The Southerner

Drama | English | 92 minutes

Info

Sam Tucker is a Texas sharecropper picking cotton with his wife Nona and his elderly uncle Pete. Pete suddenly collapses from the heat and dies. Before Pete dies he tells Sam, “Work for yourself; grow your own crops.” Sam heeds Pete’s advice and with Nona, his granny, and their children they set out to work on a 68-acre farm with little more than two mules, a secondhand plow, some cottonseed and fertilizer. They spend time plowing the soil, planting seeds, and hoping for a successful crop. Finally, just as it looks like they will have a profitable cotton crop, a violent storm destroys everything. A demoralized Sam decides to give up farming and accept a factory job. But when he returns to the farm he has second thoughts as he sees Nona and Granny feverishly cleaning up. They are both determined to start again.

Cast

Zachary Scott (Sam Tucker) / Betty Field (Nona Tucker) / Beulah Bondi (Granny Tucker)

Why Stream This Film?

The Southerner was the fourth of six films Jean Renoir directed while living in Hollywood during the 1940s. Today, film critics and film historians consider TheSoutherner to be Renoir’s “Hollywood masterpiece.” Additionally, it is generally recognized as the French director’s “most American film with regard to its content, structure, and overall presentation.”