The Pearl

One of the worst movies I have ever seen.

• acting...uh what acting - plot...just plain silly. I bet the book was good but this movie puts the whole story to shame.

• i took us about 15 minutes to find out the movie took place in Mexico or some other country in central America. Bad casting: Gringo Americans trying to act like Mexicans - the guy who played Kino bombed it so badly that it wasn't funny anymore.

• why oh why did Richard Harris take part in this movie. Doesn't he have better things to do like take care of his garden and visit grandchildren and so on.

+ the DVD's box made me pick up this crap so i guess it's worth mentioning

The movie was interesting as far as the story goes. Unfortunately, the acting and some of the plot devices which attempted to pull the movie together and to give the viewer some relationship with the characters were so pathetic and contrived that it literally made me laugh. This is the type of movie which would have made a great episode of Mystery Science 2000. Some of the action scenes were embarrassing, the idea that a man and his wife with a newborn child could go trudging through the desert with no provisions. Please, if you watch this, enjoy it as a comedy. Otherwise, you will have to turn it off about 20 or 30 minutes in. I am sure that no one will ever read this review because this movie is so poor I doubt anyone would waste their time like I have.

Dear Mr. Zacharias,

Hi! My name is Johnny Sun. I highly respect your work sir, but you put the original, award winning novel The Pearl to shame. The book is known for it's remarkable lessons, and vivid details in which your movie seemed to lack. Your movie had absolutely none of the examples in which he was transforming into an animal. This was one of the most important reasons in the book explaining how greed will lead you to another side of you that awakens when you become selfish and self centered. Another reason that your movie was missing, is the knife he had from the beginning and the one he had encountered on his adventure. In your movie, out of nowhere he gets this long, sharp, and not to mention deadly machete which had taken the place of his working tool. In the book he had a regular knife to open up pearls which was a working tool that signified and complimented Kino's personality and nature. Later on, he upgrades to a machete which signified his inner personality and how the transformation was taking place. Finally, in the end the baby did not die. As much as this pains me to say, the baby should have, no, needed to die. Without the baby's death Kino would not have had a change of heart and an understanding of human nature. Also without the baby's death there would have been absolutely no point in throwing away the pearl. Mr. Zacharias, this movie is not worth 8 million dollars of funding. Many readers of the pearly would agree with me that the movie is terrible, right about now I am beginning to question if you read the book at all or heard a horrible summary from a close friend or family member. Overall this movie was very dissatisfying to readers like me. I hope that this letter has enlightened you and changed your idea about a good movie based on a spectacular book

With Hope,

Johnny Sun

Compare to the all big blockbuster movies, this movie has inner beauty about it. It's pleasant to watch and heart warming. The emotions of the story portrayed very well. It's a really good movie in my opinion.

I recently saw this movie in my English class after my reading of the pearl. The novella the Pearl was the influence of this movie. However the movie lacked many of the important symbols and events from the book. Juana's shall was one important symbol in the book. The movie never portrayed this. Also in the movie the doctor was made a major character. In the original story, the doctor was a much smaller character. Hardly any of Stienbeck's imagery was showed either. This destroyed the entire point of the movie and the plot was not preserved. It was a horrible attempt at a recreation of the pearl. I'm sure that if John Steinbeck were alive to see this horrible movie today, He would be ashamed that his work inspired this terrible movie. I do not recommend this movie for any one, especially those who read the book. If you have read this book and seen this movie you probably know the horrible job it did making the book come alive. If you need to read the book for any kind of class this isn't the movie to take the easy way out with. This movie gives the book a bad name.