Live Life Team
Genre: Drama
Director: John Ford
Starring Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
Following one family’s struggle to survive during the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath struck a real chord with audiences of the time and has gained new found acclaim since its DVD release in recent years. Documenting real events, it is part historical document, part social observation, but above all a film that charts the strength and resilience of the farming families that suffered virtual devastation, as their livelihoods were lost and they faced starvation and homelessness.
Tom Joad returns to his Oklahoma farm from a stint in prison to find his family packing up and preparing to make the long journey to California, in search of work. They are representative of the thousands upon thousands of people who made the same difficult journey, having been forced from their smallholdings by the moneymen.
Based on the John Steinbeck novel of the same name, Ford’s film doesn’t attempt to dilute the message of the book or play to a Hollywood formula. Tom is still the same flawed hero, guilty of murder and far from perfect, but it’s his everyman qualities that see him applauded as the voice of the common people, refusing to just roll over and die while those in power profit from his plight. The only real major deviation from the book is the ending, when the shocking and heart rending climax is made a little more palatable for cinema.
