Bound for Glory (1976 film)
Bound for Glory | |
---|---|
Directed by | Hal Ashby |
Screenplay by | Robert Getchell |
Produced by | Robert F. Blumofe Harold Leventhal |
Starring | David Carradine Ronny Cox Melinda Dillon Gail Strickland |
Cinematography | Haskell Wexler |
Edited by | Pembroke J. Herring Robert C. Jones |
Music by | Leonard Rosenman (conductor and music adaptor) George Brand Joan Biel Guthrie Thomas Ralph Ferraro |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 147 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $10 million[1] |
Bound for Glory is a 1976 American film directed by Hal Ashby and loosely adapted by Robert Getchell from Woody Guthrie's 1943 autobiography Bound for Glory. The film stars David Carradine as folk singer Woody Guthrie and Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, John Lehne, Ji-Tu Cumbuka and Randy Quaid.[2]
Bound for Glory was the first motion picture in which inventor/operator Garrett Brown used his new Steadicam for filming moving scenes.[3] Director of Photography Haskell Wexler won an Oscar for Best Cinematography (1976).
All of the main events and characters, except for Guthrie and his first wife, Mary, are entirely fictional. The film ends with Guthrie singing his most famous song, "God Blessed America" (subsequently retitled "This Land Is Your Land"), on his way to New York, but, in fact, the song was composed in New York in 1940 and forgotten by him until five years later.
Plot
During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Midwesterner Guthrie (David Carradine) plays music locally but cannot make enough as a sign painter to support his wife (Melinda Dillon) and children. With only his paintbrushes, Woody joins the migration westward from the Dust Bowl to supposedly greener California pastures via boxcar and hitchhiking. Much of the film is based on Guthrie's attempt to humanize the desperate Okie Dust Bowl refugees in California during the Great Depression.[4]
Cast
- David Carradine as Woody Guthrie
- Ronny Cox as Ozark Bule
- Melinda Dillon as Mary / Memphis Sue
- Gail Strickland as Pauline
- Randy Quaid as Luther Johnson
- John Lehne as Locke
- Ji-Tu Cumbuka as Slim Snedeger
- Elizabeth Macey as Liz Johnson
- Susan Vaill as Gwen Guthrie
- Wendy Schaal as Mary Jo Guthrie - Woody's Sister
- Guthrie Thomas as George Guthrie, Woody's Brother
with appearances by
- Bernie Kopell as Woody's Agent
- Mary Kay Place as Sue Ann, Girl in Bar
Academy Awards
Wins
- 1976: Best Cinematography
- 1976: Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score
Nominated
- 1976: Best Picture
- 1976: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
- 1976: Best Costume Design
- 1976: Best Film Editing
Accolades
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
- 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- "This Land Is Your Land" – Nominated[5]
References
- ^ "The Films of Hal Ashby". Beach, Christopher (2009). Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, p. 176, ISBN 978-0-8143-3415-7.
- ^ Bound for Glory at IMDb
- ^ "Steadicam 30th anniversary press release". Archived from the original on 2014-04-30.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ Lucia Bozzola. "Bound for Glory (1976) – Hal Ashby – Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related – AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-07-30.
External links
- Bound for Glory at IMDb
- Bound for Glory at Rotten Tomatoes
- Bound for Glory at the TCM Movie Database
- Template:Amg movie
- Bound for Glory at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- Hal Ashby article at Senses of Cinema
- Bound for Glory trailer on YouTube
- 1976 films
- American biographical films
- American films
- Biographical films about musicians
- English-language films
- Film scores by Leonard Rosenman
- Films about composers
- Films based on biographies
- Films directed by Hal Ashby
- Films set in the 1930s
- Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
- Great Depression films
- Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award
- Rail transport films
- 1970s road movies
- American road movies
- United Artists films
- Woody Guthrie