Seems To Me...

THE BEST LAID SCHEMES

I was reminiscing via email with my old friend Jerry Warren and the conversation turned to books. I mentioned that one of my favorites is John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. I haven’t read it for a while, but the exchange with Jerry set me to thinking.

There is a scene in the book where George and Lennie, those quintessential itinerant farm workers, are sitting around the table in the bunkhouse talking about their dream: to own a place of their own. George even knows of a small farm that’s available if only they could get the money together. Candy, the one-handed old man who works on the ranch, says he has some money saved and he’d be willing to throw in with them if they’d just let him live there and tend the chickens. George pencils it out and comes to the realization that together they can do it. Their dream can become a reality.

It is an electric moment, one of the great ones in American literature, because it touches on a universal truth: everyman’s dream of a home, a place to call his own, a piece of God’s good earth. This is why, more than 70 years after it was published, Of Mice and Men still resonates with so many people. I’ll admit that I am one of them.

It resonates for me because of my father. “Three or four acres in the Napa Valley,” he would say. “That’s what I’d like when I retire.” Even in the early 1950s, that dream was probably out of reach for a shipyard worker. And yet, I heard him say it over and over again.

We didn’t have a car in our family until I was nine years old. We relied on city buses to get around town. Finally, in 1951, my dad decided it was time. My mom arranged for someone to give her driving lessons (my dad refused to drive because of a bad experience as a young man), and my parents negotiated a deal for a new Chevy sedan. Suddenly we had wheels! Not surprisingly, our favorite form of family entertainment was to take a Sunday drive, often with my older brother Dick behind the wheel. Most Sundays, the destination was the Napa Valley, extending as far north as St. Helena, and occasionally including side trips off of Highway 29.

“Just three or four acres, Charlie. That’s all a man would need.” It was my dad’s dream until the day he died.

There are many versions of Of Mice and Men out there for your viewing pleasure: the classic 1939 film version starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr.; the 1970 television production with George Segal and Nicol Williamson; and the 1981 television version with Robert Blake and Randy Quaid. And, every now and then, your local theater company will stage a revival.

There are a couple of things to look for in judging any production of this classic. First, does it adhere to the Steinbeck original? It drives me nuts when a screenwriter or director has the unmitigated brass to rewrite John Steinbeck. Just look at what David S. Ward did to Cannery Row in his 1982 film version. There oughta be a law!

Second, how well do they perform that critical scene in the bunkhouse? They absolutely have to nail it, because after all folks, that’s what it’s all about. Say it with me: “Universal Truth.”

Having set the criteria, let me recommend Gary Sinise’s 1992 film version, starring Sinise as George and John Malkovich as Lennie. In my humble opinion, this movie gets it 90% right.

It always makes me think of my dad. And it always brings a tear to my eye.
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