Bound For Glory

directed by Hal Ashby (1976)

Why aren't movies like this made anymore?  I mean what the hell happened to the cool flicks that mythologised people who were actual heroes instead of bullshit superheroes who just fight other imaginary super people?  I shouldn't compare biopics to fictional fantasy, but come on, let's get back to admiring the awesome people around us who make an effort to do the right thing, ok?

Woody Guthrie, wasn't a hero in the conventional sense; he was a musician.  But he acted heroically when he stood up to an oppressive corporation.  He had integrity at a time when people were desperately poor and he wrote songs about that experience.  He was part of a grassroots musical revival that honoured regular folk and he was a representative voice for the working class and disenfranchised when the rich would rather that voice be silenced.

I think the scene that sums up his activist mentality best was when he goes to the well to do, charitable, lady's house and asks her if she feels ashamed that she has so very much when so many have so little.  It's still a good question to ask.  The scene starts around 1:29 - this youtube has the whole flick, but I'd suggest watching a better version to get the full visual effect.

It's a gorgeous film and was nominated for 5 Academy Awards: Best Writing, Best Costume, Best Film Editing and it won for Best Music, and the one it really deserved - Best Cinematography.  Seriously it's a great looking flick.

I recognised a bunch of actors in small parts: James Hong as a cook,  Brion James as a family man turned back at the California border because he didn't have the $50 bribe to get in, and  M. Emmet Walsh as an intolerant vacationer.  Walsh's role was reminiscent of the character he played in Raising Arizona.

David Carradine does a good job singing like Woody Guthrie, but the performance I liked best had to be this old timey rendition of Columbus Stockade Blues by Cara Corren and Susan Barnes.  On the imdb message board, there's a thread where one of the girls talked about her experience making the film and how she still gets residuals from the film that generally amount to about $28 a year. There was no post production on the song, there was a mic in the ground and that's it.  A lovely harmony they gots eh?