The Migrants (1974)

A family of migrant workers goes where the work is. Picking crops and eking out a living that allows them to exist and nothing more. The son (Ron Howard) hopes for something more but everything seems against him. Based on a story by Tennessee Williams and adapted by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lanford Wilson (FIFTH OF JULY) and directed by Tom Gries (WILL PENNY). This is a wonderful film! Simply told without sentiment and an eye that allows us to view these disenfranchised people with empathy. Anchored by a superb performance by Cloris Leachman as the family's matriarch. Without any dialog at all, her ravaged face saying so much more about these folks than all of the cloying twaddle of Ford's THE GRAPES OF WRATH and her final angry outburst is heartbreaking and you'll never forget David Clennon's death scene. Definitely worth seeking out. With Sissy Spacek, Cindy Williams, Ed Lauter (unexpectedly weak), Claudia McNeil and Brad Sullivan.