A very moving film. Paul Muni beautifully depicts the story of James Allen and his battle for justice. Muni portrays a man who has been chosen by the system to serve time, although the man is innocent. I love how emotional Muni is throughout the duration of the film. He makes is very apparent how James Allen feels when he is up and how he feels when he is down. The sound effects made it even better, very off key which i took a liking to. What I didn't enjoy was how limited the cameras were in terms of movement but obviously this is a very old film. Its just interesting to see what they made out of what they had, it turned out very nicely. What was also interesting was too see which scenes were in a studio and which scenes were filmed outdoors. It was obvious with the lighting of each scene. Some of the scenes filmed in a studio were really well put together with how real the props looked. Overall, I thought this movie was great and I can't wait to watch more films with Paul Muni!

The use of sound is greatly used in this film, off-screen sound is impactful, and all notable sound in this film is symbolic or significant, for either audience feeling or for meaning. These sounds include bells, sounds of metal clanking, belts, etc. And the use of close-ups are also masterfully used. These close-ups are indicative of character feeling at crucial moments, keeping the viewer emotionally connected. And the use of music, adding to the overall feeling of each frame. This film was powerful enough to prompt mass social outrage, from feelings of sadness, disgust, and true anger...the emotive impact on social views and action in 1932 was enough to push legislation, and it isn't hard to see why. LeRoy couldn't have done better in the direction of this film, nor could Paul Muni have done a better job of acting in it.

This movie was very well made and was surprisingly enjoyable for me to watch a second time. Both the first and the second time this movie gave me emotions all throw out it. There was tons of times that the movie had my heart racing wondering if the main character would be alright in the end or not. This movies main character played by Paul Muni was a very likable and well acted character who always had me rooting for him to be happy in the end. Most of the characters in this movie were likable or not likable depending on what kinda character they were trying to portray and well acted except for one in particular that I hated in this movie.Rev. Robert Allen played by Hale Hamilton was my least favorite character and thats saying it in a nice way. Every time this character was oh screen I cringed from the moment he started talking. The way Hamilton portrays this character is terrible in my option and I'm not sure if that is the way the film makers wanted him to be like but I absolutely hate it. It just takes me out of the movie and over all brings this movie down a little bit in quality in my option. Now I'm not saying I can do it any better because I am terrible at acting but if I was the director or the casting director I would have either told him to act differently or just casted someone else. I also do not know whether or not Hamilton was like this in all of his movie or if they picked him because they liked that character portrayed that way or not. I don't know if that is the case or not but regardless it is my only really major complaint about the movie. It has a very interesting way the story is told and a interesting ending. Over all I would definitely recommend this movie.

Overall I enjoyed this movie. From the important message it portrayed to the plot twists throughout the movie. I liked the portrayal of James throughout the movie from showing his struggles and triumphs. From James being sentenced to 10 years on the chain gang for being at the wrong place at the wrong time and the conditions that he was kept in caused him to break the law again and escape from his captivity. The irony of this is that he ends up living a successful and honest life and ends up being tricked by the justice system and then re sentenced to the chain gang for the rest of his life. I enjoyed the aspects of how sound is used throughout the film from the dogs barking during his first escape to the calender and hammer strikes corresponding.