The Grapes of Wrath
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Movie Reviews of The Grapes of Wrath
Movie Review: Fonda Brings Tom Joad To Life
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is probably director John Ford's crowning glory (he won the Best Director Oscar), but the key piece to this wonderful mosaic of characters in this American tragedy, is Henry Fonda (Oscar winner for Best Actor).
The two roles I most remember Fonda for is his portrayal of the holdout juror in "Twelve Angry Men" and in the role of Tom Joad, in this poignant tale of hope among ruins.
I first saw this film when I was in the eighth grade (1971), and I never forgot it. It was one of the first videos I purchased after I bought my VCR, and I have two DVD copies. Fonda's performance is one of the strongest I've ever seen, and I think it was easy for him to being Joad to life because of his own Midwestern roots. Fonda grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and as a youth witnessed the lynching of a black man named Will Brown. Fonda later said that the experience had a profound effect on him and it showed in many of the underdog and everyman roles he chose.
Joad is a character first etched in the psyche of Americans in the novel by John Steinbeck on which the film is based. He is an ex-con, but a down home fella in the truest sense of the word. He's a cynic, whose discerning view is honed by the despair his friends and family suffer when they lose their land during the dust bowl of the 1930's.
I won't elaborate on the plot any further: I think most of us know the story. What makes the film a classic is not so much the plot as the acting and cinematography. The black and white film further emphasizes the stark reality that America was a "tale of two cities": Americans surviving hard times and so-called "Oakies" who lived on hope as much as bread and water.
The cast is a large one, but Ford has no problem showing us the cointrast in each one, from the sad-eyed hope of Ma Joad (Jane Darwin, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress) to the merriment of the children who travel across country in the family's jalopy and who despite their poverty, find joy in just being. The viewer never gets lost in the shuffle and can see that each character is sharply defined.
Oscar worthy execution not only from Fonda, Darwin and Ford--but also John Carradine as Casey, a former preacher who has lost his faith and is the most downtrodden character of all these tragic figures.
Though the story takes place nearly a century ago, this tale of real Americans stands the test of time and will be enjoyed by generations to come. Definitely five stars.
Movie Review: Fonda Makes the Film
Summary: 5 Stars
John Ford plays it straight in this film adaptation of Steinbeck's novel about the Odyssey of a displaced Oklahoma clan to California in search of work during the Great Depression. Steinbeck's knowledge of California and his work as a journalist gave him a wealth of material for his novel, and several of his most unforgettable scenes are faithfully recreated in the film.
The prejudice of the native Californians against the Okies, the exploitation of the migrant workers, the cruel disappointments of the Okies, and the nobility of their struggle to survive so vividly captured by Steinbeck are successfully realized in Ford's film.
Ford makes his actors act. Lots of close ups on eyes, silhouetted against dark and dreary backgrounds. These are real actors, with a background in the theater, who know their craft.
Because the film is so faithful to the book, one may as well just read the book, which is Steinbeck's best and deserves its place in the pantheon of great American novels. But the film does have two advantages. First, it is made only a year or two after the Depression, so the mood and times are well captured in some of the backgrounds and in the faces of the actors. Second, and most importantly, there is Henry Fonda. Fonda's ability to portray the rage of Tom Joad that lurks beneath the surface and to articulate in spare words and expressions the unfairness of the treatment of the Okies is extraordinary. This is one of the great pieces of acting in the history of American film.
The progressive spirit of the film and the, I think, justified bashing of the rich given the history of the times may be a bit jarring to the modern viewer. But I found that element of the film to be fascinating.
Ford's ending is a bit more uplifting and hopeful than Steinbeck's, with its famous scene of a new mother nursing a struggling Okie. Can't put that kind of stuff on the screen in 1940. Ford ends with the message that the Okies are survivors and that the poor and meek shall inherit the Earth. It's not exactly what ended up happening, though the lot of the poor in America has certainly improved, and the kind of prejudice portrayed in the film is now universally reviled.
An excellent job by Ford and an even better job by Fonda.
Movie Review: Unforgettable film !
Summary: 5 Stars
Only the genius of John Ford and the merciless pen of Steinbeck could build such powerful movie . In these hard times when the WW2 covered the whole environment and the people went to movies to get fun , Ford showed this dark nightmare about the desillusion of a crowd of hopeless people literally exiled when they are ejected from their original lands and persuaded to live in California where best times are yet to come .
This realist portrait , sober and moderate adaptation of the novel of John Steinbeck presents a sinister chronology of misery so painful and bitter as any other one in the American cinema . The landscape is behind of all these afflictions of the Joad and Ford carries the dusty highways and the unlimited horizons of such intensity that the loaded truck appears as a Noah Ark which takes to one or two of each generation far from a desert beated by the wind . The darkness brings uncertainity and fear . But with this premise Ford will turn the destiny and will provide of optimist hope for the new and promised land .
Without any doubt , this film is one of the merciless and powerful films which deals with such theme .
Far from North America , the echoes of the new ideologies shocked the world ; the utopic projects inflamed the imagination of famous writers and Steinbeck was one of them , infected for those old fashioned moods . In the Eastern World Shostakovich and Boris Pasternak ; in Europe Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill , and in America John Dos Passos and Sinclair Lewis who had shocked the literary world with his unforgettable work : Babbit .
Those were hard days , and the shadows of the war foretold dark large threatening clouds.
The Manhattan Project was in full development and Walt Disney handseled Fantasy.
John Ford made a curious twist in his filmography ; specially when he had thrown The stagecoach , a mythical film about the emblematic mythology of the American cinema as the Western meant. Nevertheless this picture was awarded with all the possible honors and somehow was the initial jump for a young actor as Henry Fonda who would become in one the antihero archetype along two decades in films such The Ox bow incident , 12 angry men , The wrong man .
Fundamental issue in the early forties .
Magistral transfer on DVD .
Movie Review: Still a Fantastic Film.
Summary: 5 Stars
For years "The Grapes of Wrath" was considered the best American film ever made. Now, according to the American Film Institute, it's #21. Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by John Steinbeck, the movie is directed by John Ford and stars Henry Fonda giving one of the best performances in the history of cinema. "The Grapes of Wrath" is, in many ways, still the greatest American film in the sense that the film is about America, at a certain time and captures the feeling of The Great Depression better than most any other movie. Fonda plays Tom Joad, one of the most legendary characters of all time. After serving four years in prison for manslaughter, Tom is paroled and returns home to Oklahoma to see his family. On the way home, Tom encounters a former preacher named Casy (John Carradine) and the two travel to Tom's family's farm together. When they get there, they find out that Joad's family has been "tractored off the land." When Tom finds his family, they are packing up to head to California. Turns out there are some jobs for picking fruit, 800 people needed. So the Joad family sets off on the peril-laden trip to California, where they find that California might not be much better than what they left behind. Obviously, in my synopsis I've left many characters out including Ma Joad (Jane Darwell, who deservedly won an Oscar) but I figure if you're reading this then you've likely seen the movie anyway. One of the key elements of the films' success is the cinematography, by the legendary Gregg Toland (cinematographer on "Citizen Kane"). The film is in black & white, which has aged a lot better than color would have and features a lot of night scenes. In many scenes, characters are illuminated by a mere candle. "The Grapes of Wrath" has astonishingly not dated over the years; it's still as fresh and entertaining as I imagine it was upon its release. The film has legendary dialogue (the "I'll be there" speech) and a number of other things that make it so great. Saying a movie is a masterpiece is one thing, but getting people to see it is another. With people flocking to garbage like "The Grudge 2" and "Stomp the Yard" how many people actually see "The Grapes of Wrath" anymore? Not many, from my perspective. This is a terrific film that should be seen by any lover of film.
GRADE: A
Movie Review: The Curtis Chambers Depression Era Movie Review:
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently re-watched this well known movie classic. Made in 1940 and starring a young Henry Fonda, it is perhaps the most famous movie about the Great Depression in America. When I saw the film as a kid, the movie seemed sort of a quaint joke or curiosity. How could something like that ever happen in this country? Today it doesn't seem so funny...
This movie is definitely not a pick me upper, but not every movie can be a comedy or a mindless action spectacle. The plot concerns a family of Oklahoma sharecroppers who are evicted from their farm. Jobless, with no prospects and little money, the large family piles into a dilapidated truck and heads off to California in search of work. A ex-preacher turned homeless wanderer, played wonderfully by John Carradine, accompanies them. Along the way Grandma and Grandfather die, and one of the brothers deserts his pregnant wife. The family is close to starving. They take what jobs they can picking fruit. Finally, they land on a Government run New Deal farm and life improves a bit. Henry Fonda, the oldest son, becomes and a political activist and leaves the family.
There is also a theme in the movie in which anyone associated with capitalism is depicted as fascist and quite brutal. Cops in uniform work for the land owners and will not hesitate to kill the farm workers if they get out of line. The land owners try to take advantage of the very poor farmers plight by paying poverty level wages. The only one sympathetic to their plight is the government run New Deal farm. So the movie is in theme almost like Animal Farm in reverse. This time the Capitalists, rather than the Socialists, are the bad guys. Very interesting.
So why watch this movie now? Well, the themes are apropos, unfortunately. Families being evicted from homes, joblessness, and lives in turmoil has again become common. Henry Fonda is a marvelous actor and this is one of his finest performances. And the specter of watching children that are hungry and growing up in such difficult circumstances in America is heartbreaking.
When I first saw this film, I assumed the Depression could never happen again. Never say never.
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