1. The Grapes of Wrath is a John Ford film in which Ford leaves his calling of “westerns” and directs a type of “social protest drama” film instead. Ford typically isn’t known for straying from his most popular genre, but when he does, he remains close to his ideals. The ideals mentioned in class included importance of family, keeping to your roots (home), human spirit in the face adversity and social and economic injustice. We originally learned about these why analyzing The Stagecoach, but it is noticeably carried over into The Grapes of Wrath too.
We also notice a constant cinematography style amongst his films. Very wide angles that create majestic landscapes are used often in Fords movies. It reminds us of the smallness of man vs nature or even society. Also noted was Ford’s obvious distaste for the banking institutions. When John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, he used the banks as the “bad guy” of the novel. The banks wanted to rid and clear the land of hard working Americans so they could do what they please in order to make more money for themselves. It was quite clear that Ford had no problem keeping to true to the novel in that respect since he kept to novel’s plot so closely. Just like in other Ford movies, the bank or banker was looked upon as a villainous character. The banks are like the villains who are out against the hard working American trying to make an honest living.
2.-3. An internet article that can be accessed for further reading on The Grapes of Wrath can be found at http://www.filmsite.org/grap.html. The site is AMC’s movie review website. The webpage offers a bit of background information on The Grapes of Wrath and then closes with the actual script itself. The first paragraph simply praises Ford for his work on The Grapes of Wrath. According to Tim Dirks, the writer and editor of the webpage, “this film was the most popular left-leaning, socialistic-themed film of pre-World War II Hollywood”. The next paragraph actually tells us how Steinbeck came to name his novel and that it originated from another piece called Battle Hymm of the Republic, by Julia Ward Howe. A comparison of the film to the Biblical story of Exodus is even made. The comparison is made where a large group of people, get up and leave their homes for promises of better living elsewhere. The rest of the background offered by Dirks is the rewards that the movie did and didn’t receive and how some of the actors and actresses portrayed their characters. Finally, it breaks down the plot and gives some information on the dust bowl and how it fueled an adventure that could supplemented with ideals for a story.
4. The Grapes of Wrath was an “O.k.” movie in my opinion. From a book to movie perspective, I thought Ford did an excellent job conveying Steinbeck’s message from the novel. The few changes that were made didn’t make or break the movie in my opinion. I thought the cinematography was quite good and the shots were well chosen. Henry Fonda casted as Tom Joad was an outstanding pick because he truly made me feel that he was a simply man, trying to make a living, with no acceptance for disrespect or injustice. From the pre-color era, Fonda is probably my favorite actor. Speaking of pre-color, the black and white continues to do Ford injustice. His shots of landscapes hold nothing to shots of landscapes today. It is not his fault though, he was a director in a time where technology was limited. If he filmed this movie today, the wide angles he used would be breath-taking and gorgeous. I felt that that amount of content he had to work with had ended hurting him in the end. Being that he wanted to stay true to the novel, there was a lot he could leave out. This made the movie a bit longer than what I would have liked.
