 Winner 2 Academy Awards 1940 This remarkable film version of John Steinbeck's novel was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Actor (Henry Fonda), Film Editing, Sound and Writing. John Ford won the Best Director Oscar and Jane Darwell won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Ma Joad, the matriarch of the struggling migrant farmer family. Following a prison term he served for manslaughter, Tom Joad returns to find his family homestead overwhelmed by weather and the greed of the banking industry. With little work potential on the horizon of the Oklahoma dust bowls, the entire family packs up and heads for the promised land - California. but the arduous trip and harsh living conditions they encounter offer little hope, and family unity proves as daunting a challenge as any other they face. Storyline: Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncles farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully. Written by Colin Tinto Cast Notes: Henry Fonda (Tom Joad), Jane Darwell (Ma Joad), John Carradine (Casy), Charley Grapewin (Grandpa), Dorris Bowdon (Rosasharn), Russell Simpson (Pa Joad), O.Z. Whitehead (Al), John Qualen (Muley), Eddie Quillan (Connie), Zeffie Tilbury (Grandma), Frank Sully (Noah), Frank Darien (Uncle John), Darryl Hickman (Winfield), Shirley Mills (Ruthie), Roger Imhof (Mr. Thomas [ditch employer]). User Comment: Jason John Sanicki Chicago, Illinois • As a film of the 1940's, The Grapes of Wrath does a wonderful thing. It shows us humanity in only the way that someone like John Ford could show it. Primarily known as a director of westerns, Ford helms this project with all the love and care you'd expect from someone entrusted with such a great and monumental classic work of American Literature as this is. Even seen as a bit dated by today's standards, this film harkens back to a time in American History when the Government was literally throwing people off their land just so they (the government) could have more and more room for argriculture and farming purposes. So, the Joad family like millions of other families in the midst of the Great Depression flees westward to California. They do this simply because they believe that work, not to mention a better life will be found there. However, once they arrive in California the Joads begin to see just how wrong they were with so many of their assumptions. This has to be the defintive Henry Fonda performance. Fonda plays Tom Joad with sort of an everyman type of quality. However, Fonda lost the Best Actor Oscar to James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story. The Grapes of Wrath recieved two statuettes that year, Best Supporting Actress for Jane Darwell's iconic portrayal of Ma Joad, the undeviating strength at the core of the Joad clan and Best Director for John Ford (his second Oscar after 1935's The Informer). The Grapes of Wrath was also nominated in the categories of Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Recording, losing in all three instances. The film lost Best Picture to Alfred Hitchcock's suspense masterpiece Rebecca. All in all, this is an important piece in a director's legacy of great films. John Ford would follow The Grapes of Wrath with 1941's Best Picture winner How Green Was My Valley (another Best Director statuette) and his 1952 homage to his homeland of Ireland, The Quiet Man (yet another Best Director statuette). But his film career would be crowned later still with what many consider his greatest achievement, 1956's The Searchers with John Wayne, Natalie Wood and Ward Bond. Summary: Rusalka's sixth film review: An epic of the 1930's IMDb Rating (07/24/14): 8.2/10 from 47,868 users Top 250: #187 IMDb Rating (10/15/07): 8.0/10 from 13,721 users Top 250: #174 IMDb Rating (08/20/04): 8.2/10 from 6,680 users Top 250: #136
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