The movie that takes every viewer back in time to the great depression

Rating: 10/10 (7 June 2012)

I'm flummoxed as to which among the two is the better than the other- John Steinbeck's literature masterpiece or John Ford's motion picture masterpiece. A panache indeed.
There hasn't been and will not be a better representation of the lives of the people at the time of The Great Depression than this piece of literature adapted as a movie. Only a genius can add life to the characters, make them walk, talk, cry and pray, and bring to the screen what pain and struggle in the throes of poverty really would be.
Tom Joad is out from a penitentiary on a parole. He heads back home only to find no one there. With the help of a former priest who is an now an apostate, go to his uncle John's place just to catch his family members when there about to leave to California. They realize en route that the pamphlets regarding requirement of workers in orchards had been circulating for an awful long time and that the wages weren't as exaggerated as they were in the pamphlets. They lose their ailing grandfather and after the obsequies, they finally reach California. They find tens of thousands of immigrants and somehow manage to get employment and accommodation in an orchard. Meanwhile, Tom kills a man who opens fire on the former priest and kills him. Tom flees the place when all his family members except his mom are asleep. He promises his mom that he would return. The Joads leave the town the next morning to find a better place to habitat.
Jane Darwell is the quintessential mother and matriarch of the Joads. She was rightly awarded the 'Best Actress in a Supporting Role' Oscar.