The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Good movie but grossly overrated

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

In rural Oklahoma, Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) is walking and hitchhiking home from prison, after a stay of four years. After taking a knife at a dance, Tom hit the attacker with a pan, killing him. Nevermind that it was self-defense, Tom still gets sent to prison. He hasn't heard from his parents, Ma (Jane Darwell) or Pa because they aren't the "writing types". A fierce dust storm makes Tom's final few steps treacherous. Arriving back at their small cabin, where his family are sharecroppers, Tom and his passing friend, Casy (John Carradine) are startled to find no one at home. A shell-shocked neighbor informs the other two that the family has been kicked off their land in foreclosure. They are nearby at Uncle John's house, where his family is about to suffer the same fate. Its the Depression and the Dust Bowl has ruined the land, taking off the top soil; no one can grow crops. When Tom catches up with his Ma and company, they are overjoyed to see him, for their plans are to pack a truck and move to California, where handbills show pickers are needed. Grandpa doesn't want to leave the only home he has ever known, so they drug him with medicine and haul him along. Now on the Mother Road, route 66, the journey is difficult; the truck breaks down frequently, no one wants them to stay long anywhere they rest, and Grandpa dies of a stroke. Will California really be the Golden, Promised Land? NOT ON YOUR LIFE! This heartbreaking adaptation of Steinbeck's classic is a must-see for the whole wide world. This family of hard-working folks has one calamity after another, just trying to earn an honest and living wage. Those who lived in the Dust Bowl part of the country were hit especially hard, as the soil had been overworked and winds took the topsoil off, creating damaging storms to crops, humans, and animals. No better were the "lies" of the handbills, advertisements that migrants were needed in California, where over 300,000 poor helpless folks showed up for very few jobs. The cast, with Fonda at the helm, is wonderful as is the scenery, costumes, and careful direction to show the truth of a desperate situation. Wanna get down on your knees and thank the Lord for what you have, Americans? You will when you view this amazing film!

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) is a Drama History film in black and white starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. The film follows a poor Midwestern family during the depression who are being forced off their land. After being released from jail, Tom returns home to find it abandoned. He learns that the land is no longer producing enough crops to provide for their family and the whole family heads to California to look for work. The best parts of the film are the acting, the plot, and the cinematography. The acting and casting are excellent. The entire cast is full of life and they deliver their lines with perfect execution. When Tom Joad returns home to see his family, they are all lit up and full of smiles. You are able to see the happiness and utter joy that they are feeling to be reunited with a family member and you can sense the fear and anxiety that they are feeling regarding their upcoming move.The plot is riveting. Rarely do you see a historical film that is as much of a work of art as The Grapes of Wrath is. The story will take you into the Great Depression years ago and give you a glimpse at what a poor family during that time might have gone through. The timing of the script is great and will have you hoping for the main characters to be able to keep their home some way or at least find a nicer one. The plot allows for many emotional performances.The cinematography is excellent and professional. It proves that not only the cast and actors were perfect for the jobs, but the crew must have been as well. There are no shaky shots and there are no scenes where something is out of view that should be able to be seen by the camera and there are no scenes that were too zoomed in that you couldn't see anything. The camera pans between characters based on who is talking.I would recommend this film to anybody who enjoys drama movies or anybody who is interested in history. Although this film is long (over 2 hours), there are no boring or dull parts in the film and it is definitely worth taking the time to watch it. Also, this film was made in the early 40s and it is in black and white. Even if you usually don't like or watch black and white films, I would recommend that you watch The Grapes of Wrath. This would also be an excellent film to show in history class when teaching about The Great Depression.The Grapes of Wrath is an excellent classic film that I would recommend to anyone regardless of whether or not they enjoy old films or black and white films. This film is worth the 2 hours that is takes to watch it because the acting, plot, and cinematography are phenomenal. The emotional scenes were executed to perfection and will leave you feeling sorry for the characters. The plot will have you interested in the beginning and the cinematography makes it easy to understand and see what is going on in the film. Overall this is an excellent film and deserves 10/10 stars.

Great drought has brought endless dust storms into the state of Oklahoma. Many families have been driven from their homes by banks looking to reap profit despite the miserable conditions. As such the Joad family packs itself onto an aging truck and sets out towards California in hopes of finding a Golden Land. Based on a novel by the same by John Steinbeck, although I've been led to understand that the book is a lot more depressing and politically minded than this film. And if that's the case, what a depressing book it must be. Because the film isn't exactly a ray of sunshine either.And yet it is a triumph, in a sense. Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell play the leads as Tom Joad and his mother, and in them crystallize the themes of the film. All good things will end, nothing lasts forever and when hard times come, it's up to us to pick ourselves up and journey through them. Individual humans may falter, may fall, may perish, but humans as people have always survived. The film has some truly great monologues and speeches about this, and as an overall film it's all about that willingness to rise up, to bear the load, to survive. The Joads travel from one tragedy to another, and it is truly heartbreaking, but yet they endure. And that's what matters.The film also questions the basic necessities of life. When it matters, what do we need? We all need to eat, we all need to sleep. And if those basic needs are fulfilled, what then? It's natural for us to look after ourselves, including our families, perhaps our closest friends, but it takes something extra to care for anyone else. And yet, that extra caring has a meaning. Is that meaning needed, warranted or even essential? That's the question.The Grapes of Wrath shines as a rare gem. A film brilliantly acted, brilliantly told, with brilliant themes. If you aren't moved by this film, one has to wonder.

John Ford won the second of his record four Best Director Academy Awards for this Depression era drama from John Steinbeck's novel about the Joads, and other families of Oklahoma sharecroppers whose decades old farms were destroyed by the Dust Bowl, their migration west (in an overloaded jalopy-truck) to California, a place purported to be "the land of milk and honey", and their disillusionment about the American dream.Jane Darwell won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (on her only nomination) for her role as Ma Joad, the family matriarch whose last words are perhaps the film's most optimistic. Henry Fonda received his first nomination (Best Actor) as Tom Joad (voted AFI's #12 hero, even though his character is an ex-con that struggles to stay out of trouble during much of the story).Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, the film was nominated for Best Picture, so was its Editing (Robert L. Simpson's only Academy recognition), Sound, and associate producer Nunnally Johnson's screenplay. It appears at #21 on AFI's Greatest Movies list, #7 on AFI's 100 Most Inspiring Movies list, and was added to the National Film Registry in 1989.The cast is chock full of recognizable character actors whose performances – along with Gregg Toland's dark cinematography – help to convey the squalid conditions of the situation and bleak outlook of the time. John Carradine plays the former preacher Casy, who makes the journey with the Joads. Charley Grapewin plays Grandpa, whose depression about his reality contributes to his failing health, while Russell Simpson plays his son and Fonda's Pa Joad.John Qualen gives the best of his prolific career as Muley, whose driven crazy by losing the land he and his family had tended for 70 years. Others in the credited cast are Dorris Bowdon, O.Z. Whitehead, Eddie Quillan, Zeffie Tilbury, Frank Sully, Frank Darien, child actor Darryl Hickman, Grant Mitchell as the caretaker of a most unusual (almost commune-like) Department of Agriculture facility, Ford company regular Ward Bond as a policeman, Selmer Jackson, Charles Middleton, Paul Guilfoyle as an agitator, Cliff Clark, Joe Sawyer, Frank Faylen, and Irving Bacon.