What an AMAZING movie!

I have never seen this, mostly because it's so intense and seemed so long. But my God, did Kazan EVER nail the immigrant experience!

My family's nationality is Italian; three of my four great grandparents were born in Italy. From everything I've heard, even the loudness of Italians on a Sunday dinner, he just totally got what it was about.

My great grandfather spoke in such a heavy accent, even thought he was here almost all of his life, it was hard to understand his English. But even though he was totally Italian in every way, he absolutely considered himself to be American.

"I love Amerryka!" he'd say in his heavily accented English. "Capice?"

There is no way you can have any real understanding of the immigrant experience in the early 20th century without seeing this movie (part. if you emigrated from a European country, like my ancestors.)

I adore this movie. And whoever said it should be shown on the 4th of July was right! This is as patriotic and as real as it gets.

P.S. It doesn't hurt that Kazan was an absolute genius, and almost every one of his movies is a masterpiece. The US was lucky to have had him here, making his amazing movies.