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Wow! Such a good movie.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Good movie to make the point of hard work, luck, breaks, and how to never give-up. It all stresses to be grateful for what you do have. This is a raw non-negotiable movie meaning this happens and is happening all over the world. One wonders how billionaires can be numb to this. The people in this movie would have made good use with a warm coat, blanket and some food for the hard times. How much could that cost anyone? It is wise to tend to our own affairs but if we find ourselves doing well enough, lend an eye and an ear to your neighbors welfare. Remember no one got to where they are without the help of others. This could be......

The movies (the old movies, that is) are a wondrous thing. You can be convinced of a fixed opinion about a film and then, poof! just like that, your mind is suddenly changed. This happened to me the other night when re-visiting Jean Renoir's 1945 THE SOUTHERNER on Turner Classics Movies. Truthfully, I never liked this highly acclaimed picture and have always held that Renoir's enforced exile to Hollywood after his greatest work, LA REGLE DU JEU, flopped in France in 1939, was, on balance, a disaster; now after seeing THE SOUTHERNER again I think I might have been over these many years a tad too harsh.At the very least, THE SOUTHERNER need be commended for what it is not. It is not THE GRAPES OF WRATH. Beulah Bondi, God preserve us, is not Jane Darwell (As a matter of fact, her cussedly grandmother is a glorious antidote to Darwell's revered stereotype.) Zachary Scott is, surprisingly, more credibly human than and (predictably) less saintly than Hank Fonda. Renoir's mise-en-scene looks like John Ford's in its simplicity but is without Pappy's characteristically annoying cliché visual embellishments. An added plus is Betty Field's beauty as Scott's resilient wife.THE SOUTHERNER is a significant film even if it isn't a great or important one for it might be with this independently produced picture by one of the notorious Hakim brothers that Renoir's interests shifted almost entirely away from character and psychology and toward a more exclusive focus on the effects of environment on human perspective and on the way time shapes the soul through the change of seasons. This philosophical take was expanded to include the acceptance of death when he went to India six years later to film Rumer Godden's autobiographical novel, THE RIVER. Thus, the shift to something religious and quasi- Eastern in outlook probably first took effect for keeps in Renoir's work with THE SOUTHERNER.I'll always prefer the more dramatically eventful, cosmopolitan Renoir of France and the thirties over the more innocent, meditative vagabond that came afterward but I am now willing to admit that the great challenge of his work as a whole is that he is never more sophisticated than when he is being most simple and never more simple than when he is at his most sophisticated.Was this review helpful to you?

The opening shot amounts to a wonderfully compelling hymnal to the land and those who toil there, while the rest of the movie attempts to follow through with that noble theme. There's no doubt that this is one of the most laudable movie projects to come out of the decade. But for all the earnest concern, there's still too much of the theatrical for my liking. I know, the film is generally hailed by critics, and there's much to be said for its consistent down-and-dirty look at the plight of the southern share-cropper. But there's also a staginess to many of the characters and scenes that blemishes director Renoir's naturalistic approach. Consider Beulah Bondi's over-the-top turn as Granny. She's supposed to offer amusingly caustic comments on events as relief from the rigors of the plot. The trouble is that both she and the camera rub our nose in the role. They just as well have hung a sign around her neck saying "crusty old woman". The bad make-up job doesn't help either and serves as a constant reminder that the Tuckers are after all only a make-believe family. Since she's a central character, the flaws in her wild eye-rolling performance are hard to ignore. The other acting is fine, especially from Scott in the lead role as Sam. However, both he and wife Nona (Field) are more stereotypes than multi-dimensional people. He's the noble, tireless worker, and so is she. Together, they are unwavering in their support of each other and the farm. And when Sam does waver after the flood, it's Nona providing the strength to persevere. Thus, it's the whole family and not just Sam plowing the field that will make the farm a success. That's a good point for the script to make. The trouble is that Sam and Nona are simply too good to be believable in the face of all the adversity. At least one breakdown scene where the emotional toll of the wrenching burdens is expressed would have added a more human dimension. Writer Renoir is simply too insistent on the nobility of the two characters, turning them more into symbols than complex real people.On the other hand, the hostile neighbor Devers (Naish) is the most interesting of the characters. His dark resentful nature would appear to come from uncredited co-writer William Faulkner who specialized in such Gothic personalities. The real agonizing story of what it means to start up a farm is told by the embittered old man in what I take to be the movie's central scene. He's made a success, but that success has made him hard and mean, and now he lives in fear of anyone rising above him. I wish the screenplay had not betrayed that dark impact for the price of a big fish in what strikes me as a very implausible turn- around scene on the riverbank. The film's virtues are pretty obvious. There's a real effort at showing rural poverty and its effects on people, never a Hollywood biggie. When little Daisy lovingly puts on the crude blanket-coat, I was reminded of a world so easily passed over in a nation of commercialized malls. Ditto the well-done possum feast, where the simple act of eating means so much more. And especially when the family and we gather around the little hearth fire to peer into the glow through eyes much more ancient than our own. These are indelible scenes that transcend the movie screen and alone are worth the price of the movie.Maybe it took a European auteur outside the usual studio framework to want to deal as honestly as possible with such a non-commercial theme. But the location shooting and insistence on the unglamorous, even down to the very unHollywood barfly, add up to what looks like an effort at honest depiction. Of course, Renoir's well-known humanism and rollicking humor show up in the party scene in what amounts to a folk celebration of life and community. Then too, there's that telling scene between Sam and Tim (Kemper) where each comes to appreciate the contributions of the other in supplying the community's needs. Whatever the film's regrettable flaws, the message remains a powerful one that needs constant retelling, especially in our own cynical times. Too bad Renoir didn't stay on this side of the Atlantic. His influence on our own movie-makers would have pushed them in a much needed direction.

Southerner, The (1945) **** (out of 4) Jean Renoir's classic tale of a cotton picker (Zachary Scott) who moves his wife (Betty Field) and children to a run down farm in hopes that they can grow their own cotton and make for a better future. Their first year doesn't go as planned as the family must struggle with no food, illness, natural disasters and a mean spirited neighbor (J. Carrol Naish). This film has quite a few faults including being oversentimental and featuring a poorly written part of grandmother but I still loved nearly every minute of this film due in large part to the three stars. I'm not overly familiar with Scott or Field but they really impressed me with their performances here. Their parts aren't anything we haven't seen already in previous films but they still manage to make their characters seem real and fresh. Naish gives the best performance I've seen from him as the feisty neighbor who doesn't give the poor family a chance. Renoir's direction is right on the mark and for a foreigner, he captures the southern spirit quite well.