Bound for Glory

United Artists | Release Date: December 5, 1976

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

70	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Roger Ebert

One of the best-looking films ever made, in its photography, in its use of locations, in its recreation of the America that Woody Guthrie discovered. Read full review

Molly Haskell

Ashby--working through a magnificent performance by Carradine--has converted technical virtuosity to his own ends, creating a richly ambiguous character study that sings and provokes and celebrates. [13 Dec 1976, p.45]

EmpireNick Dawson

With Haskell Wexler's splendid photography and Leonard Rosenman's fine score, the film provides a poetic yet authentic view of Depression-era America with the symbolic figure of Guthrie (an impressive David Carradine) at its very centre. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

A moving, brilliantly photographed picture that portrays the legendary eccentric folksinger Woody Guthrie in a trip across Depression-era America. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Bound for Glory is outstanding biographical cinema, not only of the late Woody Guthrie but also of the 1930s Depression era which served to disillusion, inspire and radicalize him and millions of other Americans. Read full review

Pauline Kael

An absorbing and impressive piece of work.

Dave Kehr

Ashby is excellent on atmosphere but fair to middling on character. When the film makes a sudden transition from epic to melodrama, things fall apart. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

An overlong, sentimental and lifeless biopic of Woody Guthrie. Read full review

Janet Maslin

Too halting and anecdotal to have much historical sweep, yet too broadly ambitious to achieve any biographical intimacy. [13 Dec 1976, p.104]

Gary Arnold

Regrettably, director Hal Ashby has allowed both the protagonist, folk-singer Woody Guthrie, played with surprising canniness and authority by David Carradine, and the Depression setting to drift away in pictorial reverie and dramatically evasive heroworship. [16 Feb 1977, p.B1]