I think that Woody Guthrie came along at the right time for his music to be played and become popular. The 30s, the years of the Depression of economic want and deprivation, Guthrie was a voice for the homeless and dispossessed, for those just wanting a small slice of the American dream. Guthrie would not go over in the Reagan years and surely not in the age of Trump.

One really should see Bound For Glory back to back with A Face In The Crowd. The real Woody Guthrie is not all that far apart from the fictional Lonesome Rhodes whom Andy Griffith played in that latter picture. Both represent differing strains of American populism just that Griffith's character Lonesome Rhodes represents the dark side. And we've recently seen the dark side triumph.

Guthrie didn't want people to just feel good, he wanted for them to be healthy and happy and prosperous. It's not enough as I think people who voted for Donald Trump in the last election will find out soon to deprive those 'others' whomever they be of what you think they're stealing from you. Subsisting isn't living. Enough to pay your rent or buy home, see your kids get educated with the hope they'll do even better than you, that's what it's about. And you get it by organizing. Putting the sweat of the working man on an equal footing with the buying power of the bosses. An ethic that's being challenged now.

David Carradine plays the rambling and rebellious Guthrie who got the cook's helper's tour of America via the freight trains and the migrant labor camps. It would have been the easiest thing for Guthrie to just pack it in and just become a hillbilly entertainer on country music stations. He was after far more than that with his songs. Carradine captures Guthrie's rebellious spirit perfectly and gets great support from Melinda Dillon as his loving wife who is also concerned the next meal for their growing family.

Bound For Glory got an Oscar for Best Adapted Musical score and when you have Woody Guthrie's voluminous writings to work with it must have been a labor of love. It was up for Best Picture and a flock technical awards as well.

Woody Guthrie's most famous song was This Land Is Your Land and listen to the words carefully. It's not just patriotic pablum the benefits and responsibilities of this land called America is for all of us to take care of and leave in good condition for the next generation.

After all this land was made for you, me, all of us.

At its base, Bound for Glory is just a simple biopic about Woody Guthrie. In execution, it turns out to be a lot more. We actually learn very little about Woody Guthrie's life. I don't know the exact statistic, but I would guess that it covers no more than a few years, with an end title that tells us briefly of his death. And basically all of the experiences shown onscreen can be seen in other films, most notably John Ford's brilliant American masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath. To be absolutely fair, the scenes of migrant workers' woes are at least equal to those in its predecessor. A good one-line summary of Bound for Glory might read "a modernist equivalent of The Grapes of Wrath told from the point of view of folk singer Woody Guthrie." But Bound for Glory has a few things that make it stand out from other films, that make it as memorable as The Grapes of Wrath.

First and maybe foremost, you have the brilliant and gorgeous cinematography of the great Haskell Wexler. I'm no expert on cinematographers, but Wexler is one of only three I can name offhand (the other two being, if you are interested, Vittorio de Sica and Sven Nykvist). I love Wexler's work in films like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Matewan (a thematically similar film directed by the great John Sayles). But what Bound for Glory most resembles is Wexler's very controversial cinematography on Days of Heaven. Not controversial because of anything specifically photographed, of course, but, if you know the story, a different cinematographer took credit as lead DP, leaving Wexler with a credit that was something along the lines of "with additional photography by". Wexler claims to have photographed more than 50% of the scenes in the finished film. He has sat through the film several times, I have heard, with a stopwatch. Bound for Glory, at any rate, is one of the most beautiful films you're ever likely to see. It's golden colors are beautiful, and the camera is moved gently, but with precision. This film actually has the first shot that used a steadicam, although I had forgotten to keep an eye out for it when the film was playing (I was far too engrossed). My favorite scene is one where Guthrie and a black hobo have left the boxcar of a train and move to the top of it. There they sit and converse as the most beautiful landscapes in our country pass by behind them. These are some of the best shots I've ever seen. And just because of those shots, even if the film didn't contain a plethora of other relevant materials, I would call this film one of the best ever made about the United States.

Secondly and thirdly, this film is about Woody Guthrie, one of the greatest American artists of the past century. David Carradine, who, in other performances, has never convinced me that he was as good as his father, John (who was in Grapes of Wrath, incidentally), or his brother, Keith, breaks apart my former opinion of him and delivers a masterful performance. I don't know whether I could identify why he is so good in this film. It's as if he has an aura about him. He really does, however, seem to enbody Guthrie's convictions. Throughout the film, Guthrie's music is played, whether sung or as an extra-diagetic score. This is great American music. So much of it has become part of the soundtrack to the American life. I mean, I remember learning songs like "This Land is Your Land" and "This Train" in elementary school music class. In his day, Guthrie had difficulty in getting those kind of songs out to the public. His bosses were constantly ordering him to tone down the political edge of his music. Luckily for America, he steadfastly refused to do so. Woody Guthrie was a true American hero. Bound for Glory depicts that as much as he could have hoped for.

"Bound for Glory" is a dramatization of the early career of Woody Guthrie--particularly his wanderings around the country and the establishment of his career as a folk singer. However, the film does NOT cover his later years and his affliction with Huntington's.

Have you ever seen a movie that is well made and you are supposed to enjoy it but you didn't? That's my experience with "Bound for Glory". While I could see it was a fine film and David Carradine did a fine job, I found my attention wandering throughout. Part of it is because the film is VERY deliberately paced (i.e., slow). Part of it is because I just don't happen to care much about the subject matter. This is sad, I know, as I am a retired history teacher and I should love seeing the dust bowl and the history of Woody Guthrie but I still didn't. Part of it is because Guthrie was a pretty selfish guy (leaving his family and just going on the road for months or years at a time with little regard for them). Regardless, I just didn't enjoy the experience. Well done but I had a devil of a time with "Bound for Glory"... But, I am NOT saying it's a bad film or that you shouldn't see it--it's just that I was not bowled over by it like nearly all the other reviewers.