Perhaps the best thing about this production is that it got me to read Steinbeck's novel. Like many great works of literature, this is a story too complex to be effectively squeezed into a two-hour theatrical film. Fortunately, the longer miniseries format allows for a faithful adaptation, and this one succeeds brilliantly.
Timothy Bottoms gives one of his best performances as Adam Trask, the well-meaning but naive farmer who marries a vicious woman with a horrific past. Sam Bottoms, Timothy's real life son, plays Adam's son Cal, a troubled boy struggling to choose between good and evil. Warren Oates is excellent as Adam's father, whose favoritism of his younger son sets the stage for so much trouble later on.
But the real star of the show is Jane Seymour, as Kathy Ames. Seymour reportedly said that after watching one of her scenes, she scared herself. She is the living, breathing embodiment of evil, cloaked in heartbreaking beauty.
Soon-Tek Oh does a super job of breathing life into the character of Lee, the Chinese student of theology who provides the philosophical subtext of the story, giving meaning to its Biblical roots.
Sadly, this film has only been released on VHS, and the original issue was cut by two hours (leaving a four hour film without most of the back story). There was one VHS reissue in the early 90s but it was quickly replaced by the cut version (with the same cover).
Timothy Bottoms gives one of his best performances as Adam Trask, the well-meaning but naive farmer who marries a vicious woman with a horrific past. Sam Bottoms, Timothy's real life son, plays Adam's son Cal, a troubled boy struggling to choose between good and evil. Warren Oates is excellent as Adam's father, whose favoritism of his younger son sets the stage for so much trouble later on.
But the real star of the show is Jane Seymour, as Kathy Ames. Seymour reportedly said that after watching one of her scenes, she scared herself. She is the living, breathing embodiment of evil, cloaked in heartbreaking beauty.
Soon-Tek Oh does a super job of breathing life into the character of Lee, the Chinese student of theology who provides the philosophical subtext of the story, giving meaning to its Biblical roots.
Sadly, this film has only been released on VHS, and the original issue was cut by two hours (leaving a four hour film without most of the back story). There was one VHS reissue in the early 90s but it was quickly replaced by the cut version (with the same cover).