TCM's running The Grapes of Wrath.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

I've seen it before, of course, (and read the novel long ago) but I don't remember it being quite this hard to watch in the past.

[sandnsea]

1. Angela's Ashes is on Showtime

Both great books and movies.

[eleny]

2. I felt that way the last time I watched it

I read the book when I was a teen and have watched the movie many times over the decades. But this last time it felt especially poignant. Perhaps it's the current times. I feel the same as the DUer who talked about Americans becoming useless to industry.

Last night I finally got the chance to watch the HBO documentary, Schmatta, about the NYC garment business. My dad was a pocket maker in Brooklyn. He and mom worked as partners making pockets to put my brother and I through college (I've posted about this in the past). I went to a private college in the late 1960s. Try to put two kids through college working in a factory now. First, you'd have to find a union factory job and then one that pays a decent wage.

Watching "Schmatta" was difficult. And to think that the start of American jobs going overseas started with JFK makes it all the tougher to swallow.

[grasswire]

3. that sounds fascinating.

A pocket maker. Who knew there was such a thing? Sounds like a character from a novel.

[eleny]

6. I posted a photo of him in a shop where he worked when he was probably in his early 30s

It's in a thread about the HBO documentary posted n the Labor Forum.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=367&topic_id=23307&mesg_id=23308

[PDJane]

4. I don't think I'd be able to watch that......Schmatta........

My mother worked in the textile industry from the age of 13. Contrary to popular belief, it is not an unskilled job. In fact, I'm not sure there is such a thing as an unskilled job, but I digress.

She is 83, worked a textile factory until she was 73. As a result, her fingers are gnarled and without any sensation; watching her try to punch the buttons to phone someone is painful, and she has a very hard time zipping up jackets and buttoning things or tying her laces. She lives with me, because she's fully aware and cognizant, but needs some assistance with things.

These jobs chew people up, you know. Repetitive motion injuries, stress fractures....and the emotional toll of working with a bunch of people who hate their jobs and take their frustrations out on each other is just another kind of occupational hazard.

It would be better for the work environment and for the planet if we were forced to pay for the oil subsidies and living wages.

[PSPS]

5. I saw it a couple of weeks ago

When I watched it a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a device the director used that reflected the political tenor of the times.

The Joads had been traveling from camp to camp, each of which were predatory in nature (goon guards, ramshackle accommodations, "company store," etc.) Then they arrived at the "Farmworkers' Wheat Patch Camp." As they approached in their coasting truck, we are shown the sign:



Then, the shot zooms in on the small sign hanging below:



The attention to "Department of Agriculture" meant a great deal to people in the late 30's in that it meant they wouldn't be preyed upon as was normal in privately-run camps at the farms. This FSA program was created by FDR to try and encourage farmers to improve the conditions in their camps, which they never did. This simple device of using the zoom shot was all that was needed to convey an entire message to the viewer, especially at the time (1939.)

Doing something like this today, of course, would be impossible. Back then, FDR didn't care one whit about being "bipartisan." Today, sadly, we're saddled with President Milquetoast.