Finding some beauty even in the darkest of worlds.

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2014)

This tragic tale of the Joad family and their struggles living in the dust bowl during the depression is one of the great literary novels of all time. The movie version has propelled the story to legendary status and is considered one of the greatest movies of all time, sometimes even appearing in the top 10 lists of various film critics and classic movie fans. John Stenbeck's novel also became a great play in the 1990's, one of the few times in the American theater where something already so familiar to audiences could strike a cord and remain as fresh as it had been when it was first written and filmed.
The tragic figure of Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) is a quiet man who has been beaten by life, and there is no getting back up for him. Already having been put in prison for murder, he knows there's no way out for the second time, an accidental killing during a riot involving unsympathetic work camp guards and striking workers. All through his journey is his devoted and loving mother, Ma Joad (Jane Darwell), who provides the voice of reason, still not quite beaten even though she definitely has the weight of the world on her shoulders through the tragedies her family has seen.
If there was ever a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, that is the tragedy of Tom Joad's life. It seems that the fickle finger of fate is constantly pointing at him, making him doomed to suffer at the hands of chance. There's a big heart tucked away inside a soul that longs for release, and he quietly deals with every unfortunate incident of his life with grace and dignity. It is as if his life is one big shrug of the shoulder. There is no bitterness, only acceptance of the fact that this is the way his life is destined. Yet, he doesn't want to see anybody else taken down with him, particularly an embittered former preacher (John Carradine) and a sad little pipsqueak of a man (John Qualen) whom he encounters along the way.
Then, there's his family, sticking together through thick and thin and never any personal judgments, especially against ex-con Fonda. Grandpa Charley Grapewin ("The Wizard of Oz", "Tobacco Road") jumps up and down with excitement like a little kid, but the same fickle finger of fate that points at Fonda has turned into a visit by death for poor Grandpa. There are no tears in the Joad family, no maudlin cries of "Why?", just the realization that they represent the people, always stepped on by those in authority, but some day, those meek people will inherit the earth. Two soliloquies, one by Fonda, another by Darwell, are the glue which holds this together, expressing the depths of their souls and their totally unselfish natures which only long to survive somehow, as long as they are together.
The film has no real conclusion, which represents life which doesn't always have a connecting beginning, middle or end. That's the power of Stenbeck's tale, superbly directed by the amazing John Ford. Every character is there for a purpose, giving some minor players great opportunities to shine. Zeffie Tilbury, the elderly character actress who played bits in some big films and supporting roles in some "B's" (and is best known for the feisty old lady whom Spanky, Alfalfa and the rest of "Our Gang" encounters in "Second Childhood") is moving as Grandma, sitting there quietly and accepting her fate, only briefly mourning her husband.
Darwell, who deservedly won an Oscar, is actually a leading lady in this film, but in 1940 Hollywood, if you were portly and middle aged, you were deemed as a character actress, and character actresses (unless you were Marie Dressler) were supporting. Fonda lost his much deserved Oscar to old friend James Stewart who won pretty much because he had lost the previous year for a film he had deserved to win for. Such are the Grapes of Wrath, whether they are the bitter grapes of man's inhumanity to man or the honoring of the most honest performance of an actor's career that has nothing to do with ego but everything to do with brilliance.