Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Overrated and overhyped

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

"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.

Harry (John Garfield) is a guy who is having a world of trouble. His fishing charter business is having nothing but bad luck and he's having a hard time supporting his family as well as keeping his boat. He's so desperate that he does something he never thought he'd do--work for mobsters to make some quick money. But these people are thugs and the deeper Harry gets, the harder it looks for him to survive. Can he possibly keep his boat, his family AND his head?This film is a more faithful adaptation of the story that was made several times. First, it was a Bogart/Bacall picture, "To Have and Have Not" and later it was remade two more times as well as was the inspiration, in part, for "Islands in the Stream". So, if this all seems familiar, this is probably why.While the Bogart version is very stylish, I think this later John Garfield film is superior. The dialog (like the original) is very snappy but the film seems more realistic and taut. It also features some nice supporting performances by Juano Hernandez and Wallace Ford. In many ways, the film plays like "To Have and Have Not" merged with "The Killing" as well as "Key Largo". Tough, very dark and very well made--one of Garfield's best because it was NOT formulaic and that final shot by Michael Curtiz was amazingly good.By the way, if you watch the film, you might (like me) think that Patricia Neal's character wasn't necessary for the movie. What do you think?

Taut thriller with John Garfield, a war hero, who has become the head of his own fishing boat. With a wife (Phyllis Thaxter) and two girls to support, Garfield, as always, is down on his luck and there are the seedy people he meets who will lead him down to a path of illegal activities.Amazing that the first group dealing with the smuggling of Chinese men into the United States wasn't fully developed into a story of its own.Patricia Neal is the brassy blond he meets on one of his excursions.In his pursuit of getting money to survive, Garfield falls in with a bunch of bank robbers who shall use his boat as an escape hatch.Typical melodrama here with 3 solid performances. It's really nothing out of the ordinary, even with Ernest Hemingway penning it.

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.