Very rarely does a film’s focus keep its relevance in every day life for as long as The Grapes of Wrath has, and considering the darkness and misery portrayed in this film that is not necessarily a good thing.
The story takes place during The Great Depression, which makes our current recession seem mild at best. It follows the Joad family, a family of sharecroppers from Oklahoma who are in the midst of disaster. The Joads have been chased from their land by the bank, and have nowhere left to go, with no work anywhere in sight.
The main character is a man named Tom Joad. The movie begins with his release from prison. He seems to be a nice enough man, but when a friendly man gives him a ride and asks him what he was in jail for, he reveals he was there for killing someone. It’s later revealed that Tom killed the man in self-defense after being stabbed. Tom Joad is played by Henry Fonda, the father of the renowned Jane Fonda.
Tom returns home to find it abandoned and on the way he meets up with his old preacher, a man named Jim Casy (Played by John Carradine, the father of David Carradine) who explains that he’s lost his faith because he doesn’t know for sure anymore. Tom finds an old acquaintance hiding out in his old home who tells them about what’s happened with the bank chasing people off.
Tom brings Casy to his uncle’s house, where he finds all his family staying. It’s not long before the family decides to take a desperate gambit in search of work, and travel to California. The trip is hard during this time in American history, and the grandfather is the first to die along the way. They bury him by the side of the road with a note so that police don’t think it was a murder if he was found. The next to die is the grandmother, right before they reach California.
The story, however, is basically the same when they get to California. There is no work, and when work is found they’re usually yanked about by the person running the business. The group begins to split up. Casy is arrested and the husband of Tom’s sister runs away which leaves the pregnant sister alone and depressed.
They first find work on a suspicious farming camp with a lot of people standing outside the camp, and the private security refuses to say a thing about it. They’re being paid by the bucket, and they find that the only store in the area has high prices, making living there very difficult. Tom decides to sneak out of the camp for a walk, and see what’s happening outside. He finds a camp down by the river, and decides to ask what all the commotion was at the gate.
In the camp he runs into Jim Casy again, who has found a new faith in people themselves, and is essentially trying to set up a union for the farmers who have been pushed around by the farming camp and the store. Tom learns that all the people at the gate were the previous farmers who were essentially forced out when they demanded higher pay. Tom learns that the previous farmers were being paid half of what his family is being paid, and they can still barely survive on it, essentially Tom and his family are strikebreakers.They’re forced to leave the camp when they hear noises, and start heading down the river when lights shine on them when they think they’re in the clear. The private security of the ranch descends upon them quickly, and kills Casy with a nightstick without any hesitation. Tom, in a fit of rage, grabs the nightstick and strikes the security guard, which kills him. Tom is then struck hard in the face by another guard, but gets away with a horrible wound.
Tom returns to the farm camp, and is hidden by his family because they know the security is looking for a man with a wound on his face. As Tom is recuperating, he overhears that the farm camp is trying to reduce the wages back to their original state now that Casy is dead and the strike is essentially broken. Tom and his family decide to leave, and the family smuggles Tom out so the guards don’t see him.
The family is driving about California looking for more work when they run out of gas at the top of a hill. They let the car coast down towards some lights. By a stroke of sheer luck, the lights belong to a farming camp in search of workers that’s run by the Department of Agriculture. As Tom is going over the details with the man who runs the camp he’s in shock at how the camp, is run. It’s essentially democratic with police not allowed inside unless they have a warrant. It’s a dream come true, and Tom signs the agreement.
Great things happen in this camp to show the power of community and love, but nothing good can last forever. Police officers enter the premises with warrants, and take down the license plate number of the Joad car. Tom, fearing that they’re after him, is set to leave the camp without a word and let his family stay and enjoy it. His mother wakes, and scolds him for not wanting to say goodbye.
Tom comes to the realization that what Casy was saying is right, and that he’s got to help spread social justice now. The movie ends with a speech by Tom’s mother about how she’s not going to be scared anymore because her family are the people and they have power.
Overall, it’s a fantastic movie and a bit of a tearjerker. The novel the movie is based on won the author a Nobel Prize in literature, and it’s no surprise. A lot of people say that with the current state of the United States and our government, we should read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. I would say to them that they should read John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
