CLASSIC FILMS: The Grapes of Wrath
Its humanity still resonates today.
By Alan Herrmann
FILM CRITIC
When I used to teach American History, it was inevitable that I cover the Great Depression. My students moaned over the economic complexities of the topic, like the stock market crash and the “alphabet soup” of agencies created by the FDR administration. I had to compromise with them, as all good teachers learn to do, and simplified the notes and short readings, but insisted they watch The Grapes of Wrath. There was more moaning. “But Mr. Herrmann, this movie is in black and white and from the Stone Age.”
Teenage hyperbole aside, I understood their reluctance but pressed on, assuring them that the film may be old, but it was Academy Award stuff, and the novel was adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by John Steinbeck. Some eyebrows went up but no “oohs or aahs.” I told them this was a very human story about a very difficult time in America’s history, and it was possible their grandparents or great-grandparents had lived through the era. I also told them I believed they would learn more about the real Great Depression from the movie than all the textbook facts. The story would illustrate the physical, environmental, economic, political, social, and perhaps most importantly, the emotional impact on American families.
My students probably forgot most of the WPA, CCC, and NRA (not the gun organization, but the National Recovery Act) to name a few of FDR’s programs. But they understood what the Joads and other families in The Grapes of Wrath were up against. They even empathized with these poor farmers, many of them sharecroppers driven off their land by the cruelty of Mother Nature and the financial institutions that took away homes where sharecroppers had lived for decades and established family farms.
Steinbeck’s novel was published in 1939, and Twentieth Century Fox acquired the film rights within a year. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck enlisted John Ford — known for Westerns, war films, and period pieces — to direct, believing he needed someone who could film the vast trek of “Okies” from Oklahoma to California. It seemed an odd choice, considering Ford was a staunch conservative, but he saw the story more about the family, not the class struggle that the novel espouses. As it turns out, Ford’s vision and Steinbeck’s ideals are both evident in the film.
Cinematographer Gregg Toland made the most of the black and white film. Some of his best shots evoke stark realism, similar to the still photos of sharecropper’s families by government sponsored photographers Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and others. Henry Fonda was cast as Tom Joad, a recent parolee from Oklahoma who heads to California with his extended family after dust storms ruin much of the farmland in the West and Southwest. Jane Darwell plays Ma, who exhibits moments of tenderness and strong conviction that keep the family going. The scenes between Fonda and Darwell are heartfelt and sincere. They are the central focus of the film.
Zanuck had heard rumors of the plight of the Okies struggling through crop-killing weather and evictions. He sent out undercover agents to report on these rumors and was astounded to find they were true. Zanuck had initially feared, like some critics, that the story could be advocating communism with its pro-labor stance, but he took a gamble anyway. The risk paid off and the film was a critical and commercial success. More importantly, Steinbeck was pleased and was very impressed with Henry Fonda playing his protagonist.
In the film, as in the novel and real life, there were farms, ranches, and migrant camps run by unscrupulous characters supported by corrupt local police forces. But there were also government-sponsored camps that offered cleaner, nicer accommodations run by compassionate managers. It seems Roosevelt’s New Deal was offering hope to millions and some of the 300,000 Okies who went to California — their promised land — would benefit from government-created work programs.
As we have seen throughout American history, policies affect human lives, and the stories that played out over 90 years ago are still being played out, but with a big difference: things have flipped. The current administration and majority of Congress are now the ones who either support corrupt officials or are corrupt themselves. They deport people at will without due process, threaten to take away economic aid and healthcare to those who need it most, and stand willing to take away the rights of free speech. Millions who feel the government has let them down turn to journalists, activists, and judges who adhere to the laws written in our Constitution to defend our rights.
At the end of The Grapes of Wrath, Tom offers these words to his mother as he prepares to leave the camp, and she asks him where he will go and what he will do.
“Wherever you look – wherever there’s a fight, so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Whenever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they know supper’s ready, and when the people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the houses they build - I’ll be there, too.”
I encourage all of you to watch this film, even if you’ve already seen it. It spoke to my students. It still speaks to all of us.
“Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
Shelter line stretchin’ ‘round the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleepin’ in their cars in the Southwest
No home no job no peace no rest”
— Bruce Springsteen, “The Ghost of Tom Joad”
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