I loved the book "The Milagro Beanfield War," but I read it a long time ago and don't remember details very well. I can't speak to how faithful an adaptation Robert Redford's movie is, but I also don't really care because I think that's usually a boring conversation. Taken as its own thing, the movie "The Milagro Beanfield War" is in some ways actually poorly made, but it manages to be winning anyway.
I'm a sucker, as many people are, for an underdog-against-greedy-corporate-interests story, so that went a along way toward making me like this. It's also got a leisurely, meandering, lightly whimsical quality that I was in the mood for.
But it's also a terribly edited movie. There are a lot of characters and storylines to account for, and the film cuts frequently between them all, to disorienting effect. We will be watching two people have a conversation, and then the film cuts abruptly to two different people in the middle of a conversation somewhere else about a different topic, with little in the way of transition between. It makes for a choppy movie where no one actor really gets a chance to shine.
But I'm rounding up because I liked this movie anyway and I'm in a good mood today.
Dave Grusin won the Oscar for Best Original Score.
Grade: B.
I'm a sucker, as many people are, for an underdog-against-greedy-corporate-interests story, so that went a along way toward making me like this. It's also got a leisurely, meandering, lightly whimsical quality that I was in the mood for.
But it's also a terribly edited movie. There are a lot of characters and storylines to account for, and the film cuts frequently between them all, to disorienting effect. We will be watching two people have a conversation, and then the film cuts abruptly to two different people in the middle of a conversation somewhere else about a different topic, with little in the way of transition between. It makes for a choppy movie where no one actor really gets a chance to shine.
But I'm rounding up because I liked this movie anyway and I'm in a good mood today.
Dave Grusin won the Oscar for Best Original Score.
Grade: B.