Rusalka's sixth film review: An epic of the 1930's

Rating: Null/10 (12 April 2003)

As a film of the 1940's, The Grapes of Wrath does a wonderful thing. It shows us humanity in only the way that someone like John Ford could show it. Primarily known as a director of westerns, Ford helms this project with all the love and care you'd expect from someone entrusted with such a great and monumental classic work of American Literature as this is.
Even seen as a bit dated by today's standards, this film harkens back to a time in American History when the Government was literally throwing people off their land just so they (the government) could have more and more room for argriculture and farming purposes. So, the Joad family like millions of other families in the midst of the Great Depression flees westward to California. They do this simply because they believe that work, not to mention a better life will be found there. However, once they arrive in California the Joads begin to see just how wrong they were with so many of their assumptions.
This has to be the defintive Henry Fonda performance. Fonda plays Tom Joad with sort of an everyman type of quality. However, Fonda lost the Best Actor Oscar to James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story. The Grapes of Wrath recieved two statuettes that year, Best Supporting Actress for Jane Darwell's iconic portrayal of Ma Joad, the undeviating strength at the core of the Joad clan and Best Director for John Ford (his second Oscar after 1935's The Informer). The Grapes of Wrath was also nominated in the categories of Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Recording, losing in all three instances. The film lost Best Picture to Alfred Hitchcock's suspense masterpiece Rebecca.
All in all, this is an important piece in a director's legacy of great films. John Ford would follow The Grapes of Wrath with 1941's Best Picture winner How Green Was My Valley (another Best Director statuette) and his 1952 homage to his homeland of Ireland, The Quiet Man (yet another Best Director statuette). But his film career would be crowned later still with what many consider his greatest achievement, 1956's The Searchers with John Wayne, Natalie Wood and Ward Bond.
My rating: 2 and a half stars