Carl Zuckmayer

Dave comes back home to the farm from the army recruitment test. He comes back to break away from his old life. He doesn’t feel the ‘old spirit’ in him that his father wants to convince him he has. He has strayed away from his faith in the land, from his connection to his father and from being dependable. Nothing lasts, that is his realisation and his new credo. He will move somewhere with Almeida to live like everyone else does. Because if you live like everyone else, you live forever. Everything goes on the same forever.
Their decampment, a beginning and an end at the same time, is the beacon for further tragic changes. With the departure of his son, farm work loses meaning for Dave’s father Loren. He wants to move away, and his lover Rhoden, also a farmer, thinks that everything is over now – including their affair. Just like Dave, she knows that she is living the wrong life.
The cranes, which are dying out, are symbols of the disintegration. Jolly, Rhoden’s husband, who seems to be the only one who has been happy in this false life, imitates the dance of the cranes – it is mad, agonising. Rhoden shoots him. Out of love. Out of hate.