Our Daily Bread

Moviecut—Our Daily Bread

Tom Keene does a marvelous job as an everyman during the depression era. This King Vidor classic of a group of poor drifters who try to make a go of a farm is timeless in its universality. Barbara Pepper (much later cast as Doris Ziffel in Green Acres) is devastating as the bad girl who tries to lure Keene away from all that is chaste and pure.

There is always a solution to every problem perhaps more than one and this problem and its solution moves and entertains. Who hasn't been desperate or down and out and worried about giving up and your luck changes for the better? Here we see that it is possible and to not give up hope. To me Hope is the central theme in this movie. The people work against all odds which is why hope not only works and sustains but delivers if we persevere. These people do just that. We can never really starve because we all have access to...

This movie is a story about hope and it is told so that any viewer can see for themselves that what is taking place works. Why? It becomes self-evident. Simple in its nature but potent in its message this movie shows there is always a way and man has the ability to find it and use that way to prevail and over come any obstacle. Why? We were not put here to be defeated but to rise above it all thereby testing to the glory of God and our Father. The cast is not known but the message lives on. Never give up. Never believe its over or the negative circumstances as the final word. HE who created all things and invited mankind to join HIM has provided sustenance that will never let us down...

Politically, this is one of those movies (like High Noon, for instance) that you can read any way you like. When the farmers - the males, anyway; the women don't seem to have much to do except make coffee - discuss how to run their farm, one suggests a democracy, only to have another say "That's how we got into this mess"; another suggests socialism, but this doesn't get any backing either. Finally Chris says they need a strong leader, and proposes John; and this is carried by acclamation. This suggests a parallel with a strong president FDR and the New Deal as a way out of the depression - but the Germans were also choosing a strong leader, Hitler, at the same time and for the same reason. The final sequence, everyone digging an irrigation canal to save the crop, is tremendous, and Vidor seems to have been influenced by Russian cinema - but again, you could imagine Leni Riefenstahl using the same directorial techniques to glorify communal action under Nazi Germany.

"Our daily bread" is some kind of follow-up to "The Crowd" (1928).Not only there is not work in the city anymore on account of the economy,but city is evil ,as temptress Sally shows. I love the way King Vidor tackled the subject : the society's rejects's plight after the Depression.He never loses his sense of humour ,even in the most dramatic scenes: John Sims trades his small guitar for a scrawny chicken,the farm is sold for 1.85 dollars ,etc "Our daily bread" is the new society in miniature Jim built with a little help from his pals .Every human being counts,a violin player is as useful as a carpenter.Politic is not much talked about;the word "socialism" is uttered once or twice ,but the keyword is " cooperative" ."Let's stand together" is their motto.It culminates in the last sequence,one of the strongest of all time !Songs,prayers,a bit of utopia but a lot of human warmth and love! Like this ?Try these ... "le Belle Equipe" Julien Duvivier 1936 "Grapes of Wrath" John Ford 1940

The film, though socialistic in many ways, represents the drive to get back to nature as stressed by FDR. It represents the optimism believed by people that the current system had gotten too complex and that people were mere cogs. By creating a co-op, the characters essentially created a system focused on barter. This form of commerce could not become corrupted to an extent as a monetary based market did. Had the film been a propaganda film biased towards a socialist state, the emphasis of the importance of money would not have been as pivotal as it became partway through the movie. This film served not as propaganda, but as a solution to a common shared problem of a bleak time in American history. Because of this, this movie should not be viewed with the same biases of the 21st century.