The Southerner

Rating:
Summary: A Southern family sets up a farm in this Jean Renoir film
Review: "The Southerner," directed by Jean Renoir in 1945 from George Sessions Perry's novel "Hold Autumn in Your Hand," is an interesting example of the pastoral films of post-War Hollywood. The film is one of those films honorable the indomitable spirit of man as it follows the Tucker family in their efforts to set up a self-sufficient farm in the South. San (Zachary Scott), Nona (Betty Field), their children and their spunky granny (Beluah Bondi) have to put up with poverty, weather, disease and even the hostility of their neighbors as everything goes wrong. If a storm is not wrecking their crops, then one of their neighbors sends a cow to eat their vegetable patch. Renoir was one of the first directors to do location shooting for non-Western films, having first gone to the Deep South for 1941's "Swamp Water." But whereas the locale of "The Southerner" is certainly realistic, the same came not be said for the actors. There is an inherent urban sophistication to Scott, so that it just does not seem right that he is out there catching a fish with his bare hands or offering up a hillbilly prayer to God. Renoir needed the same sort of earnest characterization of the great unwashed you find in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath." However, certainly this is an earnest effort from Renoir and he comes out slightly ahead on the overall balance sheet. Besides, Bunny Sunshine is in this film.

Rating:
Summary: Jean Renoir's film about a Southern family living on a farm
Review: "The Southerner," directed by Jean Renoir in 1945 from George Sessions Perry's novel "Hold Autumn in Your Hand," is an interesting example of the pastoral films of post-War Hollywood. This film is one of those films honoring the indomitable spirit of man as it follows the Tucker family in their efforts to set up a self-sufficient farm in the South. San (Zachary Scott), Nona (Betty Field), their children and their spunky scene-stealing granny (Beluah Bondi) have to put up with poverty, weather, disease and even the hostility of their neighbors as everything goes wrong. If a storm is not wrecking their crops, then one of their neighbors sends a cow to eat their vegetable patch. Renoir was one of the first directors to do location shooting for non-Western films, having first gone to the Deep South for 1941's "Swamp Water." But whereas the locale of "The Southerner" is certainly realistic, the same came not be said for the actors. There is an inherent urban sophistication to Scott, so that it just does not seem right that he is out there catching a fish with his bare hands or offering up a hillbilly prayer to God. Renoir needed the same sort of earnest characterization of the great unwashed you find in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath." However, certainly this is an earnest effort from Renoir and he comes out slightly ahead on the overall balance sheet. Besides, Bunny Sunshine is in this film.

Rating:
Summary: Jean Renoir's film about a Southern family living on a farm
Review: "The Southerner," directed by Jean Renoir in 1945 from George Sessions Perry's novel "Hold Autumn in Your Hand," is an interesting example of the pastoral films of post-War Hollywood. This film is one of those films honoring the indomitable spirit of man as it follows the Tucker family in their efforts to set up a self-sufficient farm in the South. San (Zachary Scott), Nona (Betty Field), their children and their spunky scene-stealing granny (Beluah Bondi) have to put up with poverty, weather, disease and even the hostility of their neighbors as everything goes wrong. If a storm is not wrecking their crops, then one of their neighbors sends a cow to eat their vegetable patch. Renoir was one of the first directors to do location shooting for non-Western films, having first gone to the Deep South for 1941's "Swamp Water." But whereas the locale of "The Southerner" is certainly realistic, the same came not be said for the actors. There is an inherent urban sophistication to Scott, so that it just does not seem right that he is out there catching a fish with his bare hands or offering up a hillbilly prayer to God. Renoir needed the same sort of earnest characterization of the great unwashed you find in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath." However, certainly this is an earnest effort from Renoir and he comes out slightly ahead on the overall balance sheet. Besides, Bunny Sunshine is in this film.

Rating:
Summary: TOUCHING
Review: A sincere film, real, poignant, believable, and excellently acted all around. It tells the story of the hardships lived by a poor family in the country. For sure in my top ten list! Unforgettable!

Rating:
Summary: TOUCHING
Review: A sincere film, real, poignant, believable, and excellently acted all around. It tells the story of the hardships lived by a poor family in the country. For sure in my top ten list! Unforgettable!

Rating:
Summary: You people dead?
Review: Does nobody watch Renoir these days? A gentle, yet dangerous epic about farming life in America that reveals the bone reality of man and his relation to nature and his family.

Rating:
Summary: A Superb Movie
Review: I saw this movie on a Saturday morning when I had nothing else to do. It kept me entertained for the whole hour and 30 minutes. It's absorbing, interesting and heartwarming. It's one of the first really good movies I've seen in awhile. Zachary Scott and Betty Field are perfect in their roles as the struggling farmers. I would definately recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: The American South As Seen by a French Director
Review: If you loved Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game, this movie is probably not for you. Directing in a language and culture not his own, Jean Renoir drifts toward the corny and stereotypical in this melodrama about a desperate Southern farmer and his beautiful wife. The dialog is especially artificial, spoken by handsome, well-groomed actors out of central casting. If you're interested in the authentic southern or Appalachian poor, see Walker Evans's 1930s photographs. Stick with the Renoir movies shot in France.

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Summary: This Great movie! Shows what being POOR really is!
Review: Most people in our affluent society today have no real concept of what true poverty is. This movie brings the reality home just as "Saving Private Ryan" brought home to us what REAL war is like. My family is from eastern Kentucky and we LOVE this movie because we can relate to it. It also shows how people can be so uncaring about their fellow man, even little children. This movie truly is a "wake up call" to the human psyche. I wish more people would watch it and learn from it.

Rating:
Summary: Risk Taking Americans
Review: My wife and I enjoyed this saga of a sharecroppers family. The complaining grandma was terrific and the true hardships were filmed with dust bowl realism. All the acting was great and I find it amazing that the French director Jean Renoir had such a handle on risk taking Americans. This is an underrated film.