A magnificent film of great power and resonance about the dispossessed
One thing cinema can do better than anything else is place its viewer into the shoes of another reality or person, and "The Grapes of Wrath" does just that and more. Not only does this film reflect history, but it plunges viewers so fully into the lives, struggles, and emotions of those who lived during the American Dust Bowl, it seems documentary-like, transcending mere moviedom to offer what feels like a firsthand account of a harrowing time in history. And while it paints a portrait of a grim period, just as in life, it contains moments of humor and joy which help it pack one heck of an emotional wallop.
Instantly regarded by many as one of the greatest films ever made, the New York Times called “The Grapes of Wrath”, “as good as any picture has a right to be”, and the New Yorker wrote, "With a majesty never before so constantly sustained on any screen, the film never for an instant falters”. It earned seven Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture) and took home two statues. Having lost none of its power or relevance through the years, in 2006 the American Film Institute (AFI) named it the 6th Most Inspiring Movie of All-Time and in 2008 ranked it the 23rd Greatest, and it's one of a relatively few films to receive a 100% fresh score from Rotten Tomatoes. It is everything one could ask for in a movie.
“The Grapes of Wrath” opens with a dramatic shot of a figure walking on a desolate road towards a crossroad. The figure turns out to be “Tom Joad”, who indeed is unwittingly stepping into a new life-altering chapter of his life. Just released from four years in prison for killing a man, he is returning to his family and their share-cropper farm in the Oklahoma plains. Along the way, he runs into "Jim Casy", a preacher who's lost his faith and calling, and the two arrive to the “Joad” residence only to find the house deserted and the drought-ridden farm reduced to dirt. Hiding inside the house is “Tom’s” former neighbor “Muley Graves”, who when questioned as to why everyone's gone, explains, “Listen [referring to the wind]… That’s some of what done it. The dusters. They started it anyways. Blowin’ like this year after year. Blowin’ the land away, blowin’ the crops away, and blown’ us away now”.
“Tom” learns that his “Ma”, “Pa”, “Grandma”, “Grandpa”, brothers, and sisters have been evicted from their land (which they’ve lived on for fifty years) and are now staying at his “Uncle John’s”. He and “Casy” reunite with his family at his uncle's farm, only to discover they are all being evicted from there as well. No one knows who exactly is evicting them or their neighbors, or who’s to blame, but desperate and helpless, the “Joads” and “Casy” head for California where there’s the promise of work, food, and income.
“The Grapes of Wrath” follows their brutal trek west on Route 66 towards what “Pa” calls the “land of milk and honey”, and becomes a profound saga about a decent, salt of the earth family who’ve lost everything and are forced to let go of their past and adapt to an unknown and difficult new life. Stripped of their dignity, each of them responds to the situation in their own way, and those who don’t adapt don’t survive. As they travel West, the “Joads” encounter continuous humiliations, poverty, injustice, and ignorance by others to their predicament, and the film bears witness to how all these things change people. It is ultimately about the triumph of survival itself.
To comprehend the film’s full impact and entirely appreciate the incredible work these filmmakers produced, just a bit of US history is beneficial. Beginning in 1869, the US government began encouraging people to settle in the Great Plains (the expansive, windy, prairie flatlands west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains) by offering them plots of land. More and more settlers arrived and turned the grasslands into cattle ranches and agricultural farms, which doubled and tripled in number by 1930. But no one realized that the native grasses they removed and replaced with crops held the soil in place and retained moisture during dry periods. And when hit by a decade of severe droughts beginning in 1930, the top soil became dry and powdery and the forceful continental winds blew it away, creating massive dust storms with colossal dust clouds reaching from Canada to Texas and as far east as New York City. These events became known as the Dust Bowl.
The region was also hit by The Great Depression, and with no farms, food, or water, hunger and poverty forced people to foreclose on their properties, be evicted, or just abandon their homes, leaving over 500,000 Americans displaced. Lured by the promise of work, many moved west to California. Though they came from many states (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico), these migrants became commonly referred to as “Okies” and were often looked down upon as backward hillbillies. If you're interested in learning more about this time in history, I highly recommend watching Ken Burns' fabulous 2012 two-part documentary "The Dust Bowl".
A gripping account of these hapless events came in John Steinbeck's 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Grapes of Wrath”. Steinbeck wrote the book after writing a series of articles on migrant camps for a San Francisco newspaper. He visited camps, interviewed people who lived there, and also used field notes and personal stories obtained from the Farm Security Administration. His multiple award-winning book was a best-selling sensation and national phenomenon. Now regarded as a Great American novel, it is often required reading in high schools and is thought to be one of the most widely discussed American novels of the 20th century.
Steinbeck’s book also faced major controversy. Its unrelenting depiction of poverty and the brutal mistreatment of migrants caused him to be accused of being a socialist and purveyor of communist propaganda, particularly by the Associated Farmers of California who insisted he exaggerated about the mistreatment of the workers (though in actuality, the reality was worse than what he wrote). The book was burned in several communities and banned in places that include Kern County, California, St Louis, Illinois, Buffalo, New York, Kansas City, Missouri, Kanawha, Iowa, and Anniston, Alabama. So making it into a film was a daring choice.
The man who took it to the screen was 20th Century Fox studio executive and producer Darryl F. Zanuck, a man who loved making films about timely social issues others often avoided. To get the rights, Steinbeck made the studio agree that "the producer agrees that any motion picture based on the said literary property shall fairly and reasonably retain the main action and social intent of the said literary property". Zanuck agreed and hired screenwriter Nunnally Johnson to write the script, and Johnson did a fantastic job condensing and reordering the story, almost exclusively using dialogue taken directly from Steinbeck’s novel (often changing the time and place of when things were said, or who said them), and softening “bad” words while maintaining the authentic dialect. The film’s ending also differed from the novel, but all in all, Johnson captured the affecting spirit of the book and it earned him a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award nomination. Steinbeck reportedly loved the movie.
Zanuck chose John Ford to direct. Though they had a stormy relationship (both with giant egos wanting creative control), Ford had directed six previous films for Zanuck including Ford’s last two, “Young Mr. Lincoln” and “Drums Along the Mohawk”. Ford had an emotional response to “The Grapes of Wrath” and was happy to direct. As part of a great Irish exodus, his parents left Ireland for America due to poverty and hunger from The Great Famine, and as he said in Joesph McBride’s book, “Searching for John Ford: A Life”, “The story was similar to the Famine in Ireland, when they threw the people off the land and left them wandering on the roads to starve. That may have had something to do with it – part of my Irish tradition – but I liked the idea of this family going out and trying to find their way in the world”.
Ford’s brilliant direction makes the screen version of “The Grapes of Wrath” personal and emotional. Using the camera to observe his characters, he simply lets us watch and identify with them. Take the scene at the beginning, when “Tom” hitches a ride with a truck driver. Their conversation inside the truck happens in one shot which shows both characters, and immediately draws us in. "Tom" may appear to be an angry man, but seeing the two interact somehow makes us sympathetic to him. Extracting mounds of emotion from simplicity is one of Ford’s great filmmaking gifts, and we see it time and time again in this film.
Another of Ford’s distinct strengths is how he places his characters in landscapes, also to great emotional effect. The land is this film is foreboding and unyielding, and Ford frequently shows it overpowering his characters such as the opening shot of “Tom” walking towards the crossroad, seeing "Muley" diminutively squatting on his barren land, or in one of the most powerful instances, when the “Joads” arrive to a transient camp. As their truck enters the camp, Ford introduces it from the point of view of the driver. The camera continually moves as we witness rundown shacks and rundown people as far as th eye can see, including many who angrily and bewilderingly look directly at us. This heart-wrenching thirty-second shot tells us everything we need to know about the conditions and suffering of the place.
Ford’s spectacular work earned him a Best Director Academy Award, his second of four, in an illustrious career as one of cinema's greatest directors. You can read more about the extraordinary John Ford in my previous posts on “The Searchers”, “How Green Was My Valley”, and "Stagecoach". Just click on each film title to open those posts.
In Ford’s push for realism, makeup was banned from the production (except for special effects such as a bruises), and the look of the film was largely inspired by photos of the Dust Bowl period taken by photographers Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, and Horace Bristol (Bristol even helped cast authentic looking faces seen in the film). Though most of “The Grapes of Wrath” was shot on sets, there was some location shooting, including the far shots of the “Joad’s” truck driving across the land, filmed on actual roads taken by migrants at the time. Another actual location is the government camp, filmed at a government camp still in existence at the time in Bakersfield, California. Farm Security Administration supervisor Tom Collins was hired as the film's Technical Advisor to keep things as authentic as possible.
Without a doubt, the film’s incredible black and white cinematography is a major factor as to why it feels documentary in style. And that’s thanks to legendary cinematographer Gregg Toland. A true master with light, he and Ford devised a plan to film medium and long shots in the softer lit mornings and late afternoons, and closeups midday when shadows were at their harshest. Even in black and white, Toland was able to maintain the feeling of dirt and dust everywhere and make bleakness look hauntingly beautiful. His exquisite use of light, shadows, and framing adds mounds of feeling, whether it’s a gorgeously composed shot in broad daylight of the "Joads" looking across the Colorado River towards the promised land for the first time, or showing "Ma" lit by a fire while burning her treasured possessions. This film is one of the most visually striking ever made.
Toland was not nominated for an Oscar for "The Grapes of Wrath", but instead for a different classic that same year, "Wuthering Heights", for which he won his first and only Academy Award. Two years later, he earned his fifth and final Best Cinematography Oscar nomination for his groundbreaking work in the landmark "Citizen Kane". Often considered the greatest Hollywood cinematographer, you can read more about the life and career of Gregg Toland in my post on "Citizen Kane".
In a career defining performance, Henry Fonda stars as “Tom Joad”, a quintessential “good bad man” (a character type found in many Ford films). “Tom” breaks the law fighting for justice, and as he suffers more and more indignities, Fonda keeps him sincere, calm, and steadily determined. Watch how he shifts from wanting to shoot at an angry mob to instantly becoming vulnerable and doing what will help his family. There's a fragility in his unrelenting strength. Fonda is the essence of naturalness (I even love his quick amusement when hearing “Casy” talk about women), and “Tom’s” final speech has become one of cinema’s most famous, largely due to Fonda’s honest, matter-of-fact delivery.
The role of “Tom Joad” became heavily associated with Fonda and is still thought to be among his best, most affecting performances. It earned him a Best Actor Academy Award nomination, and AFI voted “Tom Joad” the 12th Greatest Hero in movies. It firmly established Fonda’s screen image as a homespun Midwestern guy with boyish sincerity, inner strength, and deep quiet thought. Though Fonda played varied characters in his career, he became the face of the morally upright everyman fighting for good, and his impact was such that AFI named Fonda the 6th Greatest Male Screen Legend of All-Time.
When the very bashful Nebraska-born Henry Fonda was twenty, his mother's friend (who happened to be Marlon Brando's mother) urged Fonda to try out for a role at the community playhouse. Too shy to say "no", he auditioned and got the part. Quickly bitten by the acting bug, he continued on stage, eventually finding himself with the University Players in Massachusetts where his fellow actors included Joshua Logan, Mildred Natwick, Margaret Sullavan, and James Stewart (who Fonda later roomed with and the two became life-long friends). Fonda married Sullavan, and their marriage lasted about a year. When he wasn't off doing summer stock, Fonda was trying to get work on Broadway. His first Broadway role was in 1929's "The Game of Love and Death", and his first break came in 1934's "New Faces of 1934", which landed him a Hollywood agent and an interview with Hollywood producer Walter Wanger who offered him a movie contract. Fonda stipulated that he be allowed to do some theater each year, and Wagner agreed. Funny enough, Fonda's first major Broadway role came next, in 1934's "The Farmer Takes a Wife", and he became a Broadway star.
Fox bought the rights to “The Farmer Takes a Wife”, and when they couldn't cast the male stars they wanted, they let Fonda reprise his role as the simple, virtuous farmer in their 1935 film version starring Janet Gaynor, which became Fonda's film debut. With a film career off and running, Fonda either starred or costarred alongside Hollywood’s biggest names, like Bette Davis in “Jezebel”, Sylvia Sidney in "You Only Live Once”, Tyrone Power in “Jesse James”, and Don Ameche in "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell”. He became a respected actor from his performance as Abraham Lincoln in Ford's 1939 classic"The Young Mr. Lincoln”, reinforced by his next film, Ford’s “Drums Along the Mohawk”. Next came "The Grapes of Wrath", but Zanuck didn't want Fonda for the lead. He wanted a top Fox star (either Tyrone Power or Don Ameche), but Ford insisted on Fonda. Fonda wanted the role and had to sign a seven year contract with Fox to get it. It made him a major film star.
The downside of accepting the role was Fonda's obligation to appear in films he largely disliked over the next seven years, though there were some standouts such as Fritz Lang’s "The Return of Frank James", Preston Sturges' "The Lady Eve", and most importantly William A. Wellman’s "The Ox-Bow Incident", which stands as another of Fonda's best films and performances. After serving three years in the US Navy during World War II, Fonda returned to the screen in another Ford classic, 1946's "My Darling Clementine". Once his Fox contract expired, Fonda formed his own production company, Argosy Pictures, and appeared in another Ford classic, 1948's "Fort Apache".
Fonda headed back to Broadway in 1951 to star in "Mister Roberts", which won him a Best Actor Tony Award. More theater and some TV work followed, and due to a nearly eight year absence from the big screen, he was no longer seen as a box-office draw and was not even considered to reprise his role in the film version of "Mister Roberts". But director Ford once again fought for Fonda and won. Having played the role for nearly four years on Broadway, Fonda didn't like the changes Ford was making to the film version, particularly its heightened comedy. During the shoot, they argued and fought, and at one point Ford reportedly punched Fonda. Whatever transpired between them ended their relationship. Ford took to serious drinking and had to leave the film (he was replaced by Mervyn LeRoy), and after making nine films together, Fonda never worked with Ford again.
"Mister Roberts" revived Fonda's career, and he went on to make some of his best films, including "Once Upon a Time in the West", "Fail-Safe", "The Wrong Man", "How the West Was Won", "The Longest Day", "Sometimes a Great Notion", and what many feel is his greatest film and performance, "12 Angry Men", which earned him a Best Picture Academy Award nomination as the film’s producer. In 1980, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar in recognition of his brilliant accomplishments and enduring contribution to the art of motion pictures. The following year came his final film, "On Golden Pond" (another of his best), which won him a Best Actor Academy Award. He was married five times (including his marriage to Sullavan), and inadvertently began an acting dynasty. In addition to adopting a daughter, Fonda fathered two children: daughter Jane Fonda, a two-time Oscar winning actress and one of the biggest stars of the 1970s, still working today (she played his daughter in “On Golden Pond”); and son, Oscar-nominated actor, writer, director Peter Fonda. His grandchildren include actors Bridget Fonda and Troy Garity. Henry Fonda died in 1982 at the age of 77. “Tom Joad’s" final speech in the film was read at his funeral.
“The Grapes of Wrath” features a vast ensemble of first-rate character actors delivering outstanding performances, and that certainly includes Jane Darwell who plays “Ma Joad”. As a woman trying to hold her family together in the face of nonstop adversity, Darwell keeps “Ma” strong, loving, and understanding in a richly poignant performance. She has several very moving moments, including the scene when “Ma” sits alone in the darkness burning her keepsakes before they leave for California. Though it’s painful, as soon as she's burned her belongings, “Ma” lets go of her past and never looks back. She has love, acceptance, strength, and understanding, particularly for “Tom”. Darwell’s face alone reveals all the weariness, love, and toughness of a woman who’s lived a hard but proud life. It’s a very touching performance that earned Darwell a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award and a place in cinema history.
Missouri-born Jane Darwell wanted to join the circus or sing opera but settled for an acting career. Starting in the theater, she made it to Broadway in 1910's "The Wedding Day". Her first film appearance was in the 1913 silent short "The Capture of Aguinaldo”, and after a couple more Broadway shows and nineteen silent films, her very fruitful career in sound films began with 1930's "Tom Sawyer”. Often playing matronly types, Darwell appeared in as many as twenty-four films a year. In 1954, she turned primarily to television, and by 1964 had appeared in over 200 films and TV shows including "The Ox-Bow Incident”, "The Devil and Daniel Webster”, "Craig's Wife", “Caged”, seven Ford films (including "My Darling Clementine", "3 Godfathers", and "Wagon Master”), and five with Shirley Temple (including "Bright Eyes" and "Curly Top”). You can read a bit about Jane Darwell in two classics already on this blog, "Gone with the Wind", and her final film, “Mary Poppins”. Be sure to check them out.
Another wonderful character actor in “The Grapes of Wrath” is Charley Grapewin who plays “William James ‘Grandpa’ Joad”. Grapewin completely loses himself in the part of this cantankerous yet moving man. Even the way he chews his food and gets it all over his face while dreaming about grapes in California turns "Grandpa" into an interesting and distinct human being. Though brief, it's the type of performance that demonstrates just how extraordinary and enjoyable acting can be. “The Grapes of Wrath” was the first of four Ford films featuring Grapewin, the others being "Tobacco Road", "The Sun Shines Brighter", and "The Rising of the Moon". He appeared in just over 100 films, including many classics, and you can read a bit more about Charlie Grapewin's life and career in two previous posts, "The Good Earth", and “The Wizard of Oz", in which he plays his most famous role as "Dorothy's" "Uncle Henry”.
One of cinema’s most prolific actors, John Carradine, appears in “The Grapes of Wrath” as “Jim Casy”, a very passionate former preacher who’s a bit shell-shocked by all that’s happening. He tells “Tom” he lost his calling because "I got nothing to preach about no more... I ain't so sure of things”, and as theatrical as Carradine can get, he's always truthful and you can’t help but watch him. His character, whose initials are “JC”, is often seen as a figure paralleling Jesus Christ, roaming through the wilderness sacrificing himself. Carradine and Ford didn’t get along, but Ford loved Carradine’s talent and distinct looks, and like Fonda, Darwell, and Grapewin, he became part of what came to be known as Ford’s Stock Company of actors (actors Ford repeatedly cast in his films). This was one of eleven Ford films in which he appeared, and you can read more about the life and career of John Carradine in my post on Ford’s classic Western, “Stagecoach”, and a bit more in my post on the non-Ford classic “Johnny Guitar”.
Another of Ford’s Stock Company players was John Qualen, who plays “Tom’s” neighbor, “Muley Graves”. It is through “Muley" that we fully understand the depth of the injustice and pain of the circumstances, which he says have turned him into “an old graveyard ghost”. Qualen’s powerful performance resoundingly shows us the grimness, whether while he recounts what happened, or angrily and hopelessly defends his land with a useless rifle. It is another magnificent, gut-wrenching performance (of which there are many in this film). Another actor with a very fertile career (he appeared in over 200 films and TV shows), "The Grapes of Wrath" was Qualen's second of nine Ford films, others of which include "The Long Voyage Home" and "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance". He's appeared in a multitude of classics, four of which are already on this blog, “Casablanca”, "Anatomy of a Murder”, "His Girl Friday”, and another by Ford, “The Searchers”, and you can read more about the life and career of John Qualen in the latter three.
Another actor I should mention is Darryl Hickman, who plays the “Joad’s’” youngest son, “Winfield Joad”. Though he’s in many scenes, “Winfield” is not seen too much, appearing most notably in the scene in the diner, and with his sister when they discover plumbing in a bathroom. Hickman was a very popular child actor who appeared in many classics.
Hollywood-born Darryl Hickman became a successful child actor beginning with a role in the 1936 film "Three Cheers for Love". He grew up in the studio system and worked steadily through the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in up to eight films a year. In the 1950’s he worked a bit more sporadically, focusing more on television, which became his prime workplace. Other notable films of his nearly 150 film and TV credits include "Leave Her to Heaven", "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers", "Tea and Sympathy", "Keeper of the Flame", "Men of Boys Town", "Network", "Southwest Passage", "The Tingler", and a film already on this blog, "Meet Me in St. Louis". Hickman later became a TV executive, producer, screenwriter, and acting teacher, and earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for producing the 1974 TV special "Tiger on a Chain". In 2007, he wrote a book about his approach to acting, "The Unconscious Actor: Out of Control, in Full Command". He married and divorced actress Pamela Lincoln, and then married actress Lynda Farmer, to whom he remains married today. His younger brother was actor Dwayne Hickman (best known in the title role of the classic TV series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"). As of the writing of this post, Darryl Hickman is 92 years old.
Though there are so many great performances in “The Grapes of Wrath”, I’ll mention one more actor who I believe still holds the current record for being in the most films on this blog thus far, and that’s Ward Bond, who plays a policeman the "Joads" encounter on one of the stops along the road. Originally from Cherokee County, Oklahoma, the policeman is one of the few characters that treats the “Joads” like human beings, though he unapologetically reminds them of the harsh realities. Bond appeared in over 300 films and TV shows, and this is the eigth film I’ve written about which he's in, the others being, “Bringing Up Baby”, “Gone with the Wind”, “It Happened One Night”, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “The Searchers”, "The Maltese Falcon” and "Johnny Guitar”. You can read more about Ward Bond in many of those posts (most notably “It’s a Wonderful Life”).
In addition to Academy Award wins for Best Director and Best Supporting Actress, and nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay, "The Grapes of Wrath" also earned Oscar nominations for Best Sound Recording (Edmund H. Hansen) and Best Film Editing (Robert L. Simpson).
One of the best made, most impactful, and most enduring films in movie history, this week’s film informs, enlightens, and entertains. It's an amazing movie and a true, true masterpiece. Enjoy “The Grapes of Wrath”!
This blog is a weekly series (currently biweekly) on all types of classic films from the silent era through the 1970s. It is designed to entertain and inform movie novices and lovers through watching one recommended classic film a week. The intent is that a love and deepened knowledge of cinema will evolve, along with a familiarity of important stars, directors, writers, the studio system, and a deeper understanding of cinema. I highly recommend visiting (or revisiting) the HOME page, which explains it all and provides a place where you can subscribe and get email notifications for every new post. Visit THE MOVIES page to see a list of all films currently on this site. Please leave comments, share this blog with family, friends, and on social media, and subscribe so you don’t miss a post. Thanks so much for reading!
YOU CAN STREAM OR BUY THE FILM HERE:
PLACES YOU CAN BUY THE FILM:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, and any and all money will go towards the fees for this blog. Thanks!!