Esta tierra es mi tierra

Is there any other musical figure in history who can be called as heroic as Woody Guthrie? The man was a musical genius, a visionary songwriter, and a great man, a man who never gave up on his dream, a man who gave up a lot of money so he could take his songs to the people, the people the songs were written by, and for, in the first place. Woody Guthrie was integrity personified, a great American hero. "Bound for Glory" is quite appropriately one of the greatest American films of all time, as well as one of the most criminally overlooked, despite two Academy Awards for cinematography and score, and four more nominations including 'Best Picture' (losing in that category to "Rocky").

Astonishingly accomplished cinematography from legend Haskell Wexler as well as some great editing and a stunning score in addition to Hal Ashby's (Harold and Maude) excellent direction make this a beautiful, haunting, and brilliant film. The performances carry the film, with David Carradine turning in what is surely his greatest ever performance, a stunning, passionate, beautiful portrayal of Guthrie which fully captures the man's spirit. Ronny Cox and Melinda Dillon are also superb in their roles. Ashby gets a sort of realism from his actors that is sorely missed today, and any other method of portrayal would make this film far less captivating and beautiful than it is. Screenwriter Robert Getchell adapts his script very well from Guthrie's autobiography, choosing the correct parts to tell. In many senses this feels less like a biopic and more like a story about working class America. Maybe that's why this is probably the greatest biopic of all time.

In terms of technical accomplishment, this is easily among the top 100 films of all time. It's a great American film about a great American hero. It tells the story of not only Guthrie, but also those who surrounded him and the people he sung to. It's a beautiful, emotional, and arresting film that is surely essential viewing. One of the most criminally overlooked films of all time.

A resounding 10/10

This film is about a guy who had integrity. He couldn't be bought off. He didn't sell out. Woody Guthrie felt his music. It came from a sense of caring about people. As a film, "Bound for Glory" does a ten-star job of conveying the spirit of a man who could joke when the chips were down and who could sing out with an affection his listeners could believe. Guthrie made music move people to see themselves as worthwhile, as creators of vitality, gusto and dignity. And he did this during the Great Depression.

People, especially people in the industrial world, feel less and less a sense of connectedness to each other. Community tends to lose quality as the rule of quantitative cheapness triumphs. The more the narrow, modern sort of individualism envelops them, the more humans slip into an alienation reinforced by commodified cocoons.

Wage-slaves we are and wage-slaves we were in the 1930s. Only back then, we still had some remnant of solidarity, some spark of humanity to touch each other with. We still do, but it's fading fast. Woody's life was about fanning those embers into flames as people worked for wages, while others, the unemployed and under paid caught up in the depression of the Great Depression, wondered whether their families and other families like them would ever make it. Woody came from them and he sang for them. Woody was a working class hero, a modern day troubadour. He infused his listeners with his humorous, never give-up gumption, which, if you weren't lucky enough to know him personally, came out in waves as you drank in his warm words and tunes. Woody made them feel that maybe they could be bound for glory!

If you find this movie on the rental shelf, pick it up and see it. It's great. I especially loved the scenes with Ozark Bule (played by Ronnie Cox). He must have been something. The first time you see him, he stands up on his vehicle near some unemployed field workers and sings the old IWW song composed by Joe Hill: ************************************************** Long-haired preachers come out every night Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right But when asked about something to eat They will answer in voices so sweet

'You will eat, by and by, In that glorious land above the sky Work and pray, live on hay - You'll get pie in the sky when you die' - that's a lie!

And the Starvation Army they play And they sing and the clap and they pray Till they get all your coin on the drum Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum . . .

Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out And they sing and they clap and they shout 'Give your money to Jesus,' they say, 'He will cure all diseases today . . .

Working folks of all countries, unite Side by side we for freedom will fight When the world and it's wealth we have gained To the grafters we'll sing this refrain:

You will eat, by and by, When you've learned how to cook and how to fry Chop some wood, it'll do you good Then you'll eat in the sweet by and by - that's no lie! ************************************************************

And David Carradine (Bill of "Kill Bill" fame) would never do acting as fine as this again. His Guthrie is near perfect, one level above Gary Cooper's portrayal of Sergeant York. Hal Ashby got the most from his acting company. They all look and act like real people with real lives, not stars. And Haskell Wexler's camera work is as artistically brushed as Woody's best known song:

*****************************************************************

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND words and music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus: This land is your land, this land is my land From California, to the New York Island From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway I saw above me an endless skyway I saw below me a golden valley This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts And all around me a voice was sounding This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling The fog was lifting a voice come chanting This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there And that sign said - no tress passin' But on the other side .... it didn't say nothing! Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple Near the relief office - I see my people And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin' If this land's still made for you and me

"Bound for Glory" is a dramatization of the early career of Woody Guthrie--particularly his wanderings around the country and the establishment of his career as a folk singer. However, the film does NOT cover his later years and his affliction with Huntington's.

Have you ever seen a movie that is well made and you are supposed to enjoy it but you didn't? That's my experience with "Bound for Glory". While I could see it was a fine film and David Carradine did a fine job, I found my attention wandering throughout. Part of it is because the film is VERY deliberately paced (i.e., slow). Part of it is because I just don't happen to care much about the subject matter. This is sad, I know, as I am a retired history teacher and I should love seeing the dust bowl and the history of Woody Guthrie but I still didn't. Part of it is because Guthrie was a pretty selfish guy (leaving his family and just going on the road for months or years at a time with little regard for them). Regardless, I just didn't enjoy the experience. Well done but I had a devil of a time with "Bound for Glory"... But, I am NOT saying it's a bad film or that you shouldn't see it--it's just that I was not bowled over by it like nearly all the other reviewers.

An unusual film, it starts by depicting the harsh life that many had to live during the Depression era, but then about halfway through it takes a sharp turn to become a biography of a musician. This change is rather jarring, as it comes unexpected. It manages to paint the glumness and the poverty of the Depression era so well that the sudden change in story direction just about violates what has gone before. In fairness, it does give us an idea of what the protagonist went through and what motivated his career, but is there not too much time spent on it? There is relatively little in the way of story until the music side enters in. It is quite meandering, and full of characters that have no importance later on, there is cause to wonder whether it could have been compressed down. For the adventure genre that the film best fits into, it is also relatively unexciting. The film is rather awkwardly put together, and it could do with a few events removed, but there are still a lot of good points to it. The cinematography won the film an Academy Award, as did the adapted music soundtrack, and both these elements are good. Haskell Wexler has chosen some interesting angles to shoot the film from, and the songs are fitted into the material quite well. Overall it is a good film, but a difficult one too. It takes patience to get through, but there are some good things in the end.

"Bound For Glory" is a very involving and interesting movie in a hypnotic, slow-moving seventies kind of way. In fact, for the first 45 minutes I was watching it on cable TV, I had no idea why I was watching it. Nothing much was happening. The "story" was episodic and meandering. But I did watch the thing all the way through--all 2 and a half hours of it. In retrospect, I can now see some reasons why the film held me so. To begin with, the cinematography is beautiful and the music is wonderful. But mostly it was the acting, which is uniformly excellent in a naturalistic way that is rarely seen these days. I had the impression I was peeking in on real people and events, not on movie actors playing out a script. The biggest revelation, however, was David Carradine, who gives an amazing performance as Woody Guthrie. He's just living the part. I mean--what has the guy ever done before or since that even hinted at the fact that he could act so damn well? Nothing, that's what! Carradine's performance in "Bound for Glory" reminds me of two other, more recent performances in similar films: Ashley Judd in Victor Nunez's "Ruby in Paradise" and Peter Fonda in the role that gave him an Oscar nomination, "Ulee's Gold", also by Nunez.

In these films you can see the main character thinking, breathing--living. Not acting out some melodrama.

Another common thread runs between these three performances, too: none of these actors have been allowed to (or been able to?) do work anywhere near as good again. The post-"Ruby" Judd has gone on to major in spunky thriller heroines and Fonda has drifted back off the map to wherever he was before "Ulee."

But Carradine is the one who really breaks your heart. He has continued acting, like Judd. But the horrendous quality of his projects make you wish he'd disappeared back in to the vapor of obscurity, like Fonda. After watching "Bound For Glory", the sight of Carradine zombie-walking through an episode of "Kung Fu: the Legend Continues" or snarling like a brain-dead idiot in one of his European-made direct-to-video action cheapies is enough to make you cry. The massive talent he wasted.

Still, many actors never have even one moment of glory.