This was not a very good movie. It tries so hard to be irreverent and quirky, but it's so forced and stale. Comes off like a bad made for PBS film. Complete waste of acting talent. Grew so bored by the numerous failed attempts at humor.

I really liked how the actors got into their roles so well. I think that people watching the movie and other people really liked the fact that he is so naturally and elegantly immersed in his role.

Well written dialogues and directing

Meaningful and thoughtful movie. I am pretty sure that you will learn many new things

This scene... every morning for 35+ years I say "Thank you god, for giving me another day". This morning I couldn't visualize it so I checked here. I had the line wrong, as remembered. But in this forgiving universe it has worked anyway to allow me to express my gratitude - through it all. And today. Very special movie to me.

Great cast. James Gammon rules.

John Nichols was able to infuse his fabulist novel The Milagro Beanfield War with intriguing mysticism and interesting characters. Sadly, his written words don't translate all that well to the screen, as evidenced in Robert Redford's ambitious but flawed adaptation. The premise is simple – when a greedy land developer starts diverting irrigation water from the fields of local farmers in order to drive them off their properties, trouble is on the horizon. While there are no real problems with the story itself, the movie gets dragged down by the sheer number of characters, many of whom are unnecessary (Melanie Griffith's character, for example) and none of which are sufficiently developed. Despite some great cinematography and a wonderful score, there is simply too much dialogue from too many characters in too many scenes that add nothing to the story.

One of my favourite movies. Can't believe rotten tomatoes rated it so low. wonderful characters, great story. lovely mystical quality

It was hilarious, sweet, and absolutely enjoyable

Robert Redford's crowd-pleaser about the titular hostilities between the greedy developers and a Chicano community whose land they are eyeing is crowded with underdeveloped plots overrun with hackneyed morals.

Quirky, fun, with plenty of indie feel.

Robert Redford directed effort probably best known for reuniting two-thirds of the headliners from the film C.H.U.D. Did like the cronies for the state (especially Walken) trying to coerce the small town farmer into not being a problem. Might require a second watch to fully appreciate.

A film that according to many reviews is an underrated masterpiece & in my opinion this film had many strengths but I'm not sure if masterpiece is the right word. I believe the next film Robert Redford directed after Ordinary People (1980) and yet again this film has a strong message. I'm not sure of it was the fact the humour was hard to grasp or the pacing was strange I just couldn't get into this film...approach with caution.

Le deuxième film de Robert Redford est une fable plutôt sympathique et amusante sur une bourgade du Nouveau-Mexique à la lutte contre d'ignobles promoteurs immobiliers. Perclue de visages connus comme Christopher Walken ou Ruben Blades, The Milagro Beanfield War est un film extrêmement divertissant mais un peu trop long pour son bien. C'est dommage car l'intérêt même du film s'étiole au fil du temps. Sonia Braga y est lumineuse.

This is another of those quirky little hidden gems that is a good way to kill an afternoon. Typical story of the little guy fight "the man," but made with a deft hand. There is some fine acting, and laugh out loud moments, but mostly it's a movie that will give you a lasting smile after watching it.

A good cast, but muddied by wrongfully diverted runoff.

The Border Between Realism and Magical Realism There's something about that kind of landscape. Desert vistas. Hard, hot skies. The omnipresent wind. And perhaps, too, the Spanish language helps; it's one of those languages that just sounds pretty when you speak in it. Perhaps it is also the conflict between being very old and very new. A character in this movie says that something has been a tradition for hundreds of years--going back, one presumes, to when the first Europeans arrived. The native history of the Americas is very old, and the post-colonial one is very new. When you have that kind of conflict in your thinking, there isn't much left to hang a belief in reality on. And perhaps all of that is why the greatest writers of magical realism have tended to come from Spain's former New World colonies. Even when they are from other climates, they are still isolating locations, places where you know the nearest people are miles off through inhospitable terrain. Even if they lived in cities. The closest thing to a city here is the town of Milagro, New Mexico. It is yet another poor town--New Mexico is not, despite certain government contracts, a wealthy state. These people couldn't get those jobs anyway, because they need you to be more than a high school graduate at best. One day, Joe Mondragon (Chick Vennera) goes to Horsethief Shorty (James Gammon) and asks for work. Shorty is in charge of the new Miracle Valley Recreation Area. Joe can lay pipe or do basic carpentry or any number of other things, but Shorty tells him there is no work. In frustration and almost without conscious thought, Joe begins to irrigate the field left to him by his father. He decides he will plant beans. This is, of course, illegal; all the water rights in the area have been acquired by the Miracle Valley developers. Joe doesn't mean his act to have political ramifications, but of course it immediately does, because how can it not? Yeah, okay, the novel was written by a Gringo, and goodness knows he made sure we had a couple of Gringo characters to identify with, not just developer Ladd Devine (Richard Bradford) and his problem solver, Kyril Montana (Christopher Walken, of course). Shorty isn't a bad guy, and there's former firebrand attorney/current newspaper publisher Charlie Bloom (John Heard) and hapless sociologist Herbie Platt (Daniel Stern). Even Ladd Devine's bimbo wife, Flossie, is a decent sort played by Melanie Griffith. It's also true that certain of the Hispanic characters are caricatures just as much as Devine is. There is old Amarante Cordova (Carlos Riquelme) and "the Senile Brigade." It's also true that the film was directed by Robert Redford, not himself notable for any kind of Hispanic ancestry. While a lot of people identify Redford with the West, that's really because he played Sundance. I mean, Santa Monica, California, is technically in the West, but it doesn't feel like it. However, when you get right down to it, Joe is one of the easiest guys in the movie to understand. Certainly more so than Herbie, who doesn't seem together enough to have made it out of the airport, much less written a successful grant proposal to study whatever it is he's supposed to be studying. Joe wants to feed his family, and if he can't get work, well, he'll try growing a crop. Ruby Archuleta (Sonia Braga) knows that the coming of Miracle Valley won't mean money for her; she doesn't know how to fix the kinds of cars those visitors will be driving. She knows that the people of Milagro won't be able to afford to live in their own homes anymore, that most of them will be worse off than before even if they get jobs as busboys or gardeners. She wants to do something for her hometown, and that's completely understandable. And while Amarante may be a total caricature, stereotype, or whatever you wish to call him, he also has probably the best sense of humour in the whole thing. For once, I have actually read the book. Oh, not recently, but I did. Several times, I think. It is true that the book makes its roots in Southwestern literature a little more apparent while simultaneously being earthier and more realistic. Several of the characters who are near-ciphers in the movie are fleshed out in the book; several of them have backstories that couldn't have made it onto the screen even if the running time wasn't already nearly two hours. In short, shockingly enough, the book is better. However, I do still like the movie. I will admit that, once I realized that Joe Mondragon was played by the guy who voiced Pesto the Goodfeather on [i]Animaniacs[/i], I was distracted pretty much whenever he was onscreen. Still, where I thought the movie succeeded most was in capturing the frustration a poor man can feel trapped by when it seems as though the rich are taking everything he has ever had or wanted. There are plenty of ways Joe Mondragon could be better off, but it's too late for most of them. Growing beans was all he could do to lash out.

I am quite surprised by the low 59% rating that the tomatometer has given this charming, nostalgic, witty movie. This is one of the few movies that beckons me to watch it again and again. It is the story of a the human condition with all of its angst and beauty.

I love this movie. One of my all time favorites.

Any chance The Milagro Beanfield War gets to Blu Ray? This little classic was meant to be on Blu Ray and fans NEED it on Blu Ray!