I watched a 1930s logging movie and now I want a flannel shirt

You should watch this if you have a thing for old machinery or just like seeing how things worked before the internet made everyone soft. If you need a plot or characters who talk about their feelings, you are going to hate this so much. 🪵

It is just wood. Everywhere. For like thirty minutes straight.

I found myself staring at the hats these guys wore. Why did everyone in 1930 wear a fedora or a flat cap even when they were about to get crushed by a pine tree? It makes no sense but it looks cool in a very dusty way.

The movie starts in the winter and it looks miserable. You can almost feel the frostbite through the screen.

There are these giant horses pulling sleds full of logs. The horses look like they have seen some stuff and they are probably the smartest beings in the whole film.

The narrator for the version I saw was Tim Sample. His voice is very Maine—thick like molasses and a bit scratchy.

It sounds like he is telling you a story while sitting on a porch. Which is good because without the talking, it would just be a lot of grainy silence and the sound of your own breathing.

One scene that really got me was when they start dynamiting the log jams. They just toss the sticks in and pray, I guess.

The water splashes up and looks like white static because the film quality is so rough. It is kind of beautiful if you don't think about the fish.

Then you have the log drivers. These guys are basically circus performers with death wishes.

They stand on floating logs in the middle of a rushing river and just... balance. They use these long poles called peaveys to poke the wood along.

I can barely walk on a flat sidewalk without tripping. These guys are doing it on wet, spinning bark. 🌊

One guy in the back of a shot totally slips but the camera cuts away. I really hope he was okay but I doubt it.

The film is called From Stump to Ship but the ship part feels like an afterthought. We spend way more time with the stumps.

It reminds me of A Dangerous Adventure but with more flannel and less acting. It is just raw footage of labor.

There is no music for most of it. Just the narration and the visual of trees falling over and over.

It gets a bit repetitive around the middle. You see one tree fall, you have seen them all, right? Wrong.

Every tree falls slightly differently and I found myself rooting for the bigger ones to put up a fight. They never do.

The saws they use are massive. Two guys on either side just pulling back and forth until their arms must have felt like jelly.

I wonder what they ate for lunch. Probably just bread and grit.

The whole thing feels like a time capsule that someone dug up in a backyard. It is not polished and it doesn't try to be important.

It is just a record of work. Hard, dirty, dangerous work that probably wouldn't be allowed today because of about a thousand safety laws.

If you have seen The Wolves of the Waterfront, you know that old industrial vibes can be weirdly catchy. This is like that but more rural.

The ending is kind of abrupt. The logs get to the mill, things get sliced up, and then it just ends.

No big moral. No "save the trees" message. Just wood.

I liked it more than I expected to. It is the kind of thing you put on when you want to feel productive without actually doing anything.

The film is scratched up and sometimes the light leaks in and turns everything white. It adds to the charm.

It makes you realize how much noise modern movies have. Here, it is just the task at hand.

I think my grandpa would have loved this. Or maybe he would have hated it because it reminded him of actually working.

Either way, it is a weirdly peaceful watch for something so violent toward nature. Check it out if you are bored of superheroes. 🌲🪓