Review of Bound for Glory

Introduction

Part biography, part tale of the American people during the 1930`s depression era; Bound for Glory charts part of the life of Woody Guthrie, a famed folk singer. Leaving behind his family in search of a decent wage, Woody wanders the Texas and Oklahoma dustbowl. During his journeys he finds plenty of inspiration for his songs, witnessing the desperation of the poor at almost every turn. In turn his songs bring hope to the people he meets…

Video

Picture is grainy and the grain gets quite bad in a few places with the cinema style black dirt making a few appearances (adds to the atmosphere I suppose!). The focus also seems a little soft; this is largely due to the source material however as I suspect the film looked much the same back when it was originally filmed in 1976.

In terms of visual content the film is nicely shot and somehow manages to convey a sense of changing scenery despite mostly being set in similar dust filled townships. The 1930`s setting is well realised and indeed it`s the films visual realisation that saves it from the bowels of mediocrity more than anything.

Audio

The sound on this is generally fine if a little muted thought it`s far from reference quality! A Dolby Digital 2.0 track is what you get in a range of the usual selection of languages.

One of the main points about the film is obviously the songs by Woody Guthrie and they make regular appearances and rightfully so. The films incidental music however is fairly bland and by the numbers instrumental stuff that`s probably been used in a variety of other films around that time.

Features

As with most of the other films of this age and type there isn`t much in the way of extra`s other than the obligatory Original Theatrical trailer.

Conclusion

The film is a bit hit and miss; the visuals of the film are outstanding and nice to watch but on the other hand the film itself is somewhat bland. It`s a case of most of the content, other than the Woody Guthrie angle, has been done before and often done better; The Grapes of Wrath would be the first that springs to mind. Even the main story which charts the life of Woody Guthrie isn`t all that inspiring, he`s basically a wandering adulterer who wrote some good protest songs before getting signed up to a record label but ran into problems due to the content of them. Again it`s a case of been there and seen most of it before, that said collectors interested in this area will find it a relatively worthwhile buy but it`s not one I personally would rush out to get.