We headin' out to Californee!

Rating: 10/10 (3 October 2014)

In what has to be one of the greatest adaptations of a novel ever, we follow the Joad family, and more specifically their ex-con son with a heart of gold made infinitely likable due to an outstanding performance by Henry Fonda. This is the kind of film you just don't ever want to end. Nunnally Johnson does an incredible job making John Steinbeck's words ready for the screen and John Ford never fails to do justice to the narrative. When a character performs a longer dialog, you can tell you're seeing it with the same impact readers felt reading it. When Tom Joad walks across a lonesome road under the dim blue sky of an early morning you just have to imagine Steinbeck was proud of the people who worked so hard to bring his work to a new medium.
The story of the Joad family is a rough one. It begins with Tom fresh out of prison for what is described as self defense. It seems hopeful, but this is the last good fortune he'll see for a long while. Upon finding his family displaced and staying with an uncle, he learns that they've been removed from the farm where the Joad family had been sharecropping for decades. Their seemly only hope is a sizable journey towards California, so they load up a 'jalopy' far past its breaking point to set out on a trail ripe with misery in hopes of rebuilding. You start out rooting for the Joads, how could you not? But the film subjects them to a myriad of misfortunes along the way. Your hope turns to pity quickly, but you can't help but appreciate how much you admire their courage. It's remarkable how much I came to feel for the Joads. Tom is an outstanding protagonist, and you're with him till the very end.
A film with a story this great would do fine without being technically impressive and pleasant to look at, but those aspects are wonderfully done too. The film looks incredibly crisp. I didn't manage to forget it was black and white, but I couldn't take my mind off how great it looked. You can see every mark on a person's face, every detail in Tom's scar, and California's ugly brown hills and beautiful green pastures are both presented just as they are to this day.
I genuinely loved this movie. It had such an emotional impact. It was hard seeing the Joad family suffer, and it was such a relief to see them finally catch a break. Tom Joad was such a great character that by the end of the film he actually felt like a brother. The film really makes you feel like a Joad yourself, looking back at the family's history. I've been lucky enough to see Cannery Row on a few occasions, and I've seen with my own eyes the fields that the migrant workers of the time would have gone to in search of work. It gave the film a great impact. I'm glad I took the time to watch something so well done that I enjoyed so much.