John Steinbeck was one of my favorite authors when I was younger. There is an elegance and edge to his style that no other author has even come close to in my life. I’ve visited Cannery Row. I’ve travelled the roads through Salinas. I’ve studied the dustbowl. But I’ve lived Of Mice And Men in my heart.
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Many of you have read the book, but I’d wager that it was a long time ago and somebody made you read it for a class. That can suck the joy out of any book in the time it takes to say, “First ten chapters due tomorrow.”
So, if you’re not of a mind to grab a copy and read it again, I’d heartily endorse your watching the movie version from 1939 starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr. The modern remakes are good, I’ve seen them as well. But this version will bring you to tears with the drama of the story. There are lessons abundant throughout the book on how to write a great story with sparing words. Authors will dig into it with gusto as a lesson on the craft. But anyone who loves a great story and a great movie will sit in rapt attention as the film version tells the tale almost as well as the book did for me.
It’s not a family movie. It’s not a Christian movie. It’s not a pretty movie. But it’s a great movie. Each and every actor turns in a superior performance. The individual roles are all relatively small in comparison with Burgess Meredith as George, and Lon Chaney, Jr. as Lenny. But the stories they bring to the stage are timeless. They are tales of lonely men, outcasts, sad and damaged people just trying to get on to the next day so that some day they may realize their dreams.
Part of what makes this story, and the movie, so special is that it captures a world before my time. A world where many of the themes in this movie must have shocked audiences. The ugly nature of prejudice is shown for the cruelty and false front that it truly is by Steinbeck. The role of lust in our lives, for things and other people, and how it ultimately destroys us. And the quest for happiness that seems to forever be just out of our reach.
Take some time to watch the film. But as one reviewer put it, bring Kleenex.
Thanks for this, Joe. I think Steinbeck was an amazing wordsmith. In some ways I put Wm F Buckley Jr in the same room with John Steinbeck. I could read or listen to both of them for days on end and enjoy every moment!
I became addicted to the Blackford Oakes books years ago. Buckley had a way with words that shattered paradigms. Well, maybe not. But he’d sure write a sentence like that!