The Grapes of Wrath Review
By: T.J. “wait a minute, buddy, you just done some jackassin’” Mulligan
The family unit, struggling against the odds to create a new life after their old one has been forcibly ripped away. It’s the stuff of great dramatic storytelling, sure, but it was an all too real fact in Depression-era America. Individuals and families disseminated from their homes, forced to traverse the country in search of work, food or a place to call their own. They became little more than animals, scrounging, scraping for something, anything tangible to call their own. It makes for intriguing drama on paper and on film because it is honest human drama, lived by breathing, functioning individuals, making it all the more heartbreaking. In John Ford’s film version of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, audiences who possibly avoided any real life-changing impacts of the Great Depression were given a view of what these dissipated people went through
The Grapes of Wrath is the story of Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) a man heading to his family home in Oklahoma after a stint in prison on manslaughter charges. On his way he meets Jim Casy (John Carradine), a former preacher who’s lost his way spiritually. Together they venture to Tom’s parent’s place only to find it deserted save for a man by the name of Mulay (John Qualen). Mulay relates to them how all of the land in the area had been forclosed on, including Tom’s parent’s and his own. From there Tom and Casy go to Tom’s Uncle John’s place where they find Tom’s parents as well as assorted other family. They explain to Tom their plan to head to California because of a flyer they received letting them know about available work. Tom, Casy and the rest set to packing up the half broken-down automobile they have and in the morning, begin their venture west along U.S. Highway 66. With little money and nothing to go back to they press on toward California and the hope of work… a hope which seems to fade with every pitfall the family encounters.
The look of The Grapes of Wrath not only places the viewer immediately in the center of everything aesthetically but also emotionally - it is dark, dusty, desolate and depressing in the look of the broken home land of Oklahoma. As the family ventures west, the landscape remains bleak - nothing but concrete and more dust as they drive - and it continues to bring the feeling the film is trying to convey right up front. This is not a happy movie by any means. The plight of the Joads and people like them is what helps give the Great Depression even more meaning to its name. Even now, far removed from that time period, watching the struggles of this family is difficult for anyone with a conscious. What’s more, at every turn the family just seems to be more and more shit on: a family member dies, something breaks down, almost everyone they meet out west is an asshole, etc. The only solace one can extract is that they, as a family unit, will stick together no matter what.
As stated above, the look of the film is hauntingly beautiful, lending an emotional push simply through the environment. The acting is superb as well, with Fonda, Carradine and Jane Darwell as the steadfast family figurehead Ma Joad stealing most of the show with their performances. Having never read the novel I can’t comment on how well the film plays to it, but I assume it’s at least as melancholy in nature if not much, much more. It’s a film that could easily be considered “boring” if viewed by a modern audience, but it is an example of excellent cinematic storytelling, shedding brighter emotional light on a time period in American history better than most history books ever could.
I give The Grapes of Wrath 3 John Carradine crazy eyes out of 5.
