DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH-2
MOVIE REVIEW FINAL DRAFT
THE GRAPES OF WRATH

SUBMITTED TO - SUBMITTED BY –
DR. ALKA SINGH. NAMAN YADAV
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ENROLLEMENT NO- 210101092
(ENGLISH) B.A. LL.B (Hons.)
DR. Ram Manohar Lohiya 1st Semester, Section ‘B’
National Law University

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my English

subject teacher Dr. Alka Singh ma’am for her constant support and encouragement

throughout the making of this project work. I would also like to thank her for providing me

with such a wonderful opportunity which helped me gain so much knowledge through the

research work that I did for the work. I am also grateful for the guidance that my seniors

provided me with.

Lastly, I would like to thank my parents and sisters for their love and support

throughout my life. Their advice is the truest and most honest, without their insights the

project would be incomplete.

INTRODUCTION

The grapes of wrath (1940) is director John Ford’s most famous black and white

drama film. It is a classic adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by John Steinbeck’s

of the same name, widely read in 1939. The emotional film is much more closely related to

Fords social protest dramas, the informer and how green was my valley than to his masterful

western. Western is a genre of films set in the American west during the latter half of the 19th.

century. This film was the most popular socialistic and left leaning film of the time.

 The film honestly and realistically recreates the socio economic impact of the great

depression and the droughts of mid-thirties on the poor farmers of the dust bowl by way of

detailing the lives one representative family the “Joads”. Its main theme is the epic move of

oppressed people away from their ancestral lands to a new, stranger world in search of

prosperity and dignity. The Joads arduous journey towards the promised land tests the

family’s spirit and their will to keep marching.

The screenplay by Nunnally Jhonson is exceptionally faithful to the original source

material, the novel. The ending optimistically and quite sentimentally affirms the strength of

human will and dignity of individual spirit but is unique to film, neither the novel or the

screenplay has the same ending.

The film received seven academy award nominations with two win for best supporting

actress Jane darwell for her role as the typical mother figure and for best director(Jhon ford).

THE REVIEW

CAST- Henry Fonda, John Carradine, John Qualey, Jane Darwell, Russell Simpson, Charley

Grapewin, Zeffie Tilbury, Dorris Bowden, Eddie Quillan

Returning from a four-year stint at the penitentiary for homicide, Tom Joad

(Henry Fonda) receives a reluctant lift from an Oklahoma City Transport Company driver to

the outskirts of his father’s sharecrop farm. Tom’s continued, on-foot journey home puts him

in the path of a former preacher, Jim Casy (John Carradine), who accompanies him to the

Joad residence, which turns out to have been abandoned for a long time. Half-crazy squatter

 Muley (John Qualey) informs them that the Caterpillar tractors and bulldozers came through

the territory, literally crushing the homes in their paths to throw out the farmers whose output

couldn’t compete against dwindling resources and mechanized farming equipment. The Joads

supposedly headed to Uncle John’s place before starting off to California for a new life.

With no one to blame or shoot – the superintendents, the land and cattle companies, and the

bank are all just following orders – the Joads have no choice but to head West. Tom catches

up to his family, held together by resilient Ma (Jane Darwell), and consisting of Pa (Russell

Simpson), Grandpa (Charley Grapewin), Grandma (Zeffie Tilbury), daughter Rosasharn

(Dorris Bowden) and her husband Connie (Eddie Quillan), and several other extended family

members and friends. Piling atop a creaky jalopy, the weary but resolute travelers proceed to

the Oklahoma City limits and across Route 66. Their hardships have only just begun,

however, as death, foreboding warnings, shattered dreams, and all sorts of societal ugliness

awaits.

Based on the novel by John Steinbeck, “The Grapes of Wrath” is a sombre,

serious, moving tale of poverty, tragedy, and injustice. It’s also required viewing (and/or

reading) in plenty of schools, not only for its value as a visualised historical account of a

Great Depression affliction, but also for its message of perseverance, compassion, humanity,

and hope . The Joads’ plight, summing up many groups’ comparable struggles, appears as an

alien, misery-seeking pursuit of unlikely happiness to the outsiders who have dependable

means for a livelihood. The migrants are regularly looked down upon as beggars and bums

and something less than human. In a setting of extreme scantiness, ideas of optimism,

common decency, and mercy tend to deteriorate into prejudice, exploitation, and corruption.

At a certain point, even genuine kindness must be first approached with distrust.

 With little action, no special effects, and plenty of straightforward dramatic suffering, “The

Grapes of Wrath” is a tough watch for anyone accustomed to dynamical storytelling full of

small wins or triumphant victories to level out the anguish. Even the brief moments of

uncommon generosity are riddled with an unavoidable ominousness, as if the temporary

contentment of the settlers simply can’t be tolerated. Here, in rare form, the government

serves as a transient saviour of the people. In the end, though bolstered by Fonda’s rousing

speech of rebellion and justice and support for the oppressed, the film becomes an obvious

proponent of endurance and meaningfulness but not an exercise in consistently entertaining,

cinematic wonder. Still, there’s something haunting about the piece, no matter how

commonplace the design of woe befalling wretches has now become. And, as hard as it may

be to believe, it’s far more heartening than the source material, the novel.

The film provides insight into the woes and plight of the sharecroppers who were

oppressed for the interest of big mechanised farm. It is a masterpiece destined to be recalled

every time the greatest movies of all time are being discussed. The style of camera work in

which the characters are standing in front of vast landscape typically seen in John Fords

western films is also incorporated in the film by the director.

The Joad family is the representative microcosm of millions who have suffered

and endured the hardships of an economic depression and subsequent droughts which

literally brought their homes to dust. The film though was an adaptation of a novel, in my

opinion surpassed the original work in terms of conveying the emotions or rather preserving

the emotions and recreating reality on the big screen for the future generations to experience

and endure.

 THEMES

Humanity, inhumanity and dehumanisation- As though apparently the plight of

the Joads seems to be due to a natural disaster but much of their hardships have a human

hand behind them. The industrial farms and the banks they have no regards or consideration

for the human suffering they are going to cause by forcing farmers out of their land, their

livelihood. The contractor exploited the immigrants from the dust bowl paying them next to

nothing for the whole days of work, the money earned by the immigrants was not even

sufficient to fulfilling the most basic needs of their family. The cruellest treatment Joads

received is from the people that were most capable of helping them. The policemen

perversely abused their position of power throughout the movie.

Similarly the film also depicts some moments of altruism mostly by poor people.

Ma Joad observe when you are need always go to the poor people.

Powerlessness, perseverance- the Joad were stripped of everything that was

valuable, they were rendered utterly powerless by the banks and industrial farms in the

beginning of the films but they still kept fighting for dignity and a place in the world.

RELEVANCE

We are witnessing one of the worst natural disasters of the twenty first century, the

coronavirus is pushing the fragile world economy to its limits, millions lost their livelihoods

in this sudden wave of chaos. Unprecedented amount of wealth washed away by the forced

halt of the economic activities in the entire world. We from the comfort of our air conditioned

homes watched the televised exodus of millions of emigrant from our wealthy cities back to

 their respective home. I believe the news channels may be successful in portraying the real

facts of the ground to our tv screens but they failed miserably to show the reality of emotions

that must have forced these people to leave our “prosperous” cities in search of comfort and

feeling of belonging. Watching clips of people marching on the highways I wondered what

must have prompt these people to move back home the moment they found out that they are

not going to get wages, it’s not like they have anything back at home, for if they had why

would they work as daily wagers in the cities. To understand these emotions I suggest you

watch the movie “the grapes of wrath”. Prompted by hunger, penury and the fear of a bleak

future they immigrate to shinier cities tempted by the prospect of a brighter future full of

opportunities, and when they reached the cities they worked day and night on minimum

wages just to keep meeting the daily requirements of their families.

The film though in black and white and almost 82 years old still seems relevant,

the world seems to not have changed a bit. Same kind of situation existed back then same are

the conditions now. The system still doesn’t offer protection to the poor, the rich reaps the

benefit of the growth, the poor faces the brunt of the depression. The film is a hard watch

and an but its history on celluloid and history is destined to be repeated. We are living in a

time where the economy grows in a bubble and when the bubble burst its burden is carried by

the poor and marginal who have very little control over the markets.

CONCLUSION

Films mirrors the society and if true artistry is involved, they become looking

glass for the future generation to observe history in motion. As time changes and brings

prosperity, the plight of the millions who endured to build the fortress of perpetual economic

 growth is often erase from the individual sensibilities . This movie is more than just beautiful

shots and brilliant acting, it is a piece of history and an opportunity to dive into the world of

distraught and suffering yet hopeful of a prosperous future, the movie is also relevant because

of its realistic depiction of the socio-economic divide between the haves and have nots. We

have witnessed tremendous growth in recent times and manages to improve millions of lives

but the socio economic divide is still on the rise. In India one percent owns almost sixty

percent of the wealth, the conditions are worrying resources are being diverted to meet the

extravagant wants of the few and basic needs of millions are ignored. The films moves you

to the core and shakes your soul and induces every kind of emotions that’s why it is worth

watching and more worth remembering.

The ending of movie instil hope and reaffirms the dignity and spirit of human

soul to keep fighting for a better tomorrow.