Our Daily Bread

The film, though socialistic in many ways, represents the drive to get back to nature as stressed by FDR. It represents the optimism believed by people that the current system had gotten too complex and that people were mere cogs. By creating a co-op, the characters essentially created a system focused on barter. This form of commerce could not become corrupted to an extent as a monetary based market did. Had the film been a propaganda film biased towards a socialist state, the emphasis of the importance of money would not have been as pivotal as it became partway through the movie. This film served not as propaganda, but as a solution to a common shared problem of a bleak time in American history. Because of this, this movie should not be viewed with the same biases of the 21st century.

Boy, is this film interpreted differently, depending on which critic is discussing it. Overall, however, most of them - including me - like this movie and find it interesting.

Today's critics like to use this film as a boost for socialistic or Commununstic causes, but that's baloney. One could easily do the opposite and use this film as an analogy to the early Christians, too - people who banded together pooling their talents and possessions for the good of the whole group.

This was a simply of story of America during the Great Depression with a bunch of people out of work, so they try to make a living by turning themselves into farmers and making a go of it together.

Tom Keane and Karen Morley star in here, playing husband-and-wife. Morely played a very upbeat, sweet lady who was joy to watch. Keane's acting was strange. At times it bordered on raw amateurism. He also looked, with the wild expressions, as if he were back doing a silent film.

The rest of the cast was solid, from the Swedish farmer to the tough guy who turned himself in to the police to help the rest of the group. Overall, a good film and worth watching, whatever your politics.

Desperate people set in desperate Great Depression times try to eke out a living on an abandoned farm. Rousing for its "back to the land" pioneering spirit of people from all walks of life forced to help each other start a new life (or starve). The film preaches self-reliance (away from expecting government assistance), yet encourages people to help each other (in a somewhat Socialistic sense), so there are mixed messages here. There seems to be an undercurrent not to trust the various forms of government either.

Parts of this film are greater than the whole, with uneven performances and some hackneyed "girl tries to steal husband" scenes that make you want to fast-forward... Director King Vidor managed to get "OK" performances out of some of the lesser (amateur?) performers (some of which never made another film).

I've seen this film dozens of times for its most interesting scenes, tops of which include the famous ditch digging scene at the films end.

Unlike Grapes of Wrath, Our Daily Bread is overall optimistic that the individual can rise above dire straits to triumph through "work, work without stopping." Unfortunately, this film has enough flaws in story and acting to keep it from anywhere near the masterpiece status Grapes of Wrath has achieved.

A young impoverished couple (Tom Keene, Karen Morley) with no employment is given some land and a farm by an uncle during the Depression.The couple finds hardships on their way and they'll have to fight against distress, elements, and drought. They are helped by some hapless people (John Qualen and many others) and success in managing the land, creating a socialist community . They find hardships as the struggle to support themselves. As they struggle to maintain their dignity and pride and the enjoyable community is peppered with some happy moments, Meanwhile a cover-girl (Pepper) is tempting to the protagonist John.

This is a naturalist rural drama magnificently performed and splendidly staged. This look at day-to-day existence of a poor-class couple is a superb naturalistic celebration of fighting to survive amid all the disgraces, and drought. Its best scenes are referred when the workers are commonly digging the land and water running through the furrows. It contains with numerous sequences highly influenced by Russian directors, such as Alexander Dovshenko and Sergei Eisenstein. Interesting screenplay by King Vidor, risking bankruptcy to finance it, furthermore clever dialogs by the great director Joseph L Mankiewicz. It was a deserved critical success for its sincere treatment of sentiments and its thrillingly slick edition, and innovative utilization of mobile camera. Neo-realist and evocative photography by Robert Planck. Sensible and imaginative musical score by the classic Alfred Newman.

The picture is originally directed by King Vidor. After his successful ¨The last parade¨ one of the great war films of the silent era, he directed ¨The crowed(1928)¨, one of the best mute motion pictures, that is a precedent to ¨Our daily bread¨ and concerning about a working-class people against the backdrop of wealthy society. Later on, Vidor explored similar theme in ¨Street impact¨and he went on filming successful movies such as ¨Duel in the sun (46)¨, ¨Fountainhead(49), ¨Ruby Gentry¨ terminating with blockbusters as ¨War and Peace¨and ¨Solomon and Sheba¨. Rating : Better than average. This sentimental and religious film appeal to uncharacteristic Hollywood epic buffs.

Politically, this is one of those movies (like High Noon, for instance) that you can read any way you like. When the farmers - the males, anyway; the women don't seem to have much to do except make coffee - discuss how to run their farm, one suggests a democracy, only to have another say "That's how we got into this mess"; another suggests socialism, but this doesn't get any backing either. Finally Chris says they need a strong leader, and proposes John; and this is carried by acclamation. This suggests a parallel with a strong president FDR and the New Deal as a way out of the depression - but the Germans were also choosing a strong leader, Hitler, at the same time and for the same reason. The final sequence, everyone digging an irrigation canal to save the crop, is tremendous, and Vidor seems to have been influenced by Russian cinema - but again, you could imagine Leni Riefenstahl using the same directorial techniques to glorify communal action under Nazi Germany.