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Rating: 5 out of 5
One of the books that is frequently read in U.S. high schools in English class is the classic book, The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. Now I will say that I missed that train on reading this book in my high school English classes. Now, I heard the book is set during the Great Depression and follows a particular family that moves from one place to another looking for work. I can tell you that I have listened to my grandma talk about the Great Depression and know that it was NO joke. She lived through the Depression as a little girl in Kansas. I know my Grandpa had a hard time growing up at that time. Now, I heard the book is quite good and really shows how life was for one family during that time. Actually, the book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The movie is just as good. It might not follow the exact storyline, but it was just as good to watch.
Directed by John Ford and based on John Steinbeck’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the film tells the story of the Joads, an Oklahoma family who migrates to California in the hope of finding work during the Great Depression. Now, the film has been considered by many as one of the greatest films of all time. The film opens up with Tom Joad (Fonda) being released from prison and hitchhiking his way back to his parent’s family farm in Oklahoma. After a sharp tongue to the truck driver who gave him a ride, Tom approaches his family farm and finds Jim Casy (Carradine) sitting under a tree by the side of the road. Tom remembers Casy as the preacher in the town, but Casy explains that those days are over as he has lost all his spirit and faith. Casy decides to join Tom on his journey to his parent’s place. When they arrive, they find it abandoned. Inside they meet Muley Graves, who is hiding out. He explains that the farmers all over have been forced from their farms by the deedholders of the land, and many of the families’ homes have been bulldozed. Tom searches for his family and is reunited with them at his Uncle’s place. The Joads have decided to pack all their stuff up and head to the promised land of California with all the other families. Their hopes and dreams come from a flier they have that said the state needed workers. As they journey to California, they soon realize that everything they wish for is nothing like they thought. It seemed like everyone in the country has moved to California. They soon discover that conditions in California are just as bad or even worse than the home they left.
The film showed how much the Great Depression affected everyone, not just the Joad family. One scene that really caught my attention was when the bank man came and told that one family they had to leave. It was depressing to hear the family state that the farms have been in their family for over 50 years, and then they wanted answers or someone to talk to. Then the bank man gave them this whole run around. First, the farmer was like, I want to speak to the man at the bank who in turn was like you can talk to him, but he didn’t make the decision, the other person did. Then when the farmer asked to speak to him, the bank man says that it’s not that person’s fault because that person got their instructions from someone else. You could tell that it was all B.S.
Now the major part of the film is the journey and heartbreak that the Joad family goes through. First, the elderly Grandpa dies along the way, and they bury him on the side of the road with the circumstances written on a page of the family bible just to make sure people don’t think he was murdered. That is messed up. When their raggedy truck made it to a camp on a highway, there become upset when they listen to a migrant returning from California. The migrant laughs at Pa’ and everyone else’s hope and dreams about the conditions in Cali as he states it’s one of the worse places to be and everyone should go back to where they came from. It was telling to see as people argued with him until he states to pull out the same flier he had. Then he asked the question and even made the logic of if the farmers made 20 thousand copies and passed them out, they could’ve passed many hands on their way to Oklahoma or even further.
The sadness and realization of the situation for the family in the film really hit when they make it to Cali. First, good ole grandma dies, and the punk ass son, Noah, and son-in-law, Connie, decide it’s not worth being with the family and roll out. What is telling is the campgrounds of each place. They look like slums where no one has food to eat. It was very depressing to see. It is hard to believe that America looked like that and people lived like that. I mean, everyone was straight up hungry, dirty, and living in shitty homes. It didn’t even look like the place of prosper and dreams. Yet, trouble followed when Tom punches a cop, and then the family goes on a run to another camp.
You would think the next camp was better, but it is just as bad, and this is where the real shit hits the fan for the Joad family. Tom sees a group of striking workers and hears about a meeting. As the meeting begins, the camp guards roll in, and Casy is killed by one of the camp guards. In retaliation for his friend, Tom kills one of the camp guards only to have his face injured. You know right then and there that Tom is going to be a wanted man.
So, the family has to once again leave, but the third stop is like a blissful dream as the camp is run by the Department of Agriculture, complete with indoor toilets and showers. You think this is it, the family has finally found a home, but the owner of the farms seemed to want to ruin this camp along with people renting the place. All of this, in the end, means nothing as the family split up once again, with Tom going off to fight for Casy’s dream of social justice and the family having to find a way to live. All this shows that this time was extremely difficult on families. It is shocking that people actually survived during that time.
I want to give director John Ford mad props for making such a terrific movie. It is one thing to discuss how bad the Great Depression was, but it is another to show it and how it crushed people’s spirits and dreams. Showing each camp was telling as you think of Cali being the prosperous land only to be a miserable place like everywhere else. Yea, there is work, but it’s not enough for everyone, and the people in charge are taking advantage of the situation. Ford shows in vivid detail what is happening around the country and to the family.
There are only two people that should be discussed for the acting of this film. First, the start of the movie Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. Fonda was great as Tom as he played him as a man who seemed to really not know the country’s state as he has been locked up. When he sees his family, even though it wasn’t his idea to move, he supports the family and is very supportive of their decision to go. Fonda just had that gentleness but the sense of duty and doing the right thing about him. You would think in some situations, he would yell and scream, but he always seemed to be in control and would always protect his family.
Jane Darwell as Ma Joad was another performance that must be talked about. She was the true glue of the whole family, and it was her strength that seemed to keep everyone together. Even when the world looked bleak as kids ran up to her for food, she gave them a little bit because she knew it was the right thing to do. I loved how the movie ended with her and her speech because it showed that she would never give up and that the journey will be challenging and she will meet it head-on.
The Grapes of Wrath is an excellent version of the book. Yea, some aspects were moved around and changed, but it still made for a powerful movie. Seeing how the world and country were during the Great Depression should be eye-opening as many grandparents or great-grandparents lived through that time period. The movie showed how a dream can quickly become a nightmare. Take some time to read the book or watch this movie. You will enjoy it.
