Rent The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Classic Hollywood Masterpiece - The Grapes of Wrath review by GI

Probably John Ford's most sentimental film. It is certainly an emotional one and for a staunch conservative Ford kept faithful to the socialist ideals of the original novel. Viewed today it still resonates around the plight of the poor against the greed of the rich and historically it reveals the devastating affects of the Depression in 30s America. Essentially a road film narrative it tells the story of Oklahoma farming family, the Joads, forced from their tenancy by the advancement of farming technology who head west to California where they hear there's work aplenty picking fruit. Led by the family matriarch, Ma (Jane Darwell), and supported by her eldest son Tom (Henry Fonda), who is on parole from prison, the large family travel in a run down truck laden with all their possessions. Along the way they encounter hardship, bigotry, corruption, death and near starvation but also kindness and hope. It's ultimately a sad story albeit a powerful one and Ford directs with his usual majesty often with his trademark static camera and stark lighting. This is an impactive film and an important one which holds up very well today. It's a significant classic made by one of America's greatest filmmakers and a true masterpiece. Certainly a film all cinephiles should ensure they see.

Literary Drama. - The Grapes of Wrath review by Steve

Lifelong Republican John Ford isn't the obvious choice to direct John Steinbeck's great American novel. But no matter how hard you squint, this is an unambiguously negative critique of American capitalism that promotes government intervention and workers unions. He brings his usual sentimentality, communal singing and folksy performances by the support cast...

But he doesn't bring his politics. Or indeed his Catholic faith. Changes are made because of censorship and there is no attempt to include the long editorial passages, but Nunnally Johnson's script is faithful to the book, which Steinbeck assiduously researched on the road. And in a couple of ways in particular, it is enhanced.

There's Henry Fonda's trenchant portrayal of Tom Joad's transformation from sharecropper to activist. And Gregg Toland's stark, austere b&w cinematography. Today it seems like a folly that apart from a handful of establishing shots, the mythic journey west from the Oklahoma dustbowl to the orchards of California was all filmed in the studio!

The novel was published only a year earlier. It is astonishing to consider that these events were contemporary. Now this is classic Americana, but the issues are still alive. When corporations sack their workforce and hire them back at 50% wages, who doesn't remember Fonda, gaunt and persecuted in the labour camp, making his famous speech?