Review of The Grapes of Wrath (1940) by Andy G — 11 Mar 2008

Bogart, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart are all great, but Henry Fonda has pretty much convinced me he's the best actor to come out of Hollywood's Golden Age of the 30s and 40s. Along with James Cagney (though probably better than Cagney), Fonda's acting is less stagey than his contemporaries and appears very natural, pretty ahead of its time for when he was a big star. But on to the actual movie.

I did The Grapes of Wrath injustice by not really ever completely devoting myself to the film. First, I turned it off after 10 minutes to take a nap. Later, I was surfing the web while watching it. The story of the Joad's pilgrimage to California was easy enough to understand for me to multitask like that. Unfortunately, I never connected the movie like I thought I would, even after devoting full attention to it. John Ford's direction is (go figure) great, as is Gregg Toland's cinematography. And I've already commented on Fonda's acting, though the entire cast does a great job. But for whatever reason, I wasn't touched by the movie like I thought I'd be. The story is surprisingly exciting and compelling given that it's about a family's Depression-era struggles. Still, I was expecting a little more. Maybe next time I'll give it a true watch through and see if I like it more.