12/15/2013
Bahman Maghsoudlou has rendered a loving tribute to three intrepid individuals—Merian Cooper, Ernest Schoesdack and Marguerite Harrison—whose adventurous lives intersected on three continents in the turbulent years between 1914 and 1925, the years of the still-amazing documentary, Grass, and in 1933, the year of the epochal King Kong. In the course of his conjoined narratives, Mr. Maghsoudlou takes us into Soviet prisons, spy missions in Moscow, the Greco-Turkish war in Asia Minor, and the far reaches of Japan, Siberia, Korea, China, Mongolia, Ethiopia,Saudi Arabia, and Persi
Indeed, the book reads like a dozen adventure movies rolled into one except that every spectacular incident was true. Mr. Maghsoudlou has helped us fill many gaps in our understanding of the direction taken by the world in the early years of the 20th Century. It is a book to be read, savored and treasured by the enlightened and curious reade
—Andrew Sarr
"'Grass,' the legendary documentary by the King Kong of filmmakers, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack and the remarkable adventurer/spy Marguerite Harrison, remains one of the most incredible records of man versus nature in cinema history. The even more astonishing story of how they accomplished such a feat has now been told with great skill and affection by Bahman Maghsoudlou
—Dennis Doros, film historian/archivis
“The making of GRASS has always been shrouded in mystery; now, Bahman Maghsoudlou has lifted its veils and not only told us how the film was made, but also why it deserves its unique place in film history
—Richard Peña, Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Professor of Film Studies, Columbia Universit
"As riveting and action-packed as a great adventure novel, ranging from the trenches of World War I to the icy mountain passes of Persia, Bahman Maghsoudlou's account of the personalities, passions and perils behind the making of the legendary documentary GRASS brings to brilliant life one of cinema history's most daring exploits. In filmmakers Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack and Marguerite Harrison, the author sketches three of the most extraordinary characters to ever grace a movie, behind or in front of the camera. This book would make a fascinating movie itself
—Godfrey Cheshire, Film critic, Filmmak
“In 1923, spurred in part by the success of Robert Flaherty’s landmark film ‘Nanook of the North’ two years earlier, an unusual trio of Americans set off for another equally distant spot to make their own documentary about the harrowing seasonal migration of Iran’s remote Bakhtiari tribesmen. Since nearly a hundred years later, the region to which they traveled so arduously is still almost unknown to and unvisited by people from anywhere else in the world, their remarkable film “Grass” has retained an undimmed interest. In addition to providing an unusually detailed “Making of,” as it might be called today, this book recounts dozens of remarkable stories, and suggests many others. Hanging over the whole project is the irony that the first feature film to be shot in Iran was made by Americans, six years before the first Iranian-produced feature
—Peter Scarlet, Artistic Director, Tribeca Film Festiv
Review excerpt from : www.mazdapublisher.c
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