Here we have a story that was told well - directing and writing was good, cinematography, editing and sound was great, but the pace was very slow and missing substance. It felt like someone monotonic was telling a story, but with no punch-line, or closing plot message. It wasn't a bad film, and the cast were all on point, but is was just missing that wow factor for me. It's a 6/10 from me.

My wife and I watched this at home on BluRay from our public library. In fact she only watched the first half of it because the story moves very slowly.The movie is a screen adaptation of a John Steinbeck novel of the same title. Steinbeck was a California valley and Stanford man, as was James Franco, who read Steinbeck's work in his younger days and made a personal connection with the author who incidentally died 10 years before Franco was born.In the movie, also directed by him, James Franco is activist Mac. We don't learn much about his backstory but he appears to be sympathetic to the cause of migrant workers and ultimately gives up his life for their causes. As the script at the end of the movie tells us, in the 1930s there were perhaps 2000 strikes, most of them ineffective, but ultimately led to recognition of workers' rights to organize and eventually laws regarding minimum wages.The core point in this movie is migrant workers were lured to pick apples in the valley at a promised wage of $3 per day, not much but in the Great Depression a livable wage. When they arrived, essentially broke, the owners would tell them that unfortunately they could only pay $1 per day, take it or leave it.Mac convinces them ultimately to stand up for their rights, to strike until they received a fair wage. Even though the movie is well under 2 hours it seems long because most of it moves slowly and we intuit where it is going ... several clashes between the migrant workers, the orchard owners, and local lawmen who don't want the trouble in their community. There are beatings and shootings, houses and barns burned down in the middle of the night. So in all it isn't a pleasant movie to watch but it depicts an important chapter in American history.

I give this movie a good 5 only for the story line. I'm over James reading a book and then turning it into his next movie project. Some are OK and some are just not worth it, this is one of them. He doesn't act as well as the other actors, mainly because he's too busy playing Director. Start making movies that have your own ideas, not someone else's book or play or whatever. The Actors who are still on top rely on those that write their own stories, please, James, do the same! The movies he has done lately are nothing but trash and idiotic. "Why Him"? Perfect example of not knowing when to say yes to a role and when not to. Put the books down and use your own imagination.

A movie that has a strong historical motive. Nicely wrapped up overview of a historically hard workers battle. Having the chance to see how hard their lives were and how even today they are being pushed around (though in a different ways and through different institutions and legal framework in context of present days)...This movie has no clear ending and actually represents the fight that still go on - workers fight lasts forever. Actors were great. While there were no poor acting, James Franco did an amazing job, both in front and behind the camera. A good movie to see