I recently saw this movie in my English class after my reading of the pearl. The novella the Pearl was the influence of this movie. However the movie lacked many of the important symbols and events from the book. Juana's shall was one important symbol in the book. The movie never portrayed this. Also in the movie the doctor was made a major character. In the original story, the doctor was a much smaller character. Hardly any of Stienbeck's imagery was showed either. This destroyed the entire point of the movie and the plot was not preserved. It was a horrible attempt at a recreation of the pearl. I'm sure that if John Steinbeck were alive to see this horrible movie today, He would be ashamed that his work inspired this terrible movie. I do not recommend this movie for any one, especially those who read the book. If you have read this book and seen this movie you probably know the horrible job it did making the book come alive. If you need to read the book for any kind of class this isn't the movie to take the easy way out with. This movie gives the book a bad name.