Product Details

• Actors: Nick Nolte, Debra Winger, Audra Lindley, Frank McRae, M. Emmet Walsh
• Directors: David S. Ward
• Writers: David S. Ward, John Steinbeck
• Producers: Kurt Neumann, Michael Phillips
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Mgm/Turner Movie Classics
• VHS Release Date: March 3, 1993
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (113 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301966465
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,709 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This 1982 effort at adapting John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday and Cannery Row is barely watchable, salvaged only by the thoughtful performances of Nick Nolte as a marine biologist and Debra Winger as a drifter. David S. Ward (Down Periscope) made his directorial debut and thoroughly botched such essentials as pacing and verisimilitude. (The sets look as artificial as any of Francis Ford Coppolla's more egregious contrivances.) If you can stay with it, however, there are plenty of good acting moments to hang your hat on. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HS students beware!, July 11, 2000

By	Alan R. Holyoak (Idaho) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

First of all...to all High School students out there who are required to read Steinbeck's book "Cannery Row" ...if you try to get by with just watching this movie and writing your report your grade will suffer! Oh, it has nothing to do with the quality of the film...I'll get to that later, it's just that this film is a blending of two of Steinbeck's books, "Cannery Row" and "Sweet Thursday." Both of those stories are set along Cannery Row in Pacific Grove/Monterey, CA, and have many of the same characters in them, but unless you already know the stories you may well include material from "Sweet Thursday" in your report on "Cannery Row," and...OOPS...there goes the old grade! So, beware! Now...on with the review...

Nolte plays "Doc" the main character in the story. His character is based on a real life person, a marine scientist named Ed Ricketts who lived and worked along Cannery Row (which was certainly not the tourist attraction in the 1930s-40s that it is today). You can, by the way, still see the building where Doc Ricketts worked if you visit Pacific Grove...it's just down the road from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. OK, OK, enough history, back to the movie...

Nolte does a great job of playing the out of the way, but not really down and out "Doc." Things are going along smoothly until Winger hits the scene, then there's romance in the air, though it doesn't land until much later.

I suppose you could call this movie a romantic comedy, or you could call it a romance, or you could call it drama, or you could call it real life -- Steinbeck was like that -- he was into real life.

This is, I agree, an underrated film. It's true that there are slower parts, and if you don't like narration in films then you won't like this one much. If you're looking for a barn-burner action thriller this is NOT the film for you. But if you are looking for interesting character and plot development you will enjoy this film.

Nolte and Winger have good on-screen chemistry, and you will enjoy being the mouse in the corner are you observe their developing relationship.

5 stars for the thoughtful crowd.

Alan Holyoak

56 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Steinbeck and Egregious Contrivances? Get a rope., June 25, 1999

By A Customer

It's clear that the majority of viewers who've watched this movie disagree with the reviewer so disappointed by it's pacing and verisimilitude. I'm curious why anyone capable of scattering terms such as 'egregious contrivances' in their review of a light romantic comedy was assigned to anything based on Steinbeck's work in the first place. A populist romantic comedy is one film category where it may be wiser to trust the opinion of the viewers who're raving about it over the sneering technical quibbles of a critic armed with a thesaurus. Populist film based on populist fiction simply may not be the best assignment for any reviewer clearly unable to climb off what must be a most uncomfortable corncob. For ordinary folks not frightened by references to egregious contrivances and verisimilitude, other viewers who've seen Cannery Row unite in recommending the movie for it's performances by Nolte and Winger. M. Emmet Walsh outdoes himself as Mack, nearly as good a performance as his masterpiece in 'Blood Simple'. Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday were among the sweetist and funniest books that Steinbeck produced. Perhaps all the humor that the rest of us enjoyed in the film combining the novels was difficult to enjoy while perched atop that unfortunate cob. For Steinbeck fans, or fans of romantic comedy, this film won't disappoint. We join together in urging anyone suffering from egregious contrivance phobia to seek immediate help at the nearest competent proctologist.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love This Movie!, December 24, 2004

By	W. Winner (Durango, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Looking for an exact replication of Steinbeck's reads on film? Keep looking. Want an entertaining adaptation of those same reads? Look no further. This is another film I never tire of seeing time and again. REALEASE IT ON DVD ALREADY!