The Migrants (1974)

Simply Perfect

hyped garbage

Absolutely amazing

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Cloris Leachman is the matriarch of this family, that travels wherever the work is. When it's spring, it's time to be here to pick that, Or, if it's fall, we go south. Sissy Spacek, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Ed Lauter, and David Clennon costar in this TV movie that is painfully real and is based on a Tennessee Williams story. Bad luck seems to find them and they are always behind the eight ball with no sign of change in sight. Cloris Leachman is a standout and is totally in character. It's amazing just how much she is immersed in her role, looks-wise and in terms of desperation of her situation. And, it's interesting to see Ron and Cindy paired together, before being in American Graffiti and Happy Days together. This may be disturbing for some, but it is one TV-movie that should never be forgotten.

Lots of low-key, powerful acting. The moments of emotional 'pay off' are built slowly and with great care. Did Ron Howard ever have a better moment on screen then the time he almost escapes the migrant life but finds himself trapped again when a family member dies and he is needed to work and cries out with real anguish "Nothing ever works out!"? But the real gem of the film? It is the moment when Cloris Leachman 'loses it'. A sadistic sheriff is going to confiscate the family's pitiful but 'illegal' rabbit trap which is the only way they can put some meat on the table. Her authentic and 'full body' hysteria is the equal of her Academy Award winning moment at the end of The Last Picture Show. She literally holds nothing back - in both films it is scary its so good! A young Sissy Spacek plays Ron Howard's sister and Cindy Williams (of Laverne and Shirley fame) is natural and delightful as Ron's girlfriend. The sets, people and detail are realistic and not 'prettied up'. When I look at all the crap on DVD, why can't they give this a decent treatment? Who wrote this? LANFORD Wilson, famous playwright and he used a TENNESSEE WILLIAMS short story as the basis - meeting and working it out with Tennessee!

I agree with Fred's assessment that this film should be known (and shown) more widely. I saw it when it first ran on TV many years ago and it was one of the most powerful made-for-TV movies ever. In fact, I'd rate it right up there with "Requiem For A Heavyweight" - the original, not the movie adaptation. I had a black-and-white TV at the time and if this was made in color it should not have been. After all these years one scene is so stuck in my mind that I can still hear and see the delivery. The story, of course, is about the bleak lives of migrant workers and nothing says more about their lack of a future than the moment when Cloris Leachman emerges from the tent in which her daughter (?) has just given birth to a baby. "Is it a boy or a girl?" someone asks. Cloris, face twisted in agony, wails, "Oh, God, what difference does it make?"

Recommended by a friend, I reluctantly watched this film, dreading the thought of watching familiar actors reenact the Joad family. Instead, I was mesmerized by a life made real by the extraordinary talents of Cloris Leachman and Ron Howard. This IS the Joad family, as they existed in more recent times in the South. The film continues to haunt my thoughts years later.