Grapes of Wrath

UPC: 024543103301

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Summary: The adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of dirt-poor Dust Bowl migrants by 4-time Oscar-winning director John Ford starred Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who opens the movie returning to his Oklahoma home after serving jail time for manslaughter. En route, Tom meets family friend Casey (John Carradine), a former preacher who warns Tom that dust storms, crop failures, and new agricultural methods have financially decimated the once prosperous Oklahoma farmland. Upon returning to his family farm, Tom is greeted by his mother (Oscar-winner Jane Darwell), who tells him that the family is packing up for the "promised land" of California. Warned that they shouldn't expect a warm welcome in California--they've already seen the caravan of dispirited farmers, heading back home after striking out at finding work--the Joads push on all the same. Their first stop is a wretched migrant camp, full of starving children and surrounded by armed guards. Further down the road, the Joads drive into an idyllic government camp, with clean lodging, indoor plumbing, and a self-governing clientele. When Tom ultimately bids goodbye to his mother, who asks him where he'll go, he delivers the film's most famous speech: "I'll be all around...Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat...Whenever there's a cop beating a guy, I'll be there...And when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build. I'll be there too." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Acting – National Board of Review Best Acting – National Board of Review Best Picture – New York Film Critics Circle Best Director – New York Film Critics Circle

Features: ccCommentary by scholars Joseph McBride and Susan Shillinglaw
U.K. prologue "Darryl F. Zannuck: 20th Century Filmmaker" as seen on Biography on the A&E Network
Movietone News: Three drought reports from 1934 Outtakes
Still gallery
"Roosevelt Lauds Motion Pictures at Academy Fete" featurette
Restoration comparison

Grapes of Wrath

Format: DVD

Release Date: 04/06/2004

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: 2 Europe, Japan, Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland, 1 USA & territories, Canada

Runtime: 129 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,Spanish

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 -- Feature
1. Main Titles [1:04]
2. Hitchin' a Ride [3:14]
3. Losing the Call [1:34]
4. Emptiness [3:53]
5. Muley's Story [3:19]
6. Hidin' Out [:17]
7. California Promise [7:02]
8. Joad Reunion [:10]
9. Letting Go [2:01]
10. "I Belong Here!" [3:16]
11. Don't Look Back [1:18]
12. Employment Equation [1:03]
13. A Ten Cent Loaf [2:30]
14. California Border [1:48]
15. Driving Through the Desert [3:25]
16. Beautiful Valley [2:54]
17. A Fair Share [2:13]
18. Business Practices [5:22]
19. No More Okies [4:05]
20. A Job [4:00]
21. Uprising [:24]
22. "Nothing to Trust" [5:20]
23. Gone for Good [2:09]
24. A Stroke of Luck [6:32]
25. Word of Warning [:41]
26. Dance Night [3:46]
27. The Red River Valley [3:13]
28. On the Trail [:59]
29. "I'll Be Everywhere" [6:05]
30. Good-bye [:52]
31. "Twenty Days Work" [6:13]
32. "We're the People That Live" [1:33]

Bruce Eder

John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath is arguably the director's greatest movie, and the rare Hollywood film superior to its literary source (a view shared by the novel's author, John Steinbeck). Indeed, it is the movie that sums up the impact of the Great Depression, at least on rural America, better than any other film of its time (and there were hundreds that tried, by everyone from Frank Capra to Preston Sturges). From the opening shot of Tom Joad's return to the ruined land where he grew up, the movie is a study of people whose dreams and hopes wither away like the drought-stricken crops. Yet Ford managed to make a movie that wasn't utterly pessimistic, despite its story and setting: the performers and script availed him of indomitable characters, convincingly portrayed, with the result that even the most cynical viewers were persuaded of Ford's artistic vision. Henry Fonda, who'd been an up-and-coming leading man, solidified his image as an upright hero with an almost mystical bent in his portrayal of Tom Joad; Jane Darwell became the archetypal rural matriarch; and even the bit players, such as Ward Bond and Grant Mitchell, got relatively rare opportunities to play against their usual types as beneficent characters. The movie became a strange case of fiction transcending fact, as Ford's images (photographed by the great cinematographer Gregg Toland) became more representative of the period than most documentary photography. Countless filmmakers have quoted from The Grapes of Wrath (there's a very funny audio-visual reference in Close Encounters of the Third Kind), and Ford himself never made a more compelling social statement despite several attempts (The Sun Shines Bright, Sergeant Rutledge, and others) over the next 20 years. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Ward Bond  Actor 
Paul Guilfoyle  Actor 
Rex Lease  Actor 
Adrian Morris  Actor 
Dick Rich  Actor 
Paul Sutton  Actor 
Norman Willis  Actor 
Robert "Buddy" Shaw  Actor 
Irving Bacon  Actor 
Harry Cording  Actor 
Harry Strang  Actor 
Eddy Waller  Actor 
Joe Sawyer  Actor 
Wally Albright  Actor 
Thornton Edwards  Actor 
Ben Hall  Actor 
Louis Mason  Actor 
Ted Oliver  Actor 
Peggy Ryan  Actor 
Harry Tenbrook  Actor 
Francis Ford  Actor 
Cliff Clark  Actor 
Pat Flaherty  Actor 
Charles B. Middleton  Actor 
William Pawley  Actor 
Georgia Simmons  Actor 
Harry Tyler  Actor 
Frank O'Connor  Actor 
Arthur Aylesworth  Actor 
Shirley "Muggsy" Coates  Actor 
James Flavin  Actor 
Robert E. Homans  Actor 
Walter Miller  Actor 
Gaylord "Steve" Pendleton  Actor 
Tom Tyler  Actor 
Jack Pennick  Actor 
Trevor Bardette  Actor 
Selmar Jackson  Actor 
Kitty McHugh  Actor 
Erville Alderson  Actor 
Frank Faylen  Actor 
Herbert Heywood  Actor 
Walter McGrail  Actor 
Inez Palange  Actor 
Lee Shumway  Actor 
David Hilary Hughes  Actor 
Ralph Dunn  Actor 
William Haade  Actor 
Mae Marsh  Actor 
George O'Hara  Actor 
Gloria Roy  Actor 
Charles Tannen  Actor 
George Breakston  Actor 
Hollis Jewell  Actor 
John Ford  Director 
Nunnally Johnson  Screenwriter 
Alfred Newman  Composer (Music Score) 
Darryl F. Zanuck  Producer 
Henry Fonda  Actor 
Jane Darwell  Actor 
John Carradine  Actor 
Charles Grapewin  Actor 
Doris Bowden  Actor 
Russell Simpson  Actor 
O.Z. Whitehead  Actor 
John Qualen  Actor 
Eddie Quillan  Actor 
Zeffie Tilbury  Actor 
Frank Sully  Actor 
Frank Darien  Actor 
Darryl Hickman  Actor 
Shirley Mills  Actor 
Roger Imhof  Actor 
Grant Mitchell  Actor 
Charles D. Brown  Actor 
John Arledge  Actor 

Country: USA