Bound for Glory (1976)

Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Gail Strickland, Melinda Dillon, John Lehne, Randy Quaid, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Elizabeth Macey. [PG]

Largely fictionalized biography of Woody Guthrie (Carradine), a migrant worker during the Great Depression who’s inspired to play and sing folk music as a way to fight for the rights of the common man. Director Ashby creates a somber travelogue around its traveling hero, and he fills the corners of the frame with details that evocatively recreate not just a time and a place, but a national mood. The narrative is thin and meandering, but Carradine provides a sturdy if unconventional anchor, low and measured and humble but simmering with ornery frustration. Although the film has a tendency to wander astray when dialogue turns to messaging, director of photography Haskell Wexler provides beautifully-textured imagery throughout, including several striking backdrops (both rustic and urban) that would look great on an old-timey postcard; he won an Academy Award for his work, using the newly-invented stabilizing system branded as “Steadicam” for the first time in a feature-length film. Leonard Rosenbaum also picked up an Academy Award for the music adaptation. A number of familiar faces show up in minor roles, including M. Emmet Walsh and Mary Kay Place.

78/100