The Grapes of Wrath
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Movie Reviews of The Grapes of Wrath
Movie Review: Bitter Fruit!
Summary: 5 Stars
Grapes of Wrath as a book is the most banned book in the USA because of its themes of big business corruption, the practical slavery of those suffering the Dust Bowl disaster in the 1930s and California's reaction to that mass immigration of 300,000 people into the areas of Fresno, Salinas, etc. The title comes from the Civil War era song, "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
John Ford along with filmmaker Darryl Zanuck wanted to make an epic and I believe they succeeded.
Tommy Joad has been away from home for several years and just got let out of the pen, having been accused of murdering another. But when he got home, he found a deserted homestead and a foul wind blowing out there!
He meets Casey, a former preacher who seems to be waiting for something. Tom meets others who have been cast out thanks to big farmer business and the major ecological disaster known as the Dust Bowl, where a major drought throughout the mid-west wiped out half the agricultural input of the USA!
Tom hooks up with his family and they head out towards California for the hope of getting a job. They get a bill that says there are jobs out West. Well guess what? Becoming a displaced person means being taken advantage of.
The film has several themes: women adapt to these despairing times; the men take other roles. The "Okies" are taken advantage of -- you want this job? 2.5 cents for each basket of peaches picked. You don't like it? See ya!
The prejudice against them was horrific. The big farmers using them practically as slave labor, the tough work bosses and prejudice. The old folks who did not want to leave Oklahoma either became ghosts and bums or died out.
Henry Fonda is amazing as the quiet, strong young man who sees the corruption and wants to do something about it. Casey (John Carridine) acts as his "lantern" (as Tom puts it), searching for rights for these farm workers.
What's really interesting on this DVD are the features. This particular DVD you have to flip it to the special features.
A prologue briefly explaining the background history of the Dust Bowl tragedy in the USA at that time. The Fox MovieNotes newsreels that discuss the Midwest farmers drought. And some of the actors getting their Oscars!
The commentary by a film historian and a Steinbeck scholar were somewhat interesting, although their monotone chant and twenty-dollar words turned me off. Still, I learned a lot about Steinbeck actually liking this film and how the American Farmer Association at the time wanted to boycott theaters that played this film.
When the light of truth shines on these guys, even in a dramatized form, they can't stand it, obviously.
The struggle of the migrant farmworker is not limited to the Mexican workers. The white farmer of the Oklahoma/Arkansas area also met with resistance, suppression and violent, depressing conditions and starvation.
John Ford's use of cinematic lighting (the candle) and special effects (the superimposed harvest machine blades, the black & white grainy looks) was amazing. The film producers' creation of mood and depression was simply awesome and it seems Hollywood today has lost much of this cinematic art of the film!
Now to read the book! References Recommended:
American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California
The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classics)
Ford At Fox Collection: The Essential John Ford Collection (The Frontier Marshall / My Darling Clementine / Drums Along the Mohawk / How Green Was My Valley / The Grapes of Wrath / Becoming John Ford)
Movie Review: An undisputed masterpiece leaves me with an odd feeling...
Summary: 5 Stars
Giving this film an `A' and calling it a masterpiece is really a given, so I'm just going to get that part of it out of the way. The film is a beautiful and moving epic, complete with stellar performances, poignant life lessons and dramatic (and authentic) presence of life and destiny. To consider this John Ford's triumph is not too farfetched if I say so myself.
That said, this film rests oddly with me.
For me, `The Grapes of Wrath' is John Ford's `Schindler's List' (or, I guess I should say that `Schindler's List' is Spielberg's `The Grapes of Wrath'). It is a moving and very `important' film that doesn't strike me the way I expected due to a coldness that permeates the screen. The film is filled with elements and situations that would bring a stone-faced man to his knees, and yet I was more haunted than I was moved. There is a detachment I felt here that, like `Schindler', works just as much as it doesn't.
Like I said in my review of `Schindler's List', it may be an empty argument, but it is one worth raising.
This film is based off the novel by Steinbeck, which I haven't read but have on my reading list. I know that this film, while faithful, has altered the source material a tad (especially in the ending) but so few complaints have been thrown that way, even from devoted fans of the novel. The film was made at a time when a `happy ending' or at least the portrayal of hope was needed. A film depicting the raw and harsh realities of the depression needed to end on a high note if it was going to lift any spirits. Even with the altered ending though, `The Grapes of Wrath' is a real downer, a film that exposes humanity at its coldest and cruelest (although I was moved more by the slivers of kindness).
The story is that of the Joad family, a group of hard working, loving people who are forced out of their homes and sent looking for work. Tom, the eldest son, was recently released from prison, and he serves as the head of the house basically, helping his parents and siblings make their long journey to California. Along the way they meet greed and desperation in many forms.
The acting is a triumph here on all ends. Henry Fonda carries a solemn understanding in his eyes as he watches everything around him crumble, and he really carries every scene of this film. John Carradine is also fantastic as Casy, the former preacher who has lost his spirit due to the circumstances that engulf him. Standout here is Jane Darwell, who actually won the Oscar for her tremendous performance. Her pleading with Tom to stay and help her, oh, that moment touched me more than any other moment in the film.
`The Grapes of Wrath' is a film that is filled with frustration and depression, but as the final frames begin to roll we are offered a sliver of hope, as Ma Joad swells our hearts with her ideals on humanity and the will to survive.
Still...
Like I said, there is a detachment here. It is a great movie, one that gets everything perfect, and, like `Schindler', that is the big problem. Everything is `too' perfect. I know that it seems like a weak complaint (and if this goes anything like my `Schindler's List' review, it won't be a popular one either) but it is a legit one if you look at it properly. Everything is so `authentic' that it runs the gamut of stiff and feels nearly documented. It takes away from the languid naturalness of the nature of film. Like I said, debating the films brilliance is ridiculous, but for a film that is primed and ready to move you, this one may not do it one the immediate.
This makes sense to me, but then again, it's me!
Movie Review: John Ford + John Steinbeck = Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
"Rich fellas come up an' they die, an' their kids ain't no good an' they die out. But we keep a'comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out; they can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we're the people."
The history of the Dustbowl Era is one that looms large in the minds of most of my family. The mere fact that some of us were born in Washington to people that came from Kansas and Oklahoma explains volumes about what it must've been like in those places back in the day when you could have a wonderful crop one year, and the next year you could be turned out of your house and home.
John Ford's 1940 film version of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" is a flim like none other. Listed on many critics film lists as the best ever made, at least prior to "Citizen Kane" showing up in that position starting in the late 1950's, it tells the story of the Joad family, uprooted from their home in Oklahoma and sent hurtling into a new life in California.
As the family travels to California, they deal with many setbacks, including the deaths of two of their clan. When they finally reach California, they find that a glut of cheap labor has led to depressed wages, meaning that for a whole day's work they earn barely enough to scrape by.
Eventually after many trials and tribulations, the family reaches a camp run by the government (with a camp superintendent played by a man who actually did run such a camp in reality). There the family finds a safe place to live, decent wages, and a hopeful future... at least until the past catches up with one family member.
While Henry Fonda plays the protaganist in this movie, the real stand-out star is Jane Darwell, who played Ma Joad. From her first real scene, where she expresses concerns her son might've turned "mean" while in prison, to a touching farewell to her possessions when she tosses them into a stove before leaving, to the end, where she has one last dance with her son then gets the last words in the film (those at the start of the article), every moment she's on the screen is incredible. It's a movie worth seeing for performance alone. Women like her are, to a great extent, what this country is built on.
This was also a very political film. It was one of the first films to show poverty, true, soul-crushing poverty, in the United States. Most of are fortunate enough not to know what it's like to nearly starve to death (heck, put all the family together and we'd start to influence the tides), but in the not-so-distant past people were starving, dying, on the streets of our nation. Not because they were lazy, or foolish, but because they were being destroyed by a system that had left them to fend for themselves.
It also explored, somewhat obliquely, ideas of Communism that were floating around at the time. There was a large, simmering, vocal minority that believed only Communism could save the workers of the world from exploitation at the hands of big business. Looking at the way the world was then, one begins to sypathise.
All in all, this is a very personal film that's also quite epic. You see the sweeping panoramas for which Ford is rightly famous, but then you also get the small strokes, the tiny personal touches, such as when the children see flush toilets for the first time. It's a must-see for anyone interested in history, and anyone interested in film.
Movie Review: gritty, powerful and poignant
Summary: 5 Stars
Although The Grapes of Wrath is certainly not the longest picture I've ever seen, the exceptionally fine acting combined with its emotional impact and careful attention to detail gives the film a truly epic quality. The acting is easily some of the best I've ever seen--at the very end there was a lump in my throat; I was extremely moved and I won't forget this film anytime soon! The script could not have been better; the cinematography shines and the choreography is superb. The plot moves along nicely and covers quite a bit of action despite the fact that things never seem rushed. Of course, the film can't quite match all the detail of John Steinbeck's 450+ page book; but the way the filmmakers did this, including director John Ford, it is profoundly memorable.
When the picture begins, we quickly meet Tom Joad (Henry Fonda), who returns to his Oklahoma home after spending four years in prison; and it is through Tom's eyes that we see the shock people felt during the Great Depression when they were driven off the Midwestern land they had harvested for decades. On the one hand, Tom reunites with Casy, a family friend who is now a disillusioned former preacher; but on the other hand the closer he and Casy get to the Joad house the more a nasty, ominous dust storm begins to blow up and when they discover an empty house the not-so-happy tone is set for the rest of the picture. Indeed, their once cherished home is merely a hide-out for a disheveled friend named Muley (John Qualen) who tells Tom that the Joads and other families have been driven off the land by big banks. Sharecropping, the only thing they know how to do to make a living, is no longer profitable. Muley then tells Tom and Casy that Tom's family is at their Uncle John's (Frank Darien) home; and Tom, again with Casy, arrives there for a family reunion. Ma Joad (Jane Darwell in an Oscar winning performance) is thankful that Tom reached them before they left Oklahoma; the family intends to move to California. In California, they believe, there will be good paying jobs picking crops and they want Tom and Casy to come with them.
Of course, many things happen to the Joad family and Casy as the plot progresses; and I won't write too much about this in order not to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say that the movie was brilliantly executed and the attention to detail remains extremely impressive, to say the least. The plot and the action are extremely realistic as well.
The DVD comes with terrific bonus features. On one side of the DVD disc there is a commentary by film scholar Joseph McBride and Susan Shillinglaw (a John Steinbeck scholar). There is also a prologue that was shown to British audiences so that they would have a basic understanding of the issues in this film before they viewed it. On the other side of the DVD disc, we get a featurette biography of Darryl F. Zanuck, a restoration comparison--and even more!
The Grapes of Wrath is so well done and packs such a punch that it should be required viewing for anybody when they're old enough to understand the issues explored and depicted in this film. The film accurately depicts the harsh severities of life for so many people at that time in our country's history; and that's for the best. It's educational, too! I highly recommend this for fans of the actors in this movie; and anyone who appreciates quality, classic motion pictures will not be disappointed.
Movie Review: A heart rendering film...
Summary: 5 Stars
Lin Bentolila, a dear friend, gave me the book for my birthday and after reading it, I decided to acquire the DVD movie version. Both gave me a rare view into a time in America that I knew little about. Published in 1939, the Grapes of Wrath is about the brutal and sad time people had to live... shall we say struggle through... and for the lucky some... survive during those days.
The DVD version starts with Tom Joad played by Henry Fonda returning home from a seven year prison sentence, reduced to four for good behavior. He is on parole but tries to get back to his family and the first scenes where he gets bothered by the questions of the truck driver that gives him a lift is simply an excellent way to set the stage for the hardship about to unfold.
When he gets home, he finds that no one is there, they have all abandoned the farm and he begins to understand what has happened because of a conversation with a man who refuses to leave his home.
I learned that back then people entered into agricultural agreements where they did not own the land but were allowed by the owners to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced, and as times got really bad because of the lack of water, the "dust" storms and the inability to produce, they could no longer afford to pay the agreed share and were therefore, run from their land... even though they had worked it for over 70 years seeing many family generations come and go on the land which they called home...
How incredibly sad... simply horrible... The story centers on a family with the last name of Joads and it is so hopeless at times that I felt the pain and sorrow of these characters daring to hope for a better life.
Desperate times, children left without food and without care because parents earned miserable wages and had to go to find whatever work was available. Labor contracts were not respected, conditions were oppressive, and the spark of an attempt to correct the situation was seen as a crime and punished as such.
The emotions are deep and while the family undergoes many trials and desperate moments, they continue to have pride, human dignity, and the willingness to share whatever little they had. The road trip that takes them from their home in Oklahoma to California is at times exasperating because we suffer right along with these characters. The scenes at a road side diner where they buy bread... only able to pay for a 10 cent loaf is heart rendering and it is with a certain sense of trepidation that we realize that times in America today are again desperate for many. Never learning the great lessons from the past, we seem to repeat history over and over again, and between the housing market fiasco, the home foreclosures and the price of gas, let's hope we do not see Americans brought to another period of depression.
This is a must read and must see, while it is depressive, at times shocking, it poses fundamental questions of humanity. How can we live our lives in peace witnessing those who have so much and yet others not being able to eat? How do we ensure that our social systems protect our people from ever having to endure such harsh living conditions? At what point do we stop being human if we stand by and do nothing to change and bring opportunity and the right to work and earn a living to every person willing to work to make a living?