For the first of this series looking at film versions of books what better way to start than with a literary classic?
We first meet George and Lennie running for their lives from a pursuing mob and only George’s quick thinking allows them to escape. As the pair wend their way in search of work it becomes clear that Lennie has what we’d call today learning difficulties. It’s Lennie’s slow wits and huge size that have got the pair into newmerous scrapes but when they find a job on a ranch George begins to believe that the pipe dream he’s filled Lennie’s head with could become a reality, a dream of having a place of there own.
I’ve never read John Steinbeck’s classic novel (although after watching the film I want to) but the tone of the film never leaves you in doubt that you’re in for a tragic ending, yet at the same time it manages to make you hope against hope that you’re wrong, that this mismatched pair will fulfil their dream and live happily ever after. It’s a film that pushes your emotional buttons but never in a cheap way. We care about these people because Eugene Solow’s script, and the actor’s performances, ground them in reality. For a film that’s pushing seventy it’s dated remarkably well.
