Bound for Glory

We all know his music and have heard the name Woody Guthrie, but do we know his story? Woody wrote that story down in 1943, even though some of what he wrote was pure fiction. Years later, long after he had succumbed to Huntington’s disease, that autobiography became the basis for the film Bound for Glory. It’s a story that paints a portrait of a man who made a lot of questionable choices in his life, especially when it came to his family, but he also stood for something during a time when the American workers needed someone to provide them with a voice and the motivation to speak up in the face of exploitation. For that, he was branded a communist and many attempts were made to censure his messages. Some of that is dramatized in this film, but not all of it. Most of what we will see revolves around the Great Depression and Guthrie’s efforts to use his music to inspire and entertain the laborers caught in that desperate situation. 

The film opens in 1936 and Guthrie (David Carradine) is struggling to make a living painting signs. Making matters worse is his insistence that he knows better than those who commission him to paint. When he takes on a job painting a sign, he changes the customer’s desired colors, resulting in a refusal of pay. This stiff-neckedness won’t pay the bills, and painting is the only reliable bit of work he can find in that area. After a massive dust storm, he suggests to his wife Mary (Melinda Dillon) that he should leave for California to look for work. Eventually, he does just that, leaving her a note saying he will send for her and the kids when he has steady work. 

He travels to California, hitchhiking, stealing rides on passing trains, and walking. Eventually, he arrives in California only to find that thousands of others have made the same pilgrimage, far more than there are available jobs. The farms in California are taking advantage of the influx of workers by paying a pittance for hard labor, too, and with jobs so scarce, few dare speak up about the injustice. Anyone speaking for unionizing gets bullied and assaulted by thugs hired by the farmers.

Guthrie meets up with Ozark Bule (Ronny Cox), a musician who uses his folk music to inspire the workers to fight back for their rights. Soon, the two are performing together, even getting live radio play so long as Woody agrees to avoid any political messaging. This doesn’t sit right with him, and he butts heads with the radio manager who is more worried about pleasing the sponsors than providing Woody with a platform. 

There is no doubt that Woody Guthrie gave us music that championed the working man and called for changes during the Great Depression. His songs got him in quite a bit of trouble, too, as he was attacked, beaten, and harassed while lending his voice to the cries for fair working conditions. The 1930s were a hard time for the working man, and people were heavily exploited by farmers taking advantage of the depression. Director Hal Ashby has an eye for this era, shooting it much like the earlier film The Grapes of Wrath while also utilizing the newly invented steady-cam to great effect, giving the film an identity all its own. He’s also not afraid to use humor to move the narrative along, such as the scene in Guthrie’s house during the dust storm. I have no idea if the level of dirt inside that house would be accurate, but it makes for a funny visual. 

David Carradine doesn’t much look like Woody Guthrie. But he does embody the man and his music, nearly flawlessly replicating the era and the music as he plays in any number of settings, including right next to the fields while the workers listen as they work. The music is poignant, authentic folk music and a reminder that he was such a talented performer. He also felt a little too much for his own good, sabotaging opportunities because of his pride or his sense of social injustices. It keeps him from holding down steady work and it forces him on the road when he could be settling down. He brings his wife and family to California at some point, then goes on the road because he cannot work within the confines of the radio station’s rules and is constantly feeling the need to be out traveling.

The film ends much along the same lines as it began, with Guthrie hitching a ride on a train, off to spread his music all over the country. The final visual is of him sitting on top of a train, his guitar in his lap and his song, This Land is My Land—a bit anachronistic but it works for the film—playing over the credits. He stays true to his roots, despite having opportunities to better his own life. 

Woody Guthrie is a complicated historical figure that made a difference in a lot of people’s lives through his music. He was a powerhouse on the American folk scene and many of his songs are still sung to this day. This film does a good job of portraying him as a human rather than a legend but it also doesn’t quite let us into his head so that we can truly get to know and understand him. He’s stubborn and self-destructive, which we see early on, but he never grows beyond that leaving us with nothing in terms of character growth. He’s essentially the same man at the end of the film as he is at the beginning. How much of this film is factual, I honestly don’t know. 

What we are seeing is a telling of Woody Guthrie’s story, incorporating a good deal of poetic license. What it lacks in character development, it makes up for with atmosphere and song. This is an old-fashioned film that works on that level and paints a picture of the solitary man speaking out against The Man. It’s engaging, toe-tapping entertainment with a good message behind it. It has some pacing issues and it keeps us at arm’s length at times, but that is quibbling over trivial things. This is a film that is not as well known as it should be and needs to be sought out to see since it is not available as of this writing on any streaming platform. Seek it out, and while you’re at it, track down some of Guthrie’s music, too. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Robert F. Blumofe and Harold Leventhal

Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium

Best Cinematography: Haskell Wexler (won)

Best Costume Design: William Ware Theiss

Best Film Editing: Robert C. Jones and Pembroke J. Herring

Best Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score: Leonard Rosenman (won)

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Release Date: December 5, 1976

Running Time: 147 Minutes

Rated PG

Starring: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, and Randy Quaid

Directed by: Hal Ashby