Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

An Emotional Film

When thinking about the Steinbeck write off, I really thought about the Oklahoma connection – living here and seeing the vast countryside, the emptiness of it. Then I remembered the emotion of my favorite Steinbeck movie. I remembered my friend David Ledbetter coming to me some time in 1993 or so, asking me if I had seen Of Mice and Men, and indeed I had not. David was a football player, a rough guy with a strange tender spot that he reserved deeply, he loved playing songs for me though when he thought he could get me to cry, he prided himself on it…it was a fun game in a lot of ways.

Under the premise of making me cry he shared with me Shameless by Garth Brooks and Don’t Take the Girl by Tim McGraw and the Senise production: Of Mice and Men. He shared this film with me, hoping (rightfully so) that it would evoke in me the emotions that he had felt.

A Well Worn Story, Soft and Leathery

This is really a story about hope and dreams, its typically Steinbeck, California, Great Depression era, calloused hands and workingman blue. But in some ways, it is The Death of a Salesman gone farmer. There are always hopes in George’s heart, and always tragedy following he and his mentally retarded running mate Lennie. Lennie doesn’t know his own strength, and this causes him some real trouble over time. He was accused of raping a woman in Weed (a strange city in Northern California), and they got away to come and work another day. Lennie hadn’t tried to rape her, just touch her softness – he loved the soft.

I used to have to go to Weed as my Uncle Denny lived there for a while, and you can just barely find the most current version of whatever comic book you might fancy; at the time I was a Spidey freak. Forget about trying to find some music…it is just hot and dry and barren there.

Lenny and George arrive on the farm where they are going to work, and Senise is delightful in his handling of the always-awesome presence of Malkovich. Let’s face it gang, Malkovich looks a little weird anyway, so he was delightfully type cast.

They got Rabbits, but they ain’t got no Skin Horses

The main tool in George’s therapy tool kit is telling Lennie their story, that one day they would save up their dough, get a farm, raise rabbits (remember Lennie loves soft things) and live off the fat-o-the land. He is telling this tale to Lennie as they approach the farm, with Malkovich playing with what turns out to be a soft little mouse, dead of course as Lennie crushed the little bugger (The Green Mile this is not). They are late, but they have the nice Martian Uncle to show them to their bunks.

Into the bunkhouse walks our Steinbeck anti-enemy, Curly. He is a nasty little man, full of jealousy as his very pretty wife flirts with all the boys and probably wishes that she had the sexual freedom so vociferously denied women then and sometimes now. She would be a girl that I would consider a stud. She is a pain in the very heart of Curly though; who is short and that could mean so many things.

Dead Puppies Aren’t Much Fun

Lo and behold, a puppy comes into our lives. Lennie is playing with the dog, and of course, he strokes it a little too hard and kills the poor thing. We can easily see a pattern forming, find something soft, stroke it, and kill it. Lennie is not really out of control, just out of time. Curly’s wife comes to see what Lennie is doing in the barn and sees him with his dead dog. She let’s Lennie play with her hair, as it is (of course) soft. Malkovich is one scary hombre, but she doesn’t really understand what he is…and to make a short story even shorter, Lennie kills her when she panics and starts to scream.

They Shoot Retards, Don’t They?

So, of course we are to begin a merry chase, with Candy and Curly looking for Lennie, who was the obvious killer. Lennie has run away to meet up with George where he told him to hide, (down by the river), and George knows where he will be. George steals a gun, under the premise that he will say that Lennie stole it – leads the other searchers astray, and finds Lennie where he told him to hook up. Lennie is getting a bit psychotic, and George realizes that this will never get better and only get worse. The monster has to die, misunderstood and too powerful. There are raging villagers chasing him, and terror in his eyes, and his watcher betrays him. He shoots Malkovich, and in some extremely powerful acting lays your heart bare. This is a remarkable scene, rich in emotion and some of Senise’s best work.

The Players

John Malkovich (Killing Fields, In The Line of Fire, Con Air) plays Lennie Small, the retarded man of strength and power. He is a character of strange tidings in literature – gentle for the most part, but he can get out of control. He breaks things, is capable of crushing them and it makes him vulnerable and susceptible. What it really does is make him into Steinbeck’s Frankenstein. He wasn’t constructed by a mad scientist in the hills of Romania somewhere, but in the ghetto of starving California during the hardest of hard times in America town, the depression. He is the large and powerful, but mentally weak product of his generation.

Gary Senise (Apollo 13, Ransom, Forrest Gump) plays George Milton, the almost made guy, the man with the plan. His lot in life is really trying to keep Lennie out of trouble, to dream of having some acreage for him to romp in, some room to grow. He talks constantly with Lennie about living off the “fat o’ the land.” Their dream is to farm, but the reality is that they can never quite make it, because Lennie gets into trouble, and when that happens – they have to move on.

Shirlyn Fenn (Ruby, Boxing Helena) plays Curley’s Wife, the somewhat sexy temptress of the film. She makes the mistake of befriending Lennie, which is a risk that she didn’t understand, nor did she really prepare herself for. And anyway, who can ever really befriend Malkovich, he is one scary mofo all the way around. She winds up dead in the end, which is the tragic dilemma.

Casey Siemaszko (Back to the Future 2, Milk Money) plays Curley, the mean spirited son of the bossman, who is always looking for his suspiciously sexed up wife. She is always flirting around, and he can never find her, jealous, petty and full of rage – he is a classic Steinbeck bad guy. This is not a guy who really goes around killing babies, just a normal man full of anger and lost in a very pungent relationship.

Ray Walston (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Johnny Dangerously) is most famous for playing the Uncle for a hundred years on My Favorite Martian, and it is a hard image to shake. I loved him the most however, as Mr. Hand in Fast Times. He was the teacher that could never be shaken, but in the end he somehow managed to educate a Penn, no easy task in and of itself. He plays Candy, a funk old work hand at a farm where they go to work.

And In The End

Steinbeck was a remarkable writer, and truly captured the face of a certain time and place in America town. He was perhaps the voice of a generation, but not our generation. JS was probably much too subtle. This was a film that was nominated for virtually no awards, and received little coverage. It was a powerful film, and a delightful retelling of the story – it was just a story from a whole different realm.

I loved Senise’s use of light and color, meeting the dark and light with the moral dark and grays of the story line. It was just tender in the right spots, but not sappy. I just think it went over, or at least around the heads of moviegoers. An outstanding choice for a Friday night.

The Write Off

Thanks to Stephen Murray for hosting this fun write off. Stephen is himself an author, with many titles that are listed on EEPs, he is an amazing student of history and film – exploring and writing about gay culture worldwide and sharing a taste of life from a passionate perspective. So major props SM for being the host with the most.

Check out these other friends and writers, you are sure to have your thirsts quenched.

Curtis_Edmonds, Deaser26, Ed-Grover, Ed_Williamson, eplovejoy, Garym, Jankp, Macresarf1, Mridula, Stephen_Murray, TomBarnes

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4