The Good Earth

I can't say I'm familiar with the classic novel this film was contemporaneously based on, but there's a suitable level of prestige attached to its production to convince the viewer of the its worth. Featuring Paul Muni (at the height of his fame and accolades) as a chinese peasant, and showcasing an epic level of design that re-stages early twentieth century China in California, this film got a lot of attention at the time of its release. Now, however, there's a lot about The Good Earth that falls flat or feels unintentionally quaint despite its earnest attempts at authentically portraying China in all its gritty, heartfelt glory.

Wang Lung (Paul Muni) is a humble Chinese peasant living in poverty during the early 1920s. He's happy despite his lack of material wealth, especially when he is given a former slave to marry (played minimalistically by Luise Rainer) and buys land an inch at a time. Time passes and Wang Lung becomes a wealthy landowmer, he is set back drought and famine but the chaos and unrest that results from widespread revolution gives him a chance to reclaim his glory. What ensues if essentially a morality tale about the class system that sells the ideal of the 'good earth' (a reference to working on the land), and Lung's redemption from greed and class betrayal comes via his return to this earth.

Alongside this relatively simple (if overblown) fable we're treated to semi-educational asides about Chinese culture and customs. The most revisited of these is the idea of prostrating oneself so as not to offend but compliment the other part (EG. "My wife is very ugly, not like yours"), which becomes a running joke of sorts. The Good Earth is essentially not about the traditions of Chinese life or the spirit of Chinese farmers but about 'simple' folk everywhere, and their innate goodness due to the uncomplicated lives they lead. It's perhaps unfortunate that so much cultural 'colour' is put into the script as it becomes embarrassingly comical and condescending - just look at the scene where Wang Lung is seen with food toppling down his chin in an undiginified manner. When was the last time you saw a sympathetic white character of apparent low class do this in a film? Just about never! And it was even less likely you would see such a thing back in the 1930s, when this film was made. The filmmakers try to create to create an air of authenticity by mixing real chinese actors alongside European or American actors, but the effect (as always) only serves to highlight how out of place the non-Asians are. It also doesn't help that the film reinforces the stereotypically downcast and subservient 'chinaman' as the most morally upstanding kind of Chinese citizen.

Something that the film does do well though is the transition of the warlord-ruled China into an era of revolution and hope. We see this mostly via Wang Lung's perspective, as a peasant he's confused and neither knows nor cares what a 'republic' is! I think that's pretty realistic. His hair changes accordingly too, from the manchurian-enforced queue to longer hair that reflects the post-revolution period. It isn't mentioned directly via dialogue at any point but it's a nice touch in terms of historical accuracy and detail.


Paul Muni. I like him as an actor because he always makes a big show out of playing the widest variety of roles possible, which is fun for the viewer but inevitably he's also a bit of a joke sometimes as a result (which is probably why he isn't as well remembered as his contemporaries - Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable and James Cagney). As Wang Lung he tries to find the common threads of humanity that will give his performance the reference points a predominantly western audience needs to connect with the character. This includes his excitement at getting married, his nervousness on the wedding day, or his compassion when he learns his wife's former life as a slave. However, something that he's completely unable to get around is the fact that he has the wrong head shape for an Asian, and so you never forget at any time that he's a white guy underneath all those mannerisms and make-up. He puts on an accent but resists pidginising it, and does a good enough job of embodying the character's goodness and naivete, as well as his boastfulness, dimness and ambition.

Olan (Luise Rainer) is the stoic flipside to Wang Lung, her hard upbringing means that she is able to do what he can't - such as killing the family's Ox for food (one of the film's most moving moments). There's also the slightest suggestion that she kills her newborn child to spare it the misery of famine and to put less strain on the family. She also knows how to beg and steal, which comes in handy for the family during the city sequences. I have to admit though that I don't really get the appeal of Rainer's Oscar-winning performance... her delivery is so serious and so laughably intense that it's like she's playing the most important part in the most important film ever made. Like the bit where she suddenly stops hoeing in the field and says (mysteriously) "I am with child".

The rest of the cast is fairly patchy. The dodgy, untrustworthy uncle (Walter Connelly) wears thin after a while, and Wang Lung's father (Charley Grapewin) doesn't even look or seem remotely Chinese. Overall, my favourite bits of the film were the city revolution and the locust swarm climax (I'm still not sure how they achieved this), both of which demonstrate a good sense of controlled scale. I was so sad when Wang Lung had to say goodbye to his cow - no other moment in the film got an emotional reaction from me like that. I guess if you want a historical epic about the tides of fortune and one man's evolution from humality to pride (and then back again) then this is worth a watch - it's got storms, famine, locust plagues, looting, firing squads and even dirt-eating. Pretty comprehensive! But be warned, time hasn't been kind to it.


SIDENOTE: One thing that feels strange for a 1930s American film is the fact that Olan and Wang-Lung are shown to steal (during the looting/revolution sequence) and they don't get punished for it in any way (which goes against the rules of the then-active Hays Code). Maybe this is because the context is so far removed from America that it somehow doesn't matter, but I found it odd nonetheless (especially since the Hays Code is largely to blame for the general lack of Chinese actors playing major characters).

DIRECTOR: Sidney Franklin, Victor Fleming and Gutsav Muchaty.
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Talbot Jennings, Claudine West and Tess Slessinger. Based on the play The Good Earth, which was based on the novel The Good Earth.
KEY ACTORS: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connelly, Charley Grapewin, Keye Luke, Jessie Ralph, Tilly Losch

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, which won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize and was also instrumental in Buck's winning of the Nobel Prize. It is actually the first book in a trilogy that also contains the novels Sons and A House Divided.
- The play The Good Earth, adapted from the novel by Donald and Owen Davis, which formed the basis for the film.
- Some parallels can be drawn between The Good Earth's vision of famine and poverty with The Grapes of Wrath, which looks at dustbowl America in the wake of the Great Depression, and Earth, about peasant dissent in Russia.
- Other 'big' classic Hollywood films about Asia (all of which inevitably feature white actors playing Asians): The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Lost Horizon, Anna and the King of Siam, Dragon Seed (also based on a Pearl S. Buck novel), The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Satan Never Sleeps and The Keys of the Kingdom.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - won Best Actress (Luise Rainer) and Best Cinematography. Also nominated for Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Film.