Adapting to Life's Hand - A Study on "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" *Super Spoilers* ________ "Mama! Mama, they're cutting the tree!" - Francie Nolan ________ Written by Bolivar T. Caceres Reading time approx: 20 minutes Watch Film (free) Published January 15, 2022 Listen to Essay (free) Featured on IMDB Listen to Soundtrack (free) Read our Scene Study Listen to our First Take Top 5 Film Like “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" "However, unlike a stage, in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," this stiff and static cinematography only ushers us into these Shakespearian characters filled with tragedy and humor. " "I guess you won't get home until the sun comes up." Adaptation is all about survival. It's the innate ability to overcome hardship to live long and prosper – as Captain Spock is wont to say. In these moments of perseverance, one
Five Pre-80s Films Like “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945)
Written by Bolivar T. Caceres
*Super Spoiler Alert*
When given an unfavorable hand in life, it is hard to believe that God will deal you a royal flush: a steady job, a working bathroom, and money in the bank do not seem imminent. And worse, faith soon wanes from the travails that occurred over time. So, how does one adapt?
It's not a question that needs an answer; adaptation is an innate component of the human existence. And much of the same could be said for film production.
For example, John Ford and Stanley Kubrick adapt popular novels of their times into award-winning films, such as "The Grapes of Wrath," "How Green is My Valley," The Shinning, and "Eyes Wide Shut" (to name a few.) However, these cinema giants aren't the sole practitioners of novel adaptation for the big screen.
Borrowed from the film custom of novel adaptation, Elia Kazan takes Betty Smith's novel, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" as his first career film. In it, he does what John Ford is known to do: tell a story of the human struggle and the character's adaptation to find happiness and success.
To learn more about adaptation in Elia Kazan’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” read Essay #7: Adapting to Life’s Hand.
Interested in the soundtrack for “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn”? Check out our collection.
Also, want to know our first take on “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? Follow Film Studies Quarterly Review’s First Take Podcast on Podbean.
And while you're at it, check out to Film Studies Quarterly Reviews's Scene Study and Top 5 with Bolivar T. Caceres to hear our analyses.
Below are five films featuring characters that adapted to their struggle (some are novel adaptations.)
5. Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)
Synopsis: The ups and downs of life as experienced by a group of aspiring young artists in the early Fifties New York.
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Country: USA
Runtime: 1hr 51 minutes
Actors: Lenny Baker, Shelley Winters, Ellen Greene…
Director: Paul Mazursky
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5x9bBl8qvA
Analytical Essay: https://filmstudiesqtlyreview.blogspot.com/2022/01/Essay6-All-Of-New-York-City-Is-A-Stage
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEXry0CYyBA
Scene Clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jtzlLsdbLM&list=PLp6KnvUauG0hW69CbiqHTi-YNYY3axd1w
Synopsis: A recently widowed woman is on the road with her precocious young son, determined to make a new life for herself as a singer.
Genre: Romance/Drama
Country: USA
Runtime: 1hr 52 minutes
Actors: Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Mia Bendixsen …
Director: Martin Scorsese
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPSxVXId-Zw&t=1s
Analytical Essay: https://filmstudies401.blogspot.com/2021/01/essay-2-jan-2021.html
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVhZnUXhRXE
Scene Clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7op6MQTMjs&list=PLp6KnvUauG0iQtck43ruHF6c0X_2PRNPR
3. Our Vines have Tender Grapes (1945)
Synopsis: A Norwegian farmer lovingly raises his daughter in rural World War II-era Benson Junction, Wisconsin.
Genre: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Runtime: 1hr 45minutes
Actors: Stars Edward G. Robinson, Margaret O’Brien, James Craig...
Director: Roy Rowland
Watch: N/A
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpESnJG2vHI
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Synopsis: At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.
Genre: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Runtime: 1hr 58 Minutes
Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Anna Lee...
Director: John Ford
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBkd-Au4IY
Novel by: Richard Llewellyn
Read Novel: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.272132
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq7yCJG7Dew
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1. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Synopsis: An Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Runtime: 2hrs 9minutes
Actors: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine…
Director: John Ford
Watch: https://ok.ru/video/32691784362
Novel by: John Steinbeck
Read Novel: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.261773
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6icGNGUMVc
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** A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1945)
Synopsis: Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Runtime: 2hrs 8minutes
Actors: Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn...
Director Elia Kazan
Novel by: Betty Smith
Read Novel: https://archive.org/details/ATreeGrowsInBrooklynByBettySmith
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FMYoKfgAKk
Analytical Essay: https://filmstudiesqtlyreview.blogspot.com/2022/08/Essay7ATreeinBrooklyn.html
Trailer: https://youtu.be/snAnOHUJOVE
Scene Clips: [Coming soon]
Bolivar T. Caceres is a Bronx-based artist and writer. His poems appear on ShortEdition and Ariel Chart. He is also the author of the chapbook Outside My Garret Window, published in 2020. He currently writes for the quarterly film blog Film Studies 401 and the news blog New York Positivity. Connect with him on social media @BolivarTCaceres and at www.BtcArt.co.
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