It's hard to imagine that The Grapes of Wrath was ever published in America, let alone made into a Hollywood film. Class consciousness is something rarely seen in the media, but it's important that we're aware of it. As the film shows, fighting inequality is not about ideology (being a 'red') but about acknowledging an obvious injustice. John Ford, despite his conservative associations, did make films about unions (see also How Green Was My Valley) and he creates a poetic melancholy in The Grapes of Wrath through the tale of poverty and desperation. His technique is, as always, well considered and his use of shadows and silhouettes creates anonymity amongst the suffering.

It's difficult to approach a classic like The…

Painting a gritty yet authentic portrait of family life ravaged by economic hardships, The Grapes of Wrath covers the strenuous ordeal faced by one family as it struggles to keep itself together when everything around them is falling apart. Steered by John Ford's assured direction & powered by a couple of stellar performances, it remains one of the most memorable works of its era.

Set during the Great Depression, the story of The Grapes of Wrath follows Tom Joad who's out of prison on parole, only to find that his family has been forced off their own land. Managing to reunite with them eventually, Tom & the Joad family set off to California in search for better work, opportunities & a hopeful future…

If there was a law, they was workin' with maybe we could take it, but it ain't the law. They're workin' away our spirits, tryin' to make us cringe and crawl, takin' away our decency.
-Tom Joad

John Ford the man that had made a career off of films depicting the beginning of the American Dream and the conquering of the West, here adapts John Steinbeck's novel depicting the end of that dream. I'm in awe at how a film that should be just the most depressing viewing experience imaginable could turn out to be so engrossing.

One of the primary reasons, but not the only one, is the incredible performance by Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. One of the…

After four years in prison, Tom Joad returns home to find that his family has to leave the land they have worked for generations. Together they flee the precarious life in arid Oklahoma and set out on a journey to the fertile fields of California in search of a new beginning. The road will not be easy as they will have to face police brutality and the cruel mechanisms of capitalism while trying not to succumb to the uncertainty of the future. The Grapes of Wrath is a portrait of the devastating effects of the Great Depression and of human beings in search of a dignified life; the rawness and accuracy of what John Ford presents are reminiscent of the…

In grad school, Ford's adaptation of Steinbeck's novel felt sentimental and laughable. Today, its purity and simplicity seem almost miraculous. One of the original American road movies, it uses the Joad family to discover what America actually is, rather than its symbolic, patriotic myth. This new transfer preserves the different shadings of black, white and gray that cinematographer Gregg Toland achieved, enabling the film to fluidly change tone—from documentary to expressionist atmosphere to a kind of mellow, unaffected tenderness.

No longer burdened with being a definitive literary adaptation, Wrath can now be appreciated on Ford's own merits. It is tough Americana, constantly reexamining itself just as the Joad family keeps running into examples of both American hostility and a burgeoning,…