well i be probably about to be lambast by everyone on this site and but the good earth be one of the bad structured film i have see in a long time . we have a 2 and a half hour film that feel like it three and a half because it have two film in one . the first film tell the story of a family that have to move form their home because of drought and famine . they have to travel south to the city to find food or work of some kind . conveniently they happen to find a bag of jewel and at the same time they find out that the drought have end . yeah ok. with this knowledge they return home with their rich and everything be fine and wonderful again . well that take about an hour and a half of film and while it incredibly lifeless at this point it do have a nice arc to it . you would think this would be a fantastic place to end the film . however and the film then continue on for a whole other hour . and in this remaining time and it take a simple story about a family deal with the hardship of the world and turn it into a sappy melodrama about betrayal and jealousy between lover . oh yea and the age old and money be the root of all evil blah blah blah . just because you know your make an epic film doesn not mean that your story can go on needlessly for more than it have to . also the main idea i would gather about this film be that the earth be good to this family and hold them together . then why do we spend an hour tell a story about a rich man fall in love with another woman and and why be the final moment of the film dedicate to a wife that our main character hasn not even care about through most of the film . oh wait and the film isn not the only thing thats poorly write and the main character wife make absolutely no sense . she complain a lot about how she be a slave and she never want to have a slave and yadda yadda yadda . then why at the drop of a hat be she willing to sell her only daughter into slavery . even if they be starve at the time of this idea and it still doesn not make sense when 20 minute later in the film she be complain about not want a slave again . there be other film from the thirty that should be pay attention to . the only thing this one have go for it be the cinematography . the land be shoot beautifully and oh and the sequence with the locust be quite impressive . too bad that be in a film that have nothing to say . one last thing . i know that at this point in time hollywood be focus mostly on star and they figure that a good actor can portray anything . for most of the film paul muni do portray an asian man to the best of his ability and but once it hit the half point where the film go on for no reason he lose it and just becomes regular old italian paul and they even cut his hair so he look like tony from scarface ( also a good film than this ) . of all the main character in the film i think maybe three be actually asian and the rest be just american be silly . oh and please ms. rainer that be a really nice one note performance and not and if i could i rip the oscar out of your hand and oh i would . the good earth be one epic waste of time . if you want something along this vain to watch on nice even get the grape of wrath and a film that truly deserve all the praise it get . mainly because it wasn not write by a monkey .