‘The Southerner:’ A Fascinating Tale of Struggle and Triumph

Acclaimed director Jean Renoir shows an American story of farming in the early 20th century.

Sam Tucker (Zachary Scott) is not a quitter, in “The Southerner.” United Artists

NR | 1h 32m | Drama, Western | 1945

There’s something immediately arresting about watching American Southerners filtered through the eyes of a French director who arrived as an outsider. In “The Southerner” (1945), director Jean Renoir studies faces, porches, fields, and daily routines with the care of someone learning a place by staying put. He didn’t grow up on this soil or with these accents, yet the attention feels deliberate and unhurried.