Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness

"A MARVEL MOVIE—Nothing Else Describes It!"

1927 1h 9m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 26

DocumentaryAdventureDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.

“A MARVEL MOVIE—Nothing Else Describes It!”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

GuideDocSubscription

Cast

Natives of the Wild
Themselves
Wild Beasts
Themselves
The Jungle
Itself
Kru
Kru - the Lao Tribesman
Chantui
Chantui - His Wife
Nah
Nah - Son and Heir of the House of Kru
Ladah
Their Little Girl
Bimbo the Monkey

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack
Writers: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Achmed Abdullah
Languages: No Language
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 69-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

99 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, shot by Ernest B. Schoedsack. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Hugo Riesenfeld. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Louis R. Loeffler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Natives of the Wild and Wild Beasts and The Jungle carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A MARVEL MOVIE—Nothing Else Describes It!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ernest B. Schoedsack directs. Ernest B. Schoedsack behind the camera. Hugo Riesenfeld scores. Louis R. Loeffler cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in No Language.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 69-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
299 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, shot by Ernest B. Schoedsack. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Hugo Riesenfeld. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Louis R. Loeffler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Natives of the Wild and Wild Beasts and The Jungle carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "A MARVEL MOVIE—Nothing Else Describes It!".
9IMDB entry: tt0017743 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Only 26 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
11Classified under 8 themes, including "elephant", "village", "animal attack", "leopard".

The technical file

Cinematography: Ernest B. Schoedsack
Original score: Hugo Riesenfeld
Editing: Louis R. Loeffler
Runtime: 69 min · 1h 9m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927)

Also by

Ernest B. Schoedsack

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-02-09
★ 7/10
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.

Production companies