Review of The Grapes of Wrath (1940) by Zach C — 27 Mar 2011

If one was to watch The Grapes of Wrath without reading the book it would be considered a great movie. Throughout the entire movie John Ford accurately captures the feelings and emotions generated by this time in American history. Utilizing black and white film rather than color gives the movie a somewhat desolate appearance which mirrors the dust and sand of the setting and the general distress of the farmers. The farmers, who have been left out to dry by big corporations, are on their way to California where they have heard that there are plenty of jobs for all because the large land owners have taken their land.

The camera work was well done by capturing the Joad family and the tribulations that they go through. The acting was well done by Henry Fonda as Tom Joad and Jane Darwell as Ma Joad for example.

However, the movie changes Steinbeck's message and because of this can only be considered mediocre at best. In the book, Steinbeck preaches that in society community is the most important aspect rather than the individual. While in the movie the focus strays from the importance of the community and sticking together and centers more on the family where the overall meaning seems to be the Joad family and that the family will get together rather than teaming up with other people in the same situation. For example, in the book there it starts to rain and the families in the sourounding camp must help each other shovel dirt into banks to keep the camp from flooding and this reiterates Steinbecks point of community. But this and other scenes are left absent from the movie including the ending where Rose of Sharan breast feeds starving man to save him from death. These missing scenes from the movie readjust's the true meaning of Steinbeck's story so if you want just a good movie rather than book-to-movie accuracy I'd go for it.