I hesitate to open movies as a topic for discussion when a chunk of my audience is of the generation that thinks Pineapple Express is great cinema, but here’s the question.
What are some films “For and About Hard Times” that the IM audience should check out?
Economic hardship has been a theme for a lot of good stories, books, films and music. Just looking at our Netflix ques for now, what movies have depictions of or lessons about hard economic times?
I especially would like to hear about older movies with America’s Great Depression as the backdrop. Older movies are real treasures, and a lot of us just don’t know about them.
(Facing the Giants does not qualify. Thank you.)
“The River” and “Places in the Heart”.
“Life is Beautiful” has got to be one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is an incredible story partly taking place in a concentration camp.
“It’s a wonderful life” is a Christmas movie that is worth seeing again and again.
Paper Moon – as excellent today as it was in the 70′s (I think that is when it came out)
The Grapes of Wrath won several Oscars.
Sullivan’s Travels is a good Depression-era comedy about a filmmaker who attempts to understand and tell the true story of the poor. The Coen Brothers took the title of “O Brother Where Art Thou” from this film.
Oh Brother! Where Art Thou?
Coalminer’s Daughter
Pale Rider
Open Range
O Brother Where Art Thou – excellent
Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men – the most classic of all Depression era novels, made into movies
American Madness (forget It’s a wonderful life – American Madness is a far better Capra film about the depression)
Mr. Deeds goes to Town
While violent (extremely) – Road to Perdition
Great- the way to deal with hard times is to become a hit man for the Irish mob
That is a excellent movie.
I’ve never heard of American Madness.
Oh, and pick up some Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly music – there is a tribute album ” A Vision Shared” that is ok, but not up to the originals
There is a DVD of the performers doing the song with some period material, etc
However I have not seen it – i just have the album (yes, vinyl)
American Madness – Crooked Bank President and a Bank Run
Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” (1936)
Modern Times opens with a critique of the mundane factory-life forced on many in the early 20th century, and it moves from there into the Depression Era, with Chaplin’s ‘Little Tramp’ suffering alongside the other unemployed and destitute. It’s of course a comedy (absolutely hilarious)–and my favorite of his films–but it’s also very astute and very poignant.
It may be hard to find, but the movie is excellent.
Coal Miner’s Daughter
Bonnie and Clyde
The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (The Waltons pilot)
Spencer’s Mountain
October Sky
The Pride of Jesse Hallam
I can’t believe I’m about to say this.
“It’s a Wonderful Life”
Well… it is about hard times!
Where the Lilies Bloom
De Sica’s “The Bicycle Thief”
OK — Bicycle Thief isn’t about America, but it really is a must see.
Agree that The Grapes of Wrath is a great one and would add The Killing Fields
Going out on a limb here: Grave of the Fire Flies. Excellent Japanese anime about two children orphaned during WWII.
Cinderella Man – a Russell Crowe as a fighter with integrity, fighting for his family.
…anime…
Watching anime amounts to “hard times” for me:-)
Neither American, or about economic hardship, but the movie Osama is fantastic. It’s about a young girl struggling to live under Taliban rule.
It’s a sobering must see.
The Pursuit of Happyness
Gone with the Wind
Empire of the Sun
True Grit
I recommend “Children of Men”. The whole movie is mired in a violent, apocalyptic, chaotic setting. It’s supposedly a modern retelling of the birth of Christ…lol. But seriously, I highly recommend it!!!
>….It’s supposedly a modern retelling of the birth of Christ…lol
Uh…..uh……must not be the movie I saw. A few clunky parallels, but….
hmmm…Don’t make fun of my anime, or I’ll set my giant, robot space-planes upon you!
ugh
big creepy eyes
>….It’s supposedly a modern retelling of the birth of Christ…lol
Uh…..uh……must not be the movie I saw. A few clunky parallels, but….
the novel makes much more sense in this regard, though I doubt P.D. James ever intended to make it a “modern retelling” of anything. It’s a dystopian novel where characters have to face many kinds of moral and spiritual (as well as practical) challenges. There are allusions to Biblical passages (the book’s title, for one) and an early version of The Book of Common Prayer.
The screenplay diverges from the book on many important points, too.
Movies: I love Jan Troell’s “The Emigrants” and “The New Land,” which follow a small group of Swedes who come to the US in the middle of the 19th c. The 1st film is very neo-realist and gritty; the 2nd is more impressionistic.
Not really about “hard times” per se, but still… Woody Allen’s “Radio Days.”
How about ‘The Shawshank Redemption’
And a couple more:
“Annie” and “The Color Purple.” Both filmed in the 1980′s, but set during the Depression.
Most depression era movies actually tried to take people’s minds of hard times so they showed rich people rolling around in excessive wealth.
If you don’t mind having a love story element to your films then I would suggest some screwball comedies (which were really popular in the 30′s and 40′s). They usually involve the divide between the classes as a major plot element, showing the ridiculousness and vanity of the rich. Someone mentioned Sullivan’s Travels (which although good, is not my favorite).
Some other good ones are…
It Happened One Night (won best picture in 1934)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
His Girl Friday (1940)
The Philadelphia Story(1940, has less emphasis on the ridiculousness of the wealthy although the element is still there)
Other movies I recommend are…
Wings of Desire (1987). My absolute favorite film. I think it really encapsulates what it is to be human. It’s set in Berlin and involves an angel who decides to become human. He discovers the small pleasures of life without a cent to his name. It’s in German, so you’ll have to deal with subtitles. Don’t let that stop you from seeing it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioGGQAkNKow
The Straight Story(1999). Probably David Lynch’s only film with a positive outlook on humanity. It’s based on the true story of a man who unable to see well enough to drive a car, decides to drive a riding lawn mower across the country to see his ill brother. The protagonist is a poor working man, so I think people in hard economic times could definitely empathize with him. It’s a slow, but beautiful film with a lot of small grains of truth about life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OnsVDKjhpc
Hope that helped.
To Kill A Mockingbird; This Property Is Condemned; Spencer’s Mountain; Cabaret (pre-war Europe, but still…)
During hard economic times, I’d much rather watch a good WWII (or WWII era) film, I think. Escapism for me.
City of Joy
Hotel Rawanda
Slumdog Millionaire
God Grew Tired of Us
All make one realize how good we have it in America, even in the tough times. And the last one on the list is a great reminder that love and community is a lot more important than stuff.
I show God Grew Tired of Us to all my students. I have two boys who were in refugee camps at one point.
Slumdog won’t come any closer than 2 hours away. Sometimes….
Are you serious? 33 responses and no one has mentioned the Mad Max/Road Warrior movies? They’re not so much movies as they are documentaries, folks.
On a different take.
Gladiator
If they think they have a hard life now…
Ben Hur
Life isn’t fair but it is just.
1776
Life is never neat and tidy.
Godfather I & II (NBC TV version in order)
Pursuit of greed never turns out very well.
And make popcorn they way we did when iMonk and I and others were a kid. Oil, stove, a pot, and a hand full of kernels.
I was someone ostracized letting my 5 and 8 grade kids watch Gladiator by the church crowd. I replied I wanted them to see the world as it existed in the 1st century.
“Cabaret (pre-war Europe, but still…)”
One of the most powerful movie scenes I’ve ever seen is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMVql9RLP34
And if you’ve never seen the movie you should play it without watching then again while watching and see if you were anywhere close to figuring it out the first time.
Bad News Bears
10 Commandments
The Education of Little Tree
The Full Monty
Places in the Heart, a Sally Field movie is a beautiful portrayal of a mother struggling to survive and thrive in the difficult aftermath of losing her husband. It’s one of the only times John Malcovich plays a harmless malcontent.
“The Hiding Place” (the 1975 film version of Corrie Ten Boom’s story– if only all “Christian films” were this good!)
“Sophie Scholl: The Last Days” (a German film about a young woman’s involvement in The White Rose, a Christian anti-Hitler student movement)
“The Best Years of Our Lives” (an ironic title in some ways, and I think, deliberately so– WWII from the POV of American soldiers returning home. A classic American film from, I believe, 1945.)
“The Seventh Seal” (Ingmar Bergman’s Swedish classic about the struggle for faith, and against death, during a plague)
“A Boy’s Life” (Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio (sic?) as, respectively, an abusive father and his son)
Hmm, I just realized that you asked especially for films about America during hard economic times, and three of the five movies that I listed are set in other countries! I’ll try to think of films closer to what you wanted!
Oh, and The Yearling, and Sounder-absolutely heartbreaking but beautiful.
Why must we dwell on what is wrong, don’t we know? Why not just think and do good and know that God is with us and everything is going to be okay? should we not be grateful for what we have, no matter how small it maybe?
Trans-America? Transsexuals have hard times too.
Hmmmm, hard times movies. I see folks have already mentioned some of my personal faves, “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Wings of Desire,” and “My Man Godfrey.”
Two ‘purple’ movies set in the Depression but made in the 80s — How about “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” and “The Color Purple”?
“Housekeeping” comes to mind . . . the Depression isn’t its backdrop, but it might as well be.
“Bicycle Thief” — great suggestion. Amazing in its simplicity and power.
Also, nobody with the Steel Magnolias yet???
The Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood opened up with a scene of great poverty with Clint wallowing in the mud chasing pigs and his children living in destitute conditions.
Although I don’t think Clint’s solution to overcoming economic hardship is one to be emulated
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938 version starring Errol Flynn).
Now that’s how you get through a depression!