Of Mice and Men (1981)
George and Lenny travel through the Depression-era west working at odd jobs, hoping to make enough money to buy their own farm. George must always watch over his intellectually disabled friend, and keep him out of danger, both to himself and to others. After they take a new job at a ranch, Lenny gets into far more trouble than George can talk his way out of, leaving George to decide whether to help him, or leave him to his fate.
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Best movie ever!
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
A few points about the movie. First, it was a cheap TV movie.No doubt not a huge budget so keep that in mind. Second, I have never read the book so I cant tear the movie apart by nit picking each and every part.I would say that calling this a "loosely based version" would be a good way to look at it.And lastly, I feel this brought a lot of people to the works of a master in Stenbeck. I would love to have it on DVD if available. I do have it on VHS.If anyone knows where there is a DVD version let me know.
Any adaptation that features Aunt Clara alive and well--even though she looks like death--signals trouble from the start. This made-for-T.V. fiasco blundered its way through the entire film. The crowning achievement must have been when the brain trust decided that Steinbeck must have simply omitted giving Curley's wife a name. When Curley called her "Mae" I just about gagged. Sad. Not to mention that Robert Blake and Randy Quaid must not have been allowed to read the novel beforehand. I'm not sure I have anything good to say about this. Pathetic is the only thing close to a compliment I can come up with. It isn't very often that I feel compelled to sign up for an account just so I can comment on a film. There is one positive I can list: this film is such a departure from the novel that when my students wrote a comparison paper dealing with similarities and differences between the different versions we read and/or saw, this version was the easiest for them to use. Why? The filmmakers had to have been trying to make this film the worst piece of cinematic crap ever before created. Move over Ed Wood, you've got company.
This is the best version of my favorite novel. Robert Blake is amazing as George. The humanity and depth of feeling he exhibits for Lennie is evident but not overly done. Randy Quaid shows off his wonderful dramatic ability that first became apparent in the big time with "The Last Detail." Those folks who only remember him from the "Vacation" films are in for a surprise.Greta film, great actors Just watch Whitman Mayo (better known as "Grady" from "Sanford and Son"), he is marvelous and he displays talents not often showcased in his career. Great film. Get a tape of if you can (I haven't seen one).
This is the best version of this movie/book. Blake and Quaid both play their parts very well! I'd like to see this again on TV or available for rental. Both characters are tragic and made the more so by the excellent portrayals by these very well-known actors.