riesx002 In my summer reading this year, I am catching up on the John Steinbeck novels I have missed over the years, and just finished In Dubious Battle this week. As other reviewers have pointed out, the movie version omits or rewrites many of the details of the book. But I found the film to be wonderfully faithful to the spirit of the novel, and certainly to the spirit of the labor movements of the 1930s.Moreover, I thought the casting was excellent. Vincent D'Onofrio wonderfully captures the character London. Nat Wolff and James Franco do an above average job of portraying the two radicals attempting to instigate the labor movement. Having Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, and Sam Shepard add their talents to their respective roles leant depth to their characters and a sort of weight to the film. Of course, for the most part, the female characters either did not appear in the novel or were completely reoriented by the script-writer and director. But the characters and actors here also, in my opinion, represented the spirit of the book and the times.I definitely recommend reading the novel before watching the film, but I liked the film very much.

TxMike My wife and I watched this at home on BluRay from our public library. In fact she only watched the first half of it because the story moves very slowly.The movie is a screen adaptation of a John Steinbeck novel of the same title. Steinbeck was a California valley and Stanford man, as was James Franco, who read Steinbeck's work in his younger days and made a personal connection with the author who incidentally died 10 years before Franco was born.In the movie, also directed by him, James Franco is activist Mac. We don't learn much about his backstory but he appears to be sympathetic to the cause of migrant workers and ultimately gives up his life for their causes. As the script at the end of the movie tells us, in the 1930s there were perhaps 2000 strikes, most of them ineffective, but ultimately led to recognition of workers' rights to organize and eventually laws regarding minimum wages.The core point in this movie is migrant workers were lured to pick apples in the valley at a promised wage of $3 per day, not much but in the Great Depression a livable wage. When they arrived, essentially broke, the owners would tell them that unfortunately they could only pay $1 per day, take it or leave it.Mac convinces them ultimately to stand up for their rights, to strike until they received a fair wage. Even though the movie is well under 2 hours it seems long because most of it moves slowly and we intuit where it is going ... several clashes between the migrant workers, the orchard owners, and local lawmen who don't want the trouble in their community. There are beatings and shootings, houses and barns burned down in the middle of the night. So in all it isn't a pleasant movie to watch but it depicts an important chapter in American history.

Tony Heck "If you don't make trouble then nothing's gonna change." Jim (Wolf) is growing up in the depression and is tired and angry at the way his family and those he knows are being treated. Wanting to do something about it he meets up with Mac (Franco). Together they start a worker revolt that leads to a strike, but soon things become more dangerous than they expected. This is a movie I went in expecting it to be slow and boring. I mean how can a movie about a fruit picking strike during the great depression be good? I don't know if it was my expectations that played a part but this movie was very good. The movie was tense and I was surprisingly on the edge for most of it. The acting is amazing, but with the cast it has that's not a surprise at all. This film is based off a novel by John Steinbeck and really felt true to his style. The movie plays out as a great companion to The Grapes Of Wrath, this one just had a little more action. Overall, a surprisingly tense and good movie that I do recommend. One of the better historical fiction movies I have seen. I give this a high B+.

Ornlu Wolfjarl One of the best novels by Steinbeck is translated to a powerful film. The struggle of workers to gain labour rights and the birth of unions in the USA.James Franco has the right credentials to become an amazing director. The film portrays brilliantly the kaleidoscope of feelings of a group of people asking nothing more than to be treated fairly from the people who own everything. This is something the book focuses on, and this adaptation doesn't just present a story, but it carries accurately what Steinbeck tried to portray: The initial fears and hesitations that hold people back from coming together, then the anger and hope that brings them together, the self-doubt as the fight reveals to be a protracted one, and the final push through the desperation and dread to overcome the obstacles.It's time people remembered that in this life, unfortunately, nothing is given. It is earned with hard-fought battles and sacrifice.This film is a real gem, not just because it's executed well, but more importantly because it has something important to say, something that all should stop, listen and give it some thought.Bravo James Franco and everyone else involved in this. You have the guts to stand up and take on a beast that few film-makers ever try to wrestle with.