This movie has serious plot issues and character development. It did, however have a few tense moments, when he escaped into the swamp under water, and the barber shop was fairly good but overall very corny and predictable.
sharePossible Spoiler...
There are other threads on this board that deal with plot holes and possible reasons for them. I think everything about this movie is awesome. I found it riveting, harrowing, and very realistic. It is based on a true story - the screenwriters had the actual person this story is about as a consultant for the movie. He was STILL on the lam and got nervous during this collaboration and hit the road again. A lot like what happens at the end of this movie - when art imitates life, I always take notice!
When people say that a movie that was made in 1932 is corny and predictable, I usually assume they are judging it by the standards they would apply to movies made in the 21st century. I think movies need to be put into their historical context because current standards don't always apply. It has been nearly 80 years since this movie was made, and it had only been 5 years prior that sound and audible dialogue were added to films. I think in many ways it was ahead of it's time. It was meant to educate, and bring social pressure to bear on the horrors and torture prevalent in the prison and judicial system at the time. And, guess what, it worked! On more than one occasion Warner Bros. would use film-making as a way to illuminate and bring change to societal ills, sorta like George Clooney or James Cameron do now. Anything but weak, that!
If the story was believable enough to an audience to realize that the legal system of the times was not fair or just - can the script still be called weak? Not in my book.
Love is the best, most insidious, most effective instrument of social repression
There's nothing "weak" about this movie. You're a complete, *beep* moron.
sharei agree ... the OP santiken is a complete Fûck¡ng moron.
seriously.
if this has plot holes or weak script so to speak, then go watch your 21st century remakes and original cheap hollywood movies alongside reality tv crap made for morons (like yourself) with IQ's of 80 or less.
todays society,
stupid & pathetic.
I liked it too. Never heard of until it came on TCM, one of the best channels on TV. IMO.
shareAnother jacka$$ expert with a two cent opinion based on nothing. Go play in the street.
shareThis movie has serious plot issues and character development. It did, however have a few tense moments, when he escaped into the swamp under water, and the barber shop was fairly good but overall very corny and predictable.
You're looking through glasses colored by the nearly eighty years since this movie was made. It was a ground breaking film in its day and an early triumph for the new "talkie" medium. What you call "predictable" NOW wasn't "predictable" THEN, and very little content in this movie was cliche`d in 1932. Every motion picture made today owes something to earlier films and the pioneering techniques of filmmakers going all the way back to the 1890's! But, more recently, filmmmakers like D.W. Griffith, C.B. DeMille, and up.
I bet even "Cool Hand Luke" is something that turns your nose up, but if you compared the two you'd probably say "Cool Hand Luke is vastly superior to I am a Fugitive..." I would find it extremely difficult, if not impossible to validate and respect such an opinion (if you have it), for the simple reason that IAAFFACG actually CREATED the whole sub-genre of movies about chain gangs!
To say the least, I am appalled at your ignorance and lack of respect for historical / influential / pioneering film. But you were probably under the age of 25 when you made your OP and , if so, I therefore don't find it surprising that you would post something so atrociously uninformed and philistine as what you've OP'd here.
Whatever you do, DO NOT read this sig--ACKKK!!! TOO LATE!!!
I wouldn't be so hard on the original poster! Do you think he is one of those getting wasted on energy drinks, wearing ear gauges and beanie caps, skateboarding, watching reality TV, and the like? Christ, most people alive today haven't even heard of this movie! It was WAY ahead of its time and was engrossing the whole movie
shareWeak script?
Corny & predictable?
Probably thinks Fast & Furious 6 is a great movie
This is NOT a plot hole. It is based on the autobiographical book by Robert E Burns titled "I Am A Fugitive From The Georgia Chain Gang", published in 1930 while he was still on the run. The title was changed so as not to upset anyone from the South.
Chain gangs were very common, especially in the South. African-Americans and out-of-staters were particularly vulnerable to this system. It was started soon after the Civil War when slavery was abolished. It was a great way to get free labor. The story may seem outlandish to us today but it was used to extensively between 1870 and 1940(!).
His story begins in Atlanta in 1922, charged with the theft of $5.81 from a grocery store and was sentenced to 6 to 10 years at hard labor, from there his odyssey begins. Although that may sound ridiculously little to us but it is a little over $81.00 in today's money, but still shouldn't have warranted such a harsh punishment. The film so outraged the Georgia authorities that he wasn't pardoned until 1945. Burns was rumored to have been an uncredited technical advisor but had to stay hidden during the shooting of the movie.
I recently had the pleasure of finding a 1st edition in second hand book shop. Of course there are some differences for dramatic license but the film is fairly accurate to the book. It is an amazing read.
If you look up Robert E Burns online, you will be astounded by what you learn a part of American history that is rarely touched in in schools today.
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