Water and the Dream of the Engineers (review)

and a recent on-camera interview). I am in admiration of the effective use of historical materials to convey the social implications of the TVA and the struggle—in part of personalities—that took place between Morgan and Lilienthal. This film would be an excellent way to study New Deal social policy and arguments over government centralization , while at the same time seeing how the New Deal used the techniques of modern propaganda in selling the TVA to America. Surely consultant William Leuchtenburg and Richard Couto, principal researcher, deserve credit for the sensitivity with which the 1930s are shown. I simply cannot say the same for the rest of this film. Spears feels that atomic power is a waste of money; he believes that strip-mining of coal has denuded the landscape; he comes perilously close to suggesting that TVA directors of the 1950s and 1960s were either crooks or knaves, or both; and he makes a point of introducing footage to convey the sense that materialistic America is explained, in the Tennessee Valley, by the selling of needless electrical appliances to gullible country folk. The snail darter is given its due, and the indignation of Spears over the taking of farmland from poor people for rights-of-way in the building of dams (unnecessary dams) is described at length. The film has enormous virtues. One might show it along with Pare Lorentz's The River (1937); one might assign it with parts of David Lilienthal's own books. For the more recent period, Spears relies on Harry Caudill, Night Comes to the Cumberland, part of which could also be assigned. I hold no brief for TVA policies in the 1960s, but it is a shame that the tone of a fine film turns from historical appraisal to polemics. How that change occurs might of course make for another way in which this film could be used in the classroom. David Culbert Louisiana State University Film Review Watef and the Dream of the Engineers produced by Richard Broadman and John Grady. Distributed by Cine Research Associates, Boston. Water and the Dream of the Engineers tackles a major societal issue with a significant past and an imposing future. The film explores the water-use problem of the United States in two parts: Part I focuses on water history, Part II on modern conflicts. Part I consists of a segment titled Water for All which traces the historic dilemma of water delivery to New York City. Part II presents two cases: Upstream-Downstream: New Orleans and River Contamination and Water Wars: California. These latter two segments can be rented or purchased separately. 20 While the film offers some useful insights, overall it does not live up to the hype in its advertising. The accompanying written copy claims that the film is "an educational odyssey about engineering, environmentalism and the troubled relations between these two traditions"—a theme more implicit than explicit throughout most of the eighty-minute running time. Water for All attempts to document "the history of modern water and sewer systems and the social conflicts that surrounded their construction." However, there is little effort in the narration or through screen titles to provide a clear chronology of events to place the establishment of modern urban water supply systems and waste-water systems in time. While an accompanying study guide provides some background for the New York City water system, the film itself does little to clarify the origins of sanitary systems and sanitary engineering—key elements in understanding the "troubled relations" between environmentalism and engineering. Also this segment tends to perpetuate the notion that the impetus for a new water supply system in New York City came primarily from the need for fire protection. In reality, concerns of public health and sanitation were equally significant, but the film discusses the health issue only in terms of the poorest sections of the city. Admittedly, there is a great deal of history to pack in such a brief segment. Yet, if the producers wanted to establish a relationship between societal needs and engineers' dreams they needed to establish a sounder historical context. The issues raised in Upstream-Downstream are critical ones, making...