The Living Desert (1953)

There’s a fun scene in this documentary that sees a tiny little mouse try to burrow it’s way out of the jaws of a rattlesnake only to find it’s assisted by a very unlikely ally - a tarantula! That should give you a clue as to the content of this film that very much does what it says on the can. Using some intimate (and probably patient) photographic techniques, we spend time in the arid wilderness of Death and Monument Valleys where despite the dryness a great variety of flora and fauna not only survive but thrive. It’s very much an eat or be eaten mentality for just about everything as there prove to be few safe hiding places for predators with two feet, four feet, giant leaves, prickles or great big wings but there’s a sense of equilibrium here as everything seems to be in proportion. It doesn’t rain much, nor has it for years, but at greater and more distant altitudes the cloudbursts do provide great volumes of water that make their way down the usually bone-dry river valleys with considerable force as they provide much needed sustenance for the environment for an hour or two, or a day or two, before the sun reasserts itself and evaporates anything not put to better use already. I’m not a great fan of Winston Hibler’s narrations, but here that matters less as we can just sit and watch how vivid colours emerge from the constant beige of the sand and everything from small insects to giant eagles exist in harmony. Some of the scenarios do look a little shall we say “created”, but they still serve their purpose in introducing an audience to life here and, well it is Disney after all. Worth a watch.

Jun 7, 2025