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''Of Mice and Men'' is a 1992 drama film based on John Steinbeck's novella of the same name. Directed and produced by Gary Sinise, the film features Sinise as George Milton alongside John Malkovich as Lennie Small, Casey Siemaszko as Curley, John Terry as Slim, Ray Walston as Candy, Joe Morton as Crooks, and Sherilyn Fenn as Curley's wife. Horton Foote adapted the story for film. Based on Steinbeck's 1937 novella, the plot centers on George and the mentally disabled Lennie. The two farm workers travel together and dream of one day owning their own land. With their work passes, the two end up on Tyler Ranch. George finds a property for sale, and calculates that they can buy the land at the end of the month with Candy's help. The film explores themes of discrimination, loneliness, and the American Dream. ''Of Mice and Men'' took part in the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, where Sinise was nominated for the Palme d'Or award, given to the director of the best featured film. After the film debuted in the United States on October 2, 1992, it received positive acclaim from critics. ==Plot== During the Great Depression, the quick-witted George Milton (Gary Sinise) looks after his physically strong companion, Lennie Small (John Malkovich), who is also mentally disabled. The two are fleeing from their previous employment as workmen in Weed, California. Other farmers chase them after Lennie was accused of attempted rape when he touched and held onto a young woman (Moira Harris) and her pretty red dress, prompted by his love of stroking soft things. George and Lennie escape, hop on board a train, and obtain work passes from a new town. A bus was supposed to transport them to a new ranch for work, but the bus driver drops the two off 10 miles beforehand. While walking down the road to the ranch, George gets aggravated by Lennie's incessant questioning about where they are going, since he easily forgot three times. George then catches Lennie petting a dead mouse he accidentally killed while stroking it too hard since he never knows his own muscular strength. Despite Lennie's pleas to keep the dead mouse and his claims that he did not kill it, George takes it away and throws it, causing Lennie to cry. George, showing sympathy, tells him he will probably get him a puppy. Close to evening, George decides they should stay in "the brush" by a river, and go to the ranch the next morning. Finding out that they will have beans for the night, Lennie requests for ketchup, but George responds that they do not have any with them. Lennie, never understanding George's response, requests having beans with ketchup; George gets agitated by this as a result, causing him to have a long speech about Lennie's ungratefulness and childlike behavior. Lennie, puzzled and scared, decides to leave him alone and to find a cave on his own, but George stops him by saying that Aunt Clara would not like Lennie walking by himself, and indeed wants him to stay with George. Now nighttime, Lennie requests George to tell him about their American dream as he did numerous times and George reluctantly agrees. George describes how the two will one day have their own piece of land, and how Lennie will tend (and pet) their rabbits. If Lennie gets in trouble, George instructs Lennie to return to the brush and wait for him. He also tells him that when they see the boss, George will do the talking and not Lennie. The two go to work at a ranch named Tyler Ranch. When they meet the Boss of the ranch (Noble Willingham), he becomes suspicious of Lennie's mental condition when he talks, forgetting the promise that George told him. In order not to be sacked, George lies to the Boss, informing him that Lennie is his cousin and that he was kicked in the head by a horse when he was a child. At the bunkhouse, George and Lennie befriends an aged, one-handed ranch-hand, Candy (Ray Walston). However they make an instant dislike of the Boss' son, Curley (Casey Siemaszko), who disrespects people that are bigger than him. When Curley meets the two, he forces Lennie to talk despite George's objections and finally leaves. Because of Lennie's large height and due to the fact that he is mentally ill and will not fight back unless he is told to do so, he's an easy target for Curley to pick on. Lennie then becomes instantly attracted to Curley's seductive, yet dishonest wife (Sherilyn Fenn), who comes into the bunkhouse to flirt with Lennie and George before leaving. When Lennie thinks of her to be "purty", George, aware that Curley's Wife will bring trouble upon the men due to her sexual allure and persistent flirting, strenuously disagrees with Lennie's opinion, and thinks of her as a "rat-trap." George then strictly instructs Lennie to keep away and not to ''even'' look at her. While at a barn waiting for Crooks (Joe Morton), an educated and intelligent black man who is bitter and isolated because of his race, to come and help him with the horse's injured foot, George is discovered by Curley's Wife, who attempts to engage in a conversation, and plans to seduce him. However, the attempt is interrupted when Curley enters the barn and confronts George, who responds "minding my own business". Curley tells his wife to return to the house, but not before he issues a threatening warning to George; if he gets caught "minding his own business" again, Curley will beat him to a pulp and have him sacked on any false accusation. Later, Candy offers to pitch in with Lennie and George after Carlson killed his dog so they can buy the farm. Just as it seems that the dream appears to move closer to reality, Curley comes around in the room making a scene, accusing Slim (John Terry) of keeping his wife company as the workers, who witnessed the argument, mock Curley. When he sees Lennie laughing, but unintentionally, a disturbed Curley takes his anger out on him, believing that he agrees with the rest of the men of what they think of Curley and repeatedly strikes Lennie. George yells at Lennie to fight back, which Lennie does. Lennie crushes Curley's hand with his sheer strength and George fears for their future on the ranch. Fortunately, Slim, who is kind to them, gives Curley an ultimatum: not to tell anyone what exactly happened and if he does tell his father in retribution to get George and Lennie sacked, he will inform everyone what really happened and is told that if someone asks him what happened to his hand, he will say that he caught his hand in a piece of machinery. The next day, Curley's wife (who has found out about her husband's hand) appears, trying to talk to George and Lennie while they're at work, describing the weather. When George and Lennie do not respond, Curley's wife repeats the phrase in anger, refusing to admit that she is the source of trouble upon the men. Trying to find out of what happened to Curley's hand, she asks George, then Lennie, upon seeing the bruises on his face, who say "he got his hand caught in the machine". Curley's wife finally leaves suspiciously. Later, Lennie imposes himself on Crooks, and share a conversation with each other about being lonely. After George finds Lennie and are walking back to the bunkhouse, Curley's wife appears again and attempts to engage in another conversation, but also aware what really happened to Lennie. Still, George and Lennie refuse to talk to her. Failed once again and having reached the limit of her patience, the emotionally irritated wife vows to leave the ranch forever, before calling George and Lennie "bindlestiffs" and running to the house in tears. Later, in the barn Lennie has accidentally killed his puppy. Curley's wife enters the barn and tries to speak to Lennie, admitting that she is lonely and how her dreams of becoming a movie star are crushed, revealing the reason she flirts with the ranch hands. She lets Lennie stroke her hair; however, she soon says he is "muss() it up," and screams. Lennie tries to keep her quiet but accidentally breaks her neck in the process. Candy finds Curley's wife dead and informs George and the two realize the dream will never happen. Curley leads a mob who chase after Lennie with the intention of lynching him. Wanting to spare Lennie a violent and painful death at the hands of the vengeful Curley, George shoots Lennie in the back of the head while distracting him with their dream of the ranch, releasing Lennie happily. George reminisces in the train boxcar, and has one final memory of him and Lennie working together and going off into the distance happily. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Of Mice and Men (1992 film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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