After all these years, I have just started to watch this Lewis Milestone masterwork again, having seen it in the long and forgotten "ago." And the opening scenes alone, the establishing title shots, cameraman's shadow notwithstanding, struck with the full force of both "truth" and "genius," the former for the Steinbeck novella and the latter for Milestone's seamless evocation. I have read a few of the commentaries on both this "original" filming and the latterday Sinise/Malkovich version, which I have yet to see, and find little to disagree with in my samplings. It is interesting AND instructive that both Betty Fields and Lon Jr. received brickbats along with kudos. The former earned the same in "King's Row," and the latter, of course, never received all that much attention. That said, I, for one, thought Chaney was at the peak of his form as the "retard" Lenny, and, whilst it is more than understandable that some found his performance "over the top," that is purely a matter of subjective reaction. Burgess Meredith was a fine George, and I rather doubt Sinise could have improved on it, sight unseen, but, that too is purely subjective. There were some observant AND penetrating insights among the comments I scanned on both versions, but only one, the fellow who observed that there were "chick flicks" and this was a "dick flick." And, on that score, I did not read a single acknowledgment of the fact that the obvious homoerotic themes, not just that between George and Lenny, but also the "closet-queen" implications of Curly's overmacho stances, were not overtly noted. To me, George and Lenny, in their own ways, were the templates for the protagonists of "Brokeback Mountain," another near-Oscar entry. Although, in the latter, the retard survives in his zombie estate. Finally, it was a personal "shock" to see the wondrous "character" performance of Roman Bohnen again, this overlooked and under-appreciated mainstay of the old Actors' Lab experiment in Hollywood, way back then. By the way, what with my lack of "hearing" and unavailability of captions for the Milestone version, I found I did not need same. Indeed, focussing on the setups and closeups the "action" and "dialog were all too clear. Tell me about those rabbits.