Trailer
Plot summary
Woody Guthrie earns a living as a sign painter in Pampa, Texas, and spends his spare time on his guitar and the songs he writes. His wife, Mary, worries about money for the family while he seems more interested in music. Woody decides to head for California, where there is said to be plenty of work, by train and by hitching rides, hoping to paint a few signs for a meal. He finds that work is scarce, but the people looking for it are determined. In a farm labor camp he meets Ozark Bule, a union organizer and singer, and begins writing songs about the working class. Ozark gets him onto a local radio broadcast, and then a regular program with another singer, Memphis Sue. The station owner and sponsors hired him for entertainment, not politics.
Cast
- Elizabeth Maceyas Liz - Johnson's Wife
- Susan Vaillas Gwen Guthrie
- Sarah Vaillas Gwen Guthrie
- Alexandra Mockas Sue Guthrie
- Kimberly Mockas Sue Guthrie
Show all 20 cast
- Miriam Byrd-Netheryas Sick Woman - Water-Swallowing Scene (as Miriam Byrd Nethery)
- Lee McLaughlinas Heavy Chandler
- Robert Sorrellsas Charlie Guthrie
- Guthrie Thomasas George Guthrie
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bound for Glory (1976)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bound for Glory was the first motion picture in which inventor and operator Garrett Brown used his new Steadicam to film moving scenes.
SPOILER
The film ends with Guthrie singing his most famous song, 'God Blessed America for Me', later retitled 'This Land Is Your Land', on his way to New York. In fact the song was composed in New York in 1940 and then forgotten by him until five years later.- Apart from Guthrie himself and his first wife, Mary, all of the main events and characters in the film are entirely fictional.
- Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson both turned down the role of Woody Guthrie, and Richard Dreyfuss was considered. Tim Buckley was going to be offered the part, but died of a drug overdose.
- Ashby later said David Carradine's 'to hell with you' attitude caused problems during filming. In one scene some migrant workers marched by, Carradine started marching with them, and by the time the crew found him he was two miles away, having held up shooting for three hours.
- Ashby wanted a big freight train for the movie rather than the shorter trains commonly used in filmmaking, so the railroad assembled a train of 34 freight cars for it.
