A testament with the wrong moral..

Rating: 7/10 (27 March 2011)

The Grapes of wrath is a film based on the novel written by John Steinbeck. The film follows a family westward as an exodus of lower class families are forced out of work and their homes due to the firm hand of "the man."
While several cinematography elements used within the film, such as the use of black as white as well as some camera tricks, elevated the 'run down' feeling of the Joad family it is my feeling that although the film was an homage to the novel it did not capture the intended thesis of Steinbeck.
Throughout the plight of the Joad family the movie focuses simply on the obstacles and hard times that only the Joads had to encounter. I feel the lack of the strong sense of a community in the film really detracted from the moral of the book. The book has a strong lesson of the "I" becomes "we", whereas the film lacks the sort of artistic ability to really capture that phenomenon. The film puts forth a plot of the Joads against the world and the most important and striking part of the book was realization that a community of perfect strangers had come together, bonding over their nothingness and had become a greater 'fambly' of their own; a unit to reckon with.
It is because the Director's cut of the film failed to bring to screen Steinbeck's message of the human nature: of a people coming together when they have no means of living and yet there they are - still fighting the silent fight.
While the film has an impressive cast of actors and several other noteworthy aspects of the film which are quite beautiful when speaking the film in parallel with novel, the film has fallen short. This could justly be because of the times period and other circumstances but in short while this film pays homage to this timeless literary work the film is due for a remake with the world being in a place where one is not fearful to expose the truth. To truly honor Steinbeck's work this must be done.