In Dubious Battle
Short description
Set in California's apple-growing country during the 1930s, In Dubious Battle follows a labour conflict between migrant pickers and the landowners who employ them. Jim Nolan, a young activist new to the cause, joins the experienced organiser Mac, and together they help bring roughly nine hundred fruit workers out on strike. What begins as an attempt to win fairer treatment and pay grows into something larger than the individuals behind it, testing the strikers as the growers push back.
The film is an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, directed by James Franco from a screenplay by Matt Rager. It sits between Franco's earlier literary adaptations and the features that followed it in his directing work. Franco plays Mac, with Nat Wolff as Jim Nolan, and the cast includes Selena Gomez, Vincent D'Onofrio, Robert Duvall and Ed Harris among twenty-seven credited performers. It was produced by Monika Bacardi, Franco and Vince Jolivette for AMBI Group, Rabbit Bandini Productions and Thats Hollywood, on a budget of 15 million dollars.
Released in October 2016 and running 110 minutes, the drama drew modest audience scores: 6 out of 10 on IMDb from around 4,700 votes, and 5.8 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller pool of about 160.
What's left behind the scenes
- The Directors Guild of America withheld the final payment to director James Franco in order to be able to pay the film's crew.
- For financial reasons, in scenes that required stunt performers to execute a particular trick, James Franco filmed background extras instead.
- In John Steinbeck's novel of the same name (1936), which served as the literary basis for the screenplay, there is no mention at all of corrupt union bosses sawing through stair steps, causing an elderly worker to fall. In the 1930s, Steinbeck witnessed many strikes and union leaders, whom he portrayed as idealists, but the filmmakers depicted the union officials as calculating and ruthless.
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