FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Martin Bradley "The Breaking Point" comes from the same short story by Hemingway as "To Have and Have Not" but you would never really know it. If the Hawks movie was "Casablanca"-light, this is top notch Hemingway with a terse, beautifully written screenplay by Ranald MacDougall. Michael Curtiz, who directed "Casablanca" made this and it shows he had a much tougher edge than perhaps we're used to, but then remember Curtiz also made "Mildred Pierce" and she was no pushover.John Garfield is the hard-nosed cruiser captain, tougher even than Bogie if you can believe it, and instead of Bacall we have Patricia Neal, brilliant as the blonde who has been around the block a few times. Instead of cuddly Walter Brennan we get the great Juno Hernandez who is a long way from cuddly and Wallace Ford is his usual magnificent self as the scuzzball who does the dirty on everyone.Some people rate this as Curtiz' masterpiece and it's not hard to see why even if I still prefer "Casablanca" and that waitress. There isn't an ounce of fat to be found in this picture, not a single shot that is out of place and if you do want to think of Curtiz as an auteur and not just the greatest of studio directors then this is one to go for.

blanche-2 With the Depression, the so-called "upper class," the subject of so many plays and films, began to fade and be replaced by the work of playwrights such as Clifford Odets.John Garfield was the type of leading man who came out of that kind of working man play -- more rugged than romantic, more blue collar than white collar, more at home in a leather jacket than a tuxedo. That leading man type would peak post-war with the likes of Dean, Brando, Steiger, Newman, McQueen, and others. But their predecessor was John Garfield.Here he stars in his second-last film, as he would soon be blacklisted -- it's "The Breaking Point," based on the Hemingway novel "To Have and Have Not," but not really like the Bogart-Bacall film, which borrowed the title.In "The Breaking Point," Garfield plays Harry Morgan, who runs a charter boat in California. He has a wife, Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter) and two daughters (Sherry Jackson, Donna Jo Boyce). Times are tough (the original novel took place during the Depression) and Harry is having trouble making enough money to pay off his boat and raise his family. Lucy wishes her husband would work for his father on his lettuce farm in Salinas, but Harry says all he knows is boats. Because he needs money, Harry agrees to carry out a shady deal, transporting Chinese to the United States. But when he is cheated out of most of his money, he returns the men where he picked them up. However, someone rats on him and he nearly loses his boat.When the boat's owner threatens to take the boat for nonpayment, Harry agrees to another shady deal; this one proves more dangerous.Very intense film which also stars Juano Hernandez, who was wonderful in so many films until his death in 1970; Patricia Neal in her "babe" days, as a former boat passenger who is attracted to Harry; and Wallace Ford, as a foolish man involved in nefarious schemes. William Campbell, whose big claim to fame was that he was married to JFK's girlfriend Judith Exton, plays a low-level criminal.John Garfield gives a brilliant performance as a stubborn, intense, desperate man who doesn't know where to turn. His last movie, He Ran All the Way, was a B movie and a clear indication that, thanks to the Communist witch hunt, he was on his way out. He died two years later.Beautifully directed by Michael Curtiz, the end of the movie is especially poignant.

kenkopp Having just seen the Scorsese-restored print of this film at Noir City 10 in San Francisco, I was struck by several things; Garfield's portrayal of a veteran caught up in a terminally narrow view of his own masculinity, Patricia Neal's over the top sensuality contrasted to Thaxter's mousy but devoted wife; and the unbelievably poignant ending along with the unusual treatment of race throughout.The relationship between Juano Hernandez' Wesley and Garfield's Harry is about as race neutral as it could be. Yes, the white guy is the "boss", but he IS the boss, and the fact that his subordinate is black is not at all made into an explicit comment beyond the fact that the reverse would, of course, have been unthinkable in a movie of this time (or even, for the most part, in our own time.) But the fact is they are partners - and they seem truly friends beyond their business relationship. All seems quite "natural". There is an odd scene when Wesley brings his son (apparently Hernandez' real son) along to Harry's house one morning and Harry's two daughters take him off to school with them where it certainly seems that the kids have never met each other before although their fathers have worked together for (we find out later) is 12 years - indeed since before any of the kids were born. Perhaps Joseph (the little boy) is just shy and although he has met the girls before he is reluctant to say hi to them; perhaps this is indeed a reflection of a race-relation-induced reticence on his part, which would not at all be unreasonable.In any case (and here come the spoilers), when Wesley is ultimately shot and then unceremoniously tossed overboard near the film's violent climax we see that Harry is completely devastated; so much so that he hatches an even more desperate reckoning with the "men from St Louis" than he had already been anticipating. Indeed, he seems at that point to be content to die if that is what it takes to avenge his friend; he simply had not considered that this might be the cost of his scheme to get out from under his financial troubles – that someone else would have to pay a price for his problems. Harry dispatches all the bad guys, and is shot up so badly he must be carried off the boat once it is towed back to port by the Coast Guard. This is where the surprising role of race comes in. We see Joseph, Wesley's son, in the crowd at the dock as Harry's wife and daughters are standing in tears, distraught at the prospect of Harry's demise or at the very least the loss of a limb, are shown huddled together, being solicitously taken care of the by the authorities. Harry is put into the ambulance, and the girls and his wife go off to the hospital, too. We see Patricia Neal (with yet another new "captain") and she is allowed to comment on the proceedings. And then we see a shot from above, showing the dock as the police clear the crowd away and tell everyone to go home until the only person left is little Joseph, whom no one paid any attention to, and who is looking forlornly at the boat, waiting for his father to come ashore. The camera holds this shot, and then the film closes.Here we were just seconds away from being allowed to imagine the ending being about Harry's becoming reconciled to a different version of his own masculinity, one in which is not a tower of independent strength and violent self-sufficiency, even so much as to declare, in a rather different tone than he had earlier, that one is "nothing when you're alone" and telling his wife he needs her and will do whatever she says (when earlier this dialogue had been completely reversed), and even to the extent to letting the docs remove his shattered arm. And then Michael Curtiz makes the focus of all the emotion built up over the last hour and a half not Harry and his problems, but the fate of this little boy, completely neglected by those around him, both those who knew him and the officials who might at least be expected to ask why he is still hanging around. We know that HE is going to have to go home to tell his mother (who we know exists from an earlier interchange between Harry and Wesley) that Wesley is nowhere to be found…I don't think I have seen a more astonishing, and humanely interesting ending to a film of this type and period. This film bears re-watching and much thought; certainly a lot of thought (and collaboration between Curtiz, Garfield, and Neal) went into it.(It should be noted that there is a fairly rare treatment of Chinese people in this movie as well, both as criminals (human trafficker) and victims (those trafficked) and that this element, too, bears some further consideration; certainly the portrayal of Chinese in the picture is resolutely unsympathetic (and not just in comparison to the treatment of the few black characters) and this is rather surprising given that other films of the period portray them sympathetically as wartime allies and as American citizens and the "Red Chinese" only intervened in the Korean War as the film was being released so that could not have figured into the portrayal of Chinese when the film was actually being shot.)

joedonato234 This is a remake of TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT that supposedly from what I've read sticks closer to the Hemingway story. Garfield could play the strong but tormented guy like nobody's business, here however we have most of the information needed in understanding just what's eating at this guy, wearing him down and making him afraid. "A man alone hasn't got a chance," he keeps repeating. But Harry isn't alone. He's got a family that loves him, a plain but good woman he adores, and who adores him. A best friend who is his shipping mate, yet he still can't shake the feeling that somehow the universe is against him, working overtime. He's like a man that needs some spiritual guidance. Something is missing. On first viewing this plays like a well done yarn. On subsequent viewings however, this film begins to haunt. The characters and scenes play on a deeper, more meaningful level. The domestic scenes, usually the throwaway, boring parts of a story like this, become the rock and Garfield and Phylis Thaxter emit genuine emotion and affection for one another that is unusually realistic. Patricia Neal is the temptress here, and in an unusual move, we're not supposed to fall in love with her or maybe even like her, which is evident in how she's physically presented. Her haircut is really bad and she's basically unflatteringly lit and photographed. She too looks realistic: like a once beautiful creature who's been around the block too many times and is starting to look all used up.Juano Hernandez rounds out the main players as Garfield's friend and shipmate. It was Garfield who insisted the character be a black man and had the relationship between the two beefed up. According to Garfield's daughter, the studio didn't like the idea and tried to talk him out of it, eventually giving up. This casting led to someone (director Michael Curtiz?)coming up with that final shot in the film that hits like a sucker punch to the gut, unexpected and unforgettable.Watch this one a second time and see if you agree.