THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN

US, 1986, 101 minutes, Colour.
Meredith Salenger, John Cusack, Ray Wise, Lainie Kazan, Scatman Crothers, Barry Miller, Verna Bloom.
Directed by Jeremy Kagan.

The Journey of Natty Gann is a moving film for a family audience. It is set in the Depression, in 1935 – and won an Oscar nomination for costume design for the period.

Ray Wise portrays a widower, finding it difficult to get work, accused of being a Communist and a troublemaker, finally being offered a job on the other side of the US and having to leave his young daughter, writing a letter but unable to meet her before he left.

Meredith Salenger portrays Natty, the young daughter, feisty, fighting to defend her father’s name and the accusation of his being a Communist. She lives in the apartment block which is managed by a Lainie Kazan and befriends a man in the markets, played by Scatman Crothers.

She decides to go on a journey to the West Coast and the film shows is a great range of terrains and scenery, some beautiful, some plain, some isolated. Sometimes, she is told to get away, other times welcomed. She encounters a wide range of people on the way, meets with a snarling dog at a dogfight, actually, a wolf who becomes a companion.

She meets a young man, hitches a ride on a train, escaping notice because of the wolf, meeting up with him again and journeying the last section with him. He is played by John Cusack. She also meets a pregnant woman, Verna Bloom and tries to buy a train ticket but the seller refuses because of the wolf and rings the authorities. She also meets a group of young men and joins them, involved in stealing a cow from a farm, but then finds she is taken by the police and put in a reformatory, doing exercises in the yard, put in solitary confinement but held by a young girl to escape.

In the meantime, the father writes letters, phones and discovers she has gone, tries to get better jobs in order to end her. She approaches the office of the company and is turned away but the receptionist brings her information. She almost misses her father but is reunited with him road.

The film was directed by Jeremy Kagan, who had some successes in the 1970s and 1980s such films as Heroes and

1. A story of the Depression? The atmosphere of the 1930s? Employment and unemployment? Travel across the United States? The hard life?

2. The American city, apartments, jobs, difficulties in getting employment? The transition to Seattle? Working the timber industry? The journey going across the United States, the range of terrains, people, homes, hospitality, lack of hospitality? The musical score?

3. The title, the focus on Natty? Her age, experience? The death of her mother? Her love for her father, at home with him? His seeking the jobs, sometimes getting them, sometimes not? The fight with the kids, the accusation that he was a Commie, her fight? The offer of the job, his having go to the other side of the US, leaving the letter, entrusting her to Connie?

4. Connie, friendship with Natty’s father, the letters, her stern attitude, locking her up? Talking with a kind man at the market? Natty and her decision to go, out the window?

5. Natty’s character, using her wits, the different ways in which she travelled, getting lifts, the man and his molesting approach, wanting the wolf as a security dog? On the trains, meeting Harry, the difficulties and dangers? Coming across the dog fights, the wolf and his snarling, escape, following her, her befriending him, his support? Getting on the trains and his racing and leaping? His getting the rabbit, her skinning and cooking it, giving him the meat?

6. The kindly pregnant woman, her taking her in, the husband and his hostility, wanting to shoot the wolf?

7. The money, trying to buy a ticket, the guard, hostility to the wolf, phoning the authorities?

8. Her being taken in, the dormitories, the exercises in the yard, put in confinement, the young girl helping her to escape?

9. The group of young unemployed, the leader, attitude towards the wolf, their stealing the cow?

10. Her meeting Harry again, travelling, not going with him, his leaving on the bus, the bond with him?

11. The film interspersed with scenes of the father, his hard work, writing the letters, the phone calls, Connie, shocked that Natty had left? His volunteering for the difficult jobs, on the top of the tree? The dangers and explosions?

12. Natty going to the office, she in the wolf being rejected? Going to the forest, the wolf looking into the trees, her letting him go? The information about her father, the lift, seeing the vehicle go, her father in the back, chasing it – and his getting out and their being reunited?

13. Humane film, a film of difficult times, father and daughter, needs, enterprise, success and being reunited?