Just a taste of Steinbeck - flawed, but great enough

Rating: 9/10 (21 August 2012)

John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" undoubtedly ranks among the greatest works of American realist literature. It stands as a testament of the Great Depression era where tenant farmers of the dust bowls suffer under drought, then are brutally dispossessed and driven from their Oklahoma homes, forced to find their luck elsewhere. In the end all they have is themselves, as the trip to find the blessed land California demands a heavy toll, is accompanied by tragedies and setbacks and the outlook is bleak in the face of the greed that exploits honest workers to make a buck. John Ford tries the impossible - to go for an authentic rendition of the multilayered, detail packed, all around magnificently written Steinbeck material, and definitely succeeds in delivering an indispensable heart-wrenching film portraying the never ending struggle of the Joads. Any direct comparison between book and film however is moot, enjoy both for what they are. On board in this road movie of the existential kind are Henry Fonda as an ex-convict, John Carradine as a disillusioned preacher and the Oscar winning Jane Darwell as Ma Joad, all first-rate acting with strong support of an array of bit players who help the crude reality take shape. Highly recommendable! There are downsides, though. For one the two hours of screen time can barely correspond to the epic proportions of the novel. However, the entry is still much more complete than Kazan's adaption of Steinbeck's other epic drama "East of Eden", starring Jimmy Dean, which only shows a fraction of the story. The one real liability however is the diluted ending which was tucked on as a concession to the mass audience while Steinbeck's epic hits you with full force. Well, if you want the real thing, read the book. With the film you get a pretty good taste of it.