The Southerner (1945)
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The Southerner Movie Review
The Southerner is a 1945 drama film directed by Jean Renoir and starring Zachary Scott, Betty Field and Beulah Bondi. It’s a perfectly solid and sweet, but flawed movie.
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“Sam Tucker. My own grandson, gone crazy as a bedbug“
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It is about the life of the poor Tucker family who worked as cotton pluggers and decided to get their own ground, but nature was against them. This was one of the American movies that Jean Renoir made after fleeing to the US during the forties. It is apparently his best one, but it felt throughout like an inferior version of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, being pretty much a spiritual successor to that famous film.
In its earnest approach and some charming slice-of-life sequences, The Southerner ended up being pretty much an American answer to Italian neorealism as it has that grounded approach to the crucial themes of poverty and perseverance, but it still felt very American in its eventual optimism. In its subject matter and tone, it felt very American, which was surprising coming from this iconic French filmmaker.
I guess it is nice that he got his only Oscar nomination for this work, but clearly he should have gotten it for some of his previous works over this one. The directing on this picture was strong, but more competent than truly inspired. And that is how I felt about the majority of the movie. It lacked that extra spark and cinematic magic to push it to the next level.
The biggest problem was the cast. Zachary Scott was very bland in the main role. He was cast because he was from the South himself, but he lacked the charisma and strength necessary to pull off this role. Betty Field was also utterly unremarkable as the wife character. Beulah Bondi herself was typecast and she was certainly over-the-top, but still the best of the cast and the most interesting character. Her grumpy persona was a lot of fun to follow.
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The Southerner looks terrific owing to its stark black-and-white cinematography and some memorable shots too. The score is quite strong too and I can easily see why the Academy nominated it for both score and sound. The realistic sequences of the family’s many problems on the farm were excellent and quite moving and the more lightweight moments were quite endearing, but overall it needed better characterization for a story like this one.
The Southerner pretty much functions as a spiritual successor to the better and much more famous Grapes of Wrath. It is surprising that Jean Renoir directed this film as it’s very American, both in subject matter and in its approach. The movie is very well shot and scored. It was also quite moving and highly realistic, being pretty much the US answer to Italian neorealism. The problem here is that the characterization for this type of material should have been stronger and the acting as well given that its cast was wildly uneven.
My Rating – 3.5
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