A


The Grapes of Wrath, despite being almost 70 years old is still a very powerful and extremely well-made motion picture. It's the first movie of John Ford that I have seen so far and if The Grapes of Wrath is any indication of his body of work, I'm not surprised that he ended up winning 4 Oscars for Best Director (more than any other director in movie history).

The Grapes of Wrath is set during the Great Depression and focuses on one big family siffering plight and misfortunes during their trek to California hoping to find better lives there, yet to be disappointed when they arrive and see that California is far from the Promised Land they all hoped for. John Ford srts the atmosphere for this movie perfectly. Darkly lit scenes, great cinemtography and a superb score underline the depressing mood of the movie. In fact, The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most depressing and burdensome movies I have seen in my life. The very well-developed characters are one of the main reasons why it works so well on this level. You feel with the Joad family and suffer with them during their constant setbacks. Some of the things shown in this movie sadly still ring true nowadays, only with the issue not concerning other Americans, but much rather Mexican immigrants coming to the US in hope of a better life, only to be detested and discriminated by many of the locals and ending up just as poor as before. I think it's this universal touch and this level of poignancy that makes this movie so good and enables it to stand the test of time.

The great character development is of course not only the achievement of the screenplay, but also of some splendid acting. Henry Fonda does very well in the leading role, but it isn't his performance that is the most memorable one in the movie. Jane Darwell who deservingly won the Oscar for her turn delivers a great performance as Ma Joad, the woman trying all she can to preserve the humanity during these hard times and is keeping the family together as much as she can. However, to me it was John Carradine's Casy who I liked the most of all. I loved his very flawed character and yet I was able to feel with him which shows how great of a performance that was. Too bad that he went rather unnoticed for this film with the limelight being on Ford, Fonda and Darwell.

As I said what makes this movie even more authentic and real is the fact that some of its major characters are deeply flawed. Henry Fonda's Tom Joad is hot-tempered and essentially a murderer (even though never a deliberate one). Casy is a stunning character who delivers some of the movie's best speeches and yet he commited adultry. It's this ambiguity of characters that makes them seem real. I'd say it's something that wasn't exactly a usual thing to portray during those times.

If anything, I had a slight problem with the movie's overbearing Communist ideology that Casy speaks out for at first and Tom carries on later. Yaeh, the whole "advocating the rights of the common man"-thing is pretty good and I loved Casy's speech about it, but it does get a bit too heavily one-sided at some points at the end.

On the whole, however, I just loved the movie. It is old, but it never feels this way. The story is universal, the direction is superb and the cast ensemble is excellent. I really liked Rebecca, but I think that The Grapes of Wrath deserved to win Best Picture in its year.

Anyone else seen this?

This film, this movie indeed, even though I usually detest John Ford, is quite likeable. Certainly Steinbeck's merit.

Coming hot off a major hit, Stagecoach, John Ford pulls together another great film here with The Grapes of Wrath. Now I haven't read the source material, but I feel that I could still follow the film quite well without having to know the novel. It is quite depressing and I appreciate that Ford didn't try to resolve every conflict with comic relief. Henry Fonda is quite strong in his lead but John Carradine is the strongest actor if the group as the ex-preacher Casy. I do wish they kept the ending Ford initially wanted with the extra wide shot of Fonda walking on the hill as the ending we actually get seems too upbeat, Hollywood-ish, happy ending given the nature of the events of the whole film. Still though this a truly fantastic piece.