content: Directors and writers have a learning curve and this was part of Mr. Robbin's. What did he do right? The film has a professional polish to its acting and editing. What's bad? Under dramatized scenarios follow one another like beads on a string. This goes on for two whole hours. I could only stand to watch it in segments. And of course it's politically skewed way to the Left. There is no middle class represented amongst the characters-none of the 85% who stayed working at their jobs after 1929. Characters are either 1) out of work, starving or struggling, or 2) government employees working under the New Deal as they wait for the reactionary Republican funding axe to fall, or 3) the mega-rich eating expensive meals at Twenty-One, laughing about life at the lower depths as they make business deals with Mussolini. I bought my copy used for 99 cents. They're easy to find at that price. On the back of the cardboard package is a thumbs up from Roger Ebert.