All fiction, but oh so real and vivid and photographically striking.

Rating: 9/10 (6 October 2010)

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
A John Ford, Gregg Toland masterpiece. Even if you don't like the social politics, which people in 1940 often did not (the government was helping the poor too generously and so forth), you have to love the movie. Henry Fonda is only the beginning of a series of tough, beautiful performances. And the series of heartbreaks is balanced by glimmers of hope.
Most of all, oddly, is that this is a cinematic masterpiece, tightly constructed, and seen (and photographed) with aesthetic intelligence. Maybe the most amazing performance is Ma Joad (Jane Darwell), who commands the role of an earthy, wise, smart woman fighting the disintegration of her family. She's quite astonishing.
Toland's photography is worth noting not only for the usual framing of the shots or the occasional moving camera (when it moves through the squatter camp, slowly, showing the parade of poor people, it's quite striking), but for his use of minimal light. This isn't some film noir effect, but a way of capturing the candlelight, firelight, and just dim night skies that were very real, and very effective here. Great stuff.
Dorothea Lange, the FSA photographer who set the framework for the visuals in this movie, is of a special order of photographer, visual but highly human and emotional. And empathetic. Ford and Toland manage to make this into a non stop moving experience, over two hours, and it's no small feat. The fact these are all actors, and yet they are so convincing, adds just another level of appreciation.
Yes, great stuff.