In Pampa, Texas, July 1936, some men congregate at a dusty filling station in the middle of the day. Economic depression has them debating what’s going to happen to their town. In California, it’s said, you can just plop a seed in the ground and you’ll find a sprout the next day. Woody Guthrie (David Carradine) would rather strum his guitar. A traveling man pulls in and offers the men a dollar for any news he can use. Guthrie correctly deduces the man’s vocation and dreams, and wins fifty cents, despite claiming he “ain’t no mind reader.”

Woody’s wife Mary (Melinda Dillon) tells him he could make more money with his sign painting if he’d apply himself. The father of two seems to have other ideas. Word is out that he’s a fortune teller, and he’s asked to help a woman in town who has stopped drinking since her daughter died of dust pneumonia. By just talking to her, and the sound of Woody’s voice seems to break her out of her depression.

Work is scarce, and as a dust storm covers Pampa, all Guthrie can do is pick his guitar and ride it out. With no way to support his family in West Texas, he leaves a note, “Gone to California. Will send for you all. Love, Woody,” and – with only his paintbrushes, a harmonica, and the clothes on his back – hits the open road.

Guthrie falls in with some boxcar hoboes, before being kicked off the train by thugs. At the California border, he discovers the LAPD are turning away anyone who doesn’t have $300 cash. Guthrie finds himself at an encampment of fruit pickers, who practically beg for work from the ranchers. One day, Ozark Bule (Ronny Cox) shows up at the camp with his guitar to spread the gospel of unionizing. He gets Guthrie an audition, and a $20 a week job performing on the radio results.

Guthrie’s show is a success, and he receives a raise to $35 a week. But his new sponsors insist no controversial material appear on the program. Bule advises his protégé to make a living. On air, Guthrie decides to sing about the Dust Bowl, the police, and the people he met on the road. His wife convinces him to sing to the tune of management, but a run-in with a fruit picker (Randy Quaid) convinces Guthrie that his songs are making a difference.

Director Hal Ashby had grown up on a farm in the 1930s, and when he read a screenplay by Robert Getchell about Woody Guthrie, felt a kinship with him. Ashby had scored a major success with Shampoo and indulged himself with Bound For Glory, shooting for 118 days.

It didn’t perform well at the box office, but was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, with All The President’s Men, Network, Rocky, and Taxi Driver. Unlike those classics, this one has fallen through the cracks over the years. I can’t recall ever seeing it appear on cable TV.

Ashby does a tremendous job using the meandering nature of Guthrie’s journey to build mood and atmosphere. The film is composed of episodes, never in a hurry to get anywhere, the same of which could be said for Guthrie. Director of photography Haskell Wexler gave the picture a terrific weather beaten look, and David Carradine gives what might be the finest performance of his career. The film also features standout bluegrass and folk music throughout.

Bound For Glory became the first film to use a new camera harness invented by Garrett Brown called the Steadicam. The Steadicam allowed hand held cameras to capture images fluidly, without the camera shaking. They quickly found their way into movies like Marathon Man and Rocky, but this one was the first.