The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Country: US
Technical: bw 128m
Director: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
Synopsis:
Oklahoma farmers made homeless by years of dust storms make the journey west to California to find work, but there they find thousands of others like themselves and are treated with contempt by their employers.
Review:
The archetypal Depression film, Ford's is a remarkably sober and true adaptation of Steinbeck's modern classic. The opening, in which Tom (Fonda) arrives back home from the pen and stops at a roadside cafe to hitch a ride, is striking for its location photography and realistic staging, and the shots of him walking backlit against a skyline occupying more than two thirds of the frame linger in the mind. But it is the performances of Fonda and Darwell that most often get a mention, and they do not disappoint in the truth that comes across from them, and Carradine is every bit as good in his smaller role. There is precious none of that rambunctious sentimentality that sometimes mars Ford's rustic subjects, as if he were here reined in by the recentness of the events depicted. Only the 'salt of the earth' speeches of the last two scenes smack of Hollywood in their relative optimism, but they do not erase the artistry in evidence throughout this masterly film.
Country: US
Technical: bw 128m
Director: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
Synopsis:
Oklahoma farmers made homeless by years of dust storms make the journey west to California to find work, but there they find thousands of others like themselves and are treated with contempt by their employers.
Review:
The archetypal Depression film, Ford's is a remarkably sober and true adaptation of Steinbeck's modern classic. The opening, in which Tom (Fonda) arrives back home from the pen and stops at a roadside cafe to hitch a ride, is striking for its location photography and realistic staging, and the shots of him walking backlit against a skyline occupying more than two thirds of the frame linger in the mind. But it is the performances of Fonda and Darwell that most often get a mention, and they do not disappoint in the truth that comes across from them, and Carradine is every bit as good in his smaller role. There is precious none of that rambunctious sentimentality that sometimes mars Ford's rustic subjects, as if he were here reined in by the recentness of the events depicted. Only the 'salt of the earth' speeches of the last two scenes smack of Hollywood in their relative optimism, but they do not erase the artistry in evidence throughout this masterly film.
Country: US
Technical: bw 128m
Director: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
Synopsis:
Oklahoma farmers made homeless by years of dust storms make the journey west to California to find work, but there they find thousands of others like themselves and are treated with contempt by their employers.
Review:
The archetypal Depression film, Ford's is a remarkably sober and true adaptation of Steinbeck's modern classic. The opening, in which Tom (Fonda) arrives back home from the pen and stops at a roadside cafe to hitch a ride, is striking for its location photography and realistic staging, and the shots of him walking backlit against a skyline occupying more than two thirds of the frame linger in the mind. But it is the performances of Fonda and Darwell that most often get a mention, and they do not disappoint in the truth that comes across from them, and Carradine is every bit as good in his smaller role. There is precious none of that rambunctious sentimentality that sometimes mars Ford's rustic subjects, as if he were here reined in by the recentness of the events depicted. Only the 'salt of the earth' speeches of the last two scenes smack of Hollywood in their relative optimism, but they do not erase the artistry in evidence throughout this masterly film.