Review of The Grapes of Wrath (1940) by Pierluigi P — 04 Sep 2008

Some years before the eruption of the Italian neorealism, at the other side of the atlantic, John Ford, the poet of cinema, adapted John Steinbeck's celebrated novel, which dealt with the drought and poverty in america, and a family of Oklahoma farmers, struggling to remain together despite all the adversities they have to face on their way to california, their promise land.

The mother and the son, Jane Darwell and Henry Fonda, stand out with amazing performances, and both respectively have magnificent final speeches that embody the soul of this bitter and overwhelming descent into the misery and tenuous hope of the proletariat.