How The Grapes of Wrath Came to be

In March of 1938 Life Magazine commissioned novelist John Steinbeck to visit and write about the “Okie” migrant labor camps of California. What resulted from those visits was one of the finest American novels of the twentieth century, and a great film that has become a genuine Hollywood classic. The long economic depression was drawing to an end for most of America, but the NEW DEAL hadn’t lessened the hardships suffered by the “Okie” families who populated the camps.

Steinbeck talked with dozens of “dust bowl” refugees who had lost everything in the longest and most oppressive drought in American history. Proud, tough, independent, men and women who were forced to tear their roots from the soil of the homesteads hacked from the prairies by their pioneer fathers and grandfathers. Destitute “Okie” families left with little choice but to join the human tide flowing west on the “Mother Road” toward the promise of economic salvation in the lush agricultural fields of California.

The Novel

Steinbeck distilled everything he learned about the “dust bowl” tragedy and the desperate plight of the thousands of economic refugees into a novel of biting social criticism. The story of one Okie family’s struggle for dignity and survival in a time of great hardship, and a potent indictment of the hollow promise of the American dream. The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize for literature and was a major factor in Steinbeck’s 1962 Nobel Prize, the most complex and important work of his distinguished career.

The Grapes of Wrath explores the dark side of the classic American pioneer myth more honestly than any other 20th century novel. The Joad family must, “pulls up stakes” and move west, not to seek gold or follow the dream of making their fortunes on the untamed frontier, like their 19th century counterparts, but to survive in a devastated economic landscape of failed farms, ruined dreams, and uncaring officials. Steinbeck’s characters are often at the mercy of their environment, driven by social and economic forces that are beyond their ability to control. They struggle, with little success and few resources, to overcome circumstances like poverty, oppression, natural disaster, and alienation.

The Film

When Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th Century Fox bought the rights to film the novel, Steinbeck insisted on a provision in the contract promising that the film would remain as faithful to the book as possible. Zanuck was true to his word and the group of artists assembled to bring Steinbeck’s novel to the screen was especially noteworthy. The years 1939-41 were the “Golden Age” of American movies, classic films like The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, Casablanca, Gunga Din, How Green Was My Valley, and Foreign Correspondent were made by the Hollywood studio system during this short period.

Cast & Crew

Nunally Johnson’s screenplay condensed the novel, but did nothing to alter its scathing social criticism. John Ford was hired to direct, and he chose Cinematographer Greg Toland (who would shoot Citizen Kane the following year) to photograph the film. Henry Fonda was Ford’s choice to play the key role of Tom Joad, a role that made him a major star. The films other roles were ably acted by many of the fine character actors from Ford’s “stock company” of players.

A Direct Link to Another Period of Great Social Upheaval

Thirty years later, in 1969, Peter Fonda would pay homage to his father’s portrayal of Tom Joad, by recreating his epic journey through the American Southwest (in reverse) for Easy Rider. Wyatt, a heroic “hippie” version of Tom Joad, and his sidekick Billy replace the beat up old truck of The Grapes of Wrath with a pair of Harley Davidson motorcycles, loaded down with all their worldly possessions, and take off for New Orleans. Dennis Hopper’s direction echoes several of John Ford’s themes; the noble agrarian paladins of The Grapes of Wrath are represented in Easy Rider by the hard working rancher who feeds Wyatt and Billy early in the film, and by the struggling young residents of the New Mexico commune who are thankful for having “a place to make a stand”. John Carradine’s disillusioned preacher in The Grapes of Wrath is reprised by Jack Nicholson’s disillusioned lawyer in Easy Rider both characters are victims of their troubled times, killed senselessly by the dark forces of hatred, oppression and prejudice. The most striking similarity between the two films, is the fact that both Tom Joad and Wyatt are doomed to violent ends by past criminal acts.

John Ford’s Background


John Ford had come to Hollywood in 1913 and worked briefly as an actor in several films directed by D. W. Griffith, including The Birth of a Nation. Ford directed his first feature film in 1917, and his final film was released in 1966. Films by D. W. Griffith and German “Expressionist” Director F. W. Murnau, were his major creative influences during Ford’s more than five decades behind the camera.

When Orson Welles (who reportedly watched Ford’s Stagecoach forty times before directing Citizen Kane) was asked to name the American Directors he felt were the most deserving of admiration, Welles responded, “The old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford”. Ford is the only director to win four academy awards (including one for The Grapes of Wrath) he also won the American Film Institute’s first “Lifetime Achievement Award”.

Ford (much like Steinbeck) was fascinated by the lives of “regular” people, his characters were usually working class Americans; pioneers, farmers, lawmen, soldiers, immigrants, and cowboys. Ford’s sentimental American pioneer stereotypes were always proud, hard working, courageous, and honest, with strong family ties. They were members of a community that was inter-dependent, joined by a sense of shared destiny, in the struggle against the environment and their common enemies.

The Film’s Style

Toland filmed the movie documentary style, using striking B&W imagery (influenced by the FSA photographs of Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, and Walker Evans) to tell the story of the Joad’s epic journey from the wasted hell of dust bowl Oklahoma to the lush agricultural fields of California. The trip along Steinbeck’s “Mother Road” (Route 66) is heightened by Ford’s strikingly expressionistic visual style. Grand vistas contrast with shadowed silhouettes, evocative moody night scenes, and tight shots of emotion filled faces. The Stagecoach and Iron Horse of Ford’s western films is replaced in The Grapes of Wrath by the overloaded and dilapidated old family truck, a stunning visual metaphor, like some small dark ship set loose on an immense, storm tossed, and hostile sea.

Once the Joad’s reach California, Ford was forced to confront one of the greatest challenges of his career. In John Ford’s films, the journey is usually the drama, and once the hardy pioneers have succeeded in defeating the hostile Indians, chasing off the outlaws, or reaching the journey’s end, the story is complete. In Steinbeck’s novel, the “land of milk and honey” is not a sanctuary, no kinder than the cruelty and devastation of Oklahoma. California’s agricultural industry flooded the dust bowl with flyers promising cash for farm workers, knowing that an overabundance of labor would drive wages down and profits up. Thousands of dispossessed “Okies” pulled up stakes and moved to California, putting themselves and their families at the mercy of the greedy growers.

Two Perspectives on a Shared Vision

Steinbeck’s characters were dehumanized by the oppression of their abject economic necessity, by contrast Ford sought to depict the “Okies” as heroic agricultural champions, noble knights of the earth, strengthened by their pure moral beliefs, their hard tragic lives, their sense of community, and their strong family ties. Both Ford and Steinbeck wanted the story to draw attention to the plight of the disenfranchised “Okies”. Ford eschewed his usual sentimentality, patriotic songs, and broad comedy in favor of a stark realistic “quasi-documentary” approach for this film, but his view of the “Okies” is never as harsh and biologically naturalistic as Steinbeck’s. Ford’s characters are forced to face failure and tragedy, but they never lose their nobility, their inherent “pioneer” goodness.

Conclusion


The Grapes of Wrath was a controversial film, and though Ford created a beautiful, sympathetic, and moving emotional portrait of the lives and struggles of the “Okies” the basic message was that the migrants who fled dust bowl Oklahoma for California were forced to confront the same injustices, economic prejudice, and class system that had driven them from their homes in the first place. The films portrayal of the cynical exploitation of the migrant workers by orchard owners and vegetable growers caused the California Chamber of Commerce to condemn the film. Business, police, and conservative political organizations mounted a media attack to correct the socialist “distortions” in the film, and many critics accused the movie of being depressing, inaccurate, and pretentious.


The ticket buying public loved The Grapes of Wrath (as they had loved Steinbeck’s novel) and they made it a resounding financial success. The film was nominated for seven academy awards (including best picture) and received two Oscars, best direction (for Ford) and best supporting actress (for Jane Darwell as Ma Joad). The biting social criticism that defined The Grapes of Wrath was never again to be permitted in another studio produced Hollywood film.


This review is part of a write-off to celebrate John Steinbeck’s 99th Birthday. I would like to thank Stephen Murray for inviting me to participate, I am honored to be included in the company of some of epinions finest writers. Please read the reviews of the other participants listed below, in order of the date of publication.

In Dubious Battle (1936) - Caravan70 and Macresarf1 ; Of Mice and Men (1937) Stephen_Murray and (movie) Skygirl; The Red Pony (1937) - Stephen_Murray; The Grapes of Wrath (1939) - Murasaki and NFP (movie) Ladydagney1; The Moon is Down (1942) - Gabriella ; Cannery Row (1945) - GraceF and Kchowell; The Pearl (1947) - Isinga ; East of Eden (1952) - Ed_Grover ; Sweet Thursday (1965) - Stephen_Murray; The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1954) – Gabriella; Once There Was a War (1958) Jiahong; Travels with Charley (1962) - Eplovejoy and Hadassahchana; and reviews by Frazelledspice and Nathanael73.





Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older