Bound For Glory isn't quite an epic; it's a hole-in-shoe pastoral, and we can't help being aware that this is the most expensive-looking Depression we've ever seen,

| Jan 22, 2024

This film is intelligently directed, magnificently acted, brilliantly shot, and edited by an angled equipped with scissors. [Full review in Spanish]

| Aug 16, 2023

Carradine's performance is sweet and sure, spiced by the willfulness of a dedicated man.

| Aug 9, 2022

The cinematographer is Haskell Wexler, and his scenes are still paintings, glowing at the edges, awash in muted and glowing light. Every scene looks hand-tinted, like old postcards. I wish they'd shot the movie in black and white.

| May 12, 2021

While certainly not as boldly original as his prior work on Harold and Maude or The Last Detail, with his big budget Hollywood biopic, Ashby crafted a period perfect film that really rides on Carradine's salt of the earth performance.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 9, 2020

A hauntingly beautiful, socio-political film.

| Oct 26, 2019

There are images in Hal Ashby's Bound For Glory so striking or so beautiful I doubt I'll ever forget them... The film has a grave dignity, which is good, but it often seems to lack life, which would be better.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 2, 2018

The role was earmarked for Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro (among others), but it's hard to imagine even these accomplished thespians matching the sly insouciance or devil-may-care charm which Carradine makes indispensable to the part.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 6, 2016

It's a story that's truly worth telling, but should have been pruned by 30 minutes and it wouldn't have lost a thing artistically.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 12, 2015

One half of a very good movie.

| May 11, 2012

A moving, brilliantly photographed picture that portrays the legendary eccentric folksinger Woody Guthrie in a trip across Depression-era America.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 31, 2007

Bound for Glory is outstanding biographical cinema, not only of the late Woody Guthrie but also of the 1930s Depression era which served to disillusion, inspire and radicalize him and millions of other Americans.

| Oct 31, 2007

Though made with an eye for the Bicentennial, this biopic of folk singer and union organizer Woody Guthrie didn't make any attempt to speak to contemporary viewers, which might explain its box-office failure.

| Original Score: B | May 5, 2006

An overlong, sentimental and lifeless biopic of Woody Guthrie.

| Feb 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 27, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 21, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 30, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 21, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 6, 2004

Hope you like folk music, because there isn't much variety to be found among his music. Neither is there much variety in the scenery.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 8, 2004