Greg Mitchell’s newest film is currently playing on PBS On-Line (the film can be found here)
The film is the dual story of Woodie Guthrie and John Steinbeck who in their early days of their careers encountered the displaced farmers and families sent looking for hope and a home after the Depression hit and the Dust Bowl destroyed the farms of many farmers. The film charts how being on the ground, Guthrie traveling and performing and Steinbeck writing and reporting on the situation made them allies in trying to help their fellow Americans. The film explores how a need to say something and desire to make changes resulted in not only changes that helped rebuild America but also resulted in great art. Greg being Greg he doesn’t just leave it there. The film not only tells the story of the two legends but also takes things to today and connects everything up to the Bruce Springstein song that gives the film part of its title.
I like this film a great deal. Watching it on the day before July 4th, I was moved by how I was reminded that the was once time when America was functioning and wasn’t completely broken. This isn’t to say that there weren’t problems, rather its to be reminded that there was still hope in Americans, that there not only was a better place, but also that if we worked together and actually tried to fix a problem things could turn out okay (or reasonably so). The film also makes clear that things haven’t changed and that we still need to work to make things better.
As with all of Greg’s films the past is never gone and it is always present. Greg’s sense of this is not then but now is why his films are so powerful. History is not dead but living in our living rooms. If you need proof all you need do is watch the final sequences where things are brought up to date and Springsteen’s words married to Greg’s choice of images, make it clear for many it might as well be 1936.
This film is awesome. It will move you, if not emotionally, then to think about the place we are right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment