The Grapes of Wrath is a 1940 drama film directed by John Ford. It was based on John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. The story is much more closely related to Ford's social protest dramas, which is different than his usual “western type” film. This film was the most popular left-leaning, socialistic-themed film of pre-World War II Hollywood.
The story takes place with the Joad family in Oklahoma. When all of their farms are foreclosed upon they all decided to move out west to California to look for work. As they make their way out west, the family encounters many hardships. By the time the Joad family makes it to California some of them have died or simply left. Life in California is not even as good as the family had hoped it would be. Work was very scarce and the jobs they could find were not worth the trouble. Finally they found a place worth staying in, but just when it seemed like it was going to be a happy ending Tom had to go on the run.
In this article, it basically explains the plot of the film and even illustrates a script from the film. It also talks about how the film originated. This article mentions how there were seven Academy Award nominations and two winners. This shows how great of a film this was in laying a foundation in the film industry.
In my opinion this movie was a boring yet interesting at times film. I feel it was boring because there was many times a scene dragged on or a scene not necessary. It was interesting because it showed how times were tough and how people how adapt to such rough conditions. I wouldn’t recommend this film to anyone who was not a film major. However, this movie is a good choice for a film class.
