"The grapes of wrath" plays during the great depression. The "dust bowl" causes farmers to lose their farm and sending them on a journey West to California, hoping to find work as a day laborer.
John Ford has made many films about men moving West, but most of the time these were adventurous frontier men moving out of their own free will. In "The grapes of wrath" men are driven out of necessity.
"The grapes of wrath" is the adaptation of a novel of a liberal writer (John Steinbeck) by a conservative director (John Ford). The result is a film that is fairly critical about capitalism and capitalists.
Look at the way the capitalist bosses are portrayed. They pay low wages, oblige their workers to shop in the expensive camp shop and call everybody who stands up for their rights a troublemaker and communist. If necessary they remain order with the help of their own private gangs. It is if you look at a Russian movie in which Sergeij Eisenstein portrays the boyars.
In contrast, the government is portrayed as just and decent. A very curious combination in an American movie! Maybe John Ford is not so conservative after all. A year after "The grapes of wrath" he would make "How green was my valley" about workers in a Welsh mining village.
The journey to California is portrayed in a Biblical way, including the crossing of a desert. On the other hand the journey is typical American, the family Joad getting their kicks on route 66.
The value of "The grapes of wrath" is enhanced in no small part by the cinematography of Gregg Toland. For his work in "The Godfather" (1972, Francis Ford Coppola) cinematographer Gordon Willis earned the honorary name of "Prince of darkness". In my opinion Gregg Toland earned this title more than 30 years earlier for "The grapes of wrath" in which many scenes are very dark and sparsely lit. Gregg Toland went on to become very famous for his use of deep focus photography in "Citizen Kane" (1941, Orson Welles).
John Ford has made many films about men moving West, but most of the time these were adventurous frontier men moving out of their own free will. In "The grapes of wrath" men are driven out of necessity.
"The grapes of wrath" is the adaptation of a novel of a liberal writer (John Steinbeck) by a conservative director (John Ford). The result is a film that is fairly critical about capitalism and capitalists.
Look at the way the capitalist bosses are portrayed. They pay low wages, oblige their workers to shop in the expensive camp shop and call everybody who stands up for their rights a troublemaker and communist. If necessary they remain order with the help of their own private gangs. It is if you look at a Russian movie in which Sergeij Eisenstein portrays the boyars.
In contrast, the government is portrayed as just and decent. A very curious combination in an American movie! Maybe John Ford is not so conservative after all. A year after "The grapes of wrath" he would make "How green was my valley" about workers in a Welsh mining village.
The journey to California is portrayed in a Biblical way, including the crossing of a desert. On the other hand the journey is typical American, the family Joad getting their kicks on route 66.
The value of "The grapes of wrath" is enhanced in no small part by the cinematography of Gregg Toland. For his work in "The Godfather" (1972, Francis Ford Coppola) cinematographer Gordon Willis earned the honorary name of "Prince of darkness". In my opinion Gregg Toland earned this title more than 30 years earlier for "The grapes of wrath" in which many scenes are very dark and sparsely lit. Gregg Toland went on to become very famous for his use of deep focus photography in "Citizen Kane" (1941, Orson Welles).