It Could Make You a Socialist

Rating: 9/10 (6 April 2006)

Steinbeck's classic comes to life. It's the dust bowl era and the depression. People are driven of their property by the banks. Of course, those banks got those people help getting that property and the depression was a complex collapse. Still, it's sad to see a portrayal of human misery. The Joads pack up everything and head west. Of course, there's the Woody Guthrie song "If You Ain't Got the Dough Re Me." There really isn't an easy answer. California represents the great unknown where the streets are paved with gold and there's work and land for everyone. Naturally, the whole country was wallowing in poverty, and California was pretty well overextended. There's a point where all of us would say, 'It's either me or them." Henry Fonda who looks like Jane (or is it the other way around) is young Tom. He can't stand any more of the stuff his family must deal with. He is going to become enterprising. Unfortunately, he finds himself on the wrong side of the law. It's a group of socialists (some would call them dirty Commies) who come to the rescue with their collectivism setting things right. We see things through a filtered glass. John Ford had his own belief system. I felt good and clean when the Joads had some things look up for them, but I realize, also, that it's not so simple. Sometimes there are circumstances that don't qualify as evil--they just are. I hope that we can take a balanced view of the world and help those who need help.