flavor of the music interrupted for the film by classically trained composer and performed by a renounced orchestra resulted in a score of such great quality and repute that it would be honored with a Pulitzer Prize for Music, making Louisiana Story the only film score to receive such an honor.

Despite being such a simple film with a corporate agenda behind its production, the independent film received some decent acclaim from critics, even garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Story. In retrospect we can witness the corporate intentions by which the picture was made, but Louisiana Story allowed Robert J. Flaherty yet another opportunity to share a place and peoples that general audiences would not be familiar with. Showcasing the natural beauty of the Louisiana swamplands and Cajuns, the film is a time capsule, even if it is staged. Its candid images of nature, as well as the labor of an oil rig during this period provides future generations a close look into these worlds that are now very much different. Because of these reasons and Flaherty’s feature was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1994.

Today one would be hard pressed to find anyone who knows about this Robert J. Flaherty film as it is more of of a historical piece than a work of art when compared films that have come since its release. Its score can be enjoyed on its own, apart of the film as it captures the laid back twang of this region’s unique style of music. A good quality copy of the film may be hard to come by to a general viewer to appreciate the docudrama cinematography of the film, but if you ever do get a chance to see this feature, give it a chance with the proper perspective in mind.