one of the most unsentimental films of the 'Golden Age' of Hollywood, possibly Ford's best

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2008)

For a motion-picture made in 1940, this one gets the depression probably more on-target than I have seen in any American work (Bound for Glory might be a short bit behind). This is due to two factors, one a little more obvious than the other. Steinbeck's book (still, sadly, unread by me, though other works like the Pearl are amazing on their own) is called the definitive account of the poverty-stricken mid-American experience in the depression, and it probably is. It allows for a very literary sensibility to form about such an American family like the Joads, who are the kind of folk that you'd think, if there wasn't immediate cynicism to be had with the like, politicians would be addressing first and foremost in speeches as the 'working man' and 'American family'. Sadly ironic then that the film had controversy for depicting some of California as corrupt, and that years later there would be charges on John Ford and Steinbeck of being un-American/communist for their respective work. Steibeck knew what he was doing, that's the short of it.
The second part is that Ford and David O. Selznick had such faith and dedication to the material in making it so straightforward that none of the possible melodramatic fat would be noticeable. This is so pure a work of American familial drama that any sense of sentimentality seems to be stripped away (as opposed to sentiment, there is a difference, as also noted by Scorsese re: Paths of Glory). Considering the cast, such as stars Henry Fonda and John Carradine- plus the quietly scene-stealing performance of Jane Darwell- it almost has the feel here and there of (pre) neo-realism, at least as far as Hollywood could take it. There's such a matter-of-factness to the turns that are taken with the Joads on their journey across the southwest to California- the bulldozers, Tom coming home after killing a man, the deaths of grandpa and grandma (the latter just in time to see California), and the subsequent trials and tribulations of working on near slave wages, that it builds the drama unexpectedly. You want the Joads to keep on going because they've earned the emotional investment honestly.
Only towards the very end, perhaps, does a tinge of the alleged communist &/or socialist stuff leak in, but it's not without some reason. By the time Tom Joad (Fonda) has gone through what's happened, his eyes have grown more empathetic than ever for those around him. His final speech, however full of the low-key gusto that calls out for attention, is effective because of what it means for the character, not even so much for the society at large. What's preceded this spirit for the working man has been very simple, the kind of style that many fans of the movies love Ford's work. It's a road movie essentially, and the story keeps on moving along to point after point that hits home what the Joads, and for that matter other families who've ventured out to California, have to deal with. And while there are some scenes where Ford and his DP Greg Toland move the story along in some stylistic flourishes (i.e. the montage of signs and roads, and the bulldozers in the flashback), the script doesn't allot for any time to take any more breathing room than necessary.
And as far as an adaptation- even without reading the book- it's quite wonderful, particularly where one can see that a scene or a moment that probably had profundity in the wording is given an equal amount of emotional weight by what isn't said (the example I'd give is before the Joads leave Oklahoma, the night before, as Ma is in the house by herself, the somber accordion music in the background, as she looks at old pieces of memories and throwing them bit by bit into the fire- all around it's a masterful scene). And on top of there being a sense of truth in the source to screen (with, of course, the necessary cuts and omissions for 1940 production code standards), the performances are golden. Fonda was rarely better, exemplifying all that was good naturally to him as a persona into his character (this and 12 Angry Men his quintessential socially conscious 'Average-joe' performances); Darwell, as mentioned, takes up the screen in her role of a career; Carradine skates between being truly dramatic and campy, and comes off as, simply, intense.
It's a gripping saga, and it may even surprise those who are expecting it to be an 'old-fashioned' tale of dust-bowl suffering during the depression. It is actually old-fashioned, in the most honorable way a picture from the period can be. A++