The Good Earth

Most movies from the fifties about Chinese are really wierd. They have these antiquated stereotypes about Chinese. This movie has a lot of those, including a bunch of anglos in bad makeup trying to pass themselves off as Chinese...and those accents...ugh...guess they never met anyone Chinese in those days.

But get past that and this is a really good movie by one of the great writers of the 20th century. It had some profound things to say about marriage, work, honor, fortune (and how e deal with it) and our connection to nature. It covers a long time period, showing a man grow, age and eventually here his children start their days as men.


Perl S. Buck, the writer, lived in Asia, and clearly draws on ancient Chinese stories to build this plot. I also recomend one of her books, All Men Are Brothers, for anyone who likes martial arts.