America America

This film is Elia Kazan's moving account of a young man's dream of passage to America. The story is drawn from Kazan's own family background. Kazan - who himself was a Greek immigrant who arrived in New York in 1913 at the age of four - based his script on his own novel. It is the account of the fierce struggle of a Greek boy at the turn of the century to escape the persecutions that the Greeks suffered in Turkey and to make his way to the fabled land of opportunity. An epic picture with fine images, such as the sealed, stifling, yet warm and inviting interiors of a rich merchant's home in Constantinople, and some memorable performances, such as Paul Mann's as the merchant and Linda Marsh's as his daughter.