 Sinclair reportedly bought the negative of the film prior to 1916, hoping to market the film nationally after its initial release in 1914.Sinclair himself reportedly appears at the beginning and end of the movie, as a sort of endorsement of the film.The film, from historical accounts at the time of release, included the scene of Jurgis murdering the foreman who raped Jurgis' wife by throwing him over a walkway into a "sea of frightful horns passing beneath him" (cattle).