The Grapes of Wrath

Someone should remake the movie “The Grapes of Wrath”.  John Steinbeck’s novel was brilliantly made into the 1940 black and white often-overlooked movie by John Ford.  Starring Henry Fonda as the main character Tom Joad, this move shaped part of my childhood.  My mom and dad would watch this movie so often on the VCR that it was often quoted in my house growing up.  Lines such as, “Then who do we shoot?!”, and “Give ‘em ‘da bread!” were endings of conversations to exclamate a point made by someone in my family.  After the quote. laughter would ensue as everyone knew exactly what the line meant.  Sometimes I would use the quotes at school and my classmates would look at me as if I was crazy.

The movie begins with Tom returning home from a four year stint in prison for killing a man in a dance hall fight.  The first person he runs into is the former preacher, Casey, played by David Carradine.  Carradine is superb in his portrayal of the former preacher that once baptized Tom when Tom was a kid.

When Casey and Tom finally reach Tom’s old home place, they find the house empty; empty except for fellow sharecropper Muley Graves (John Qualen) who was hiding out in the abandoned home.  Muley couldn’t bear to leave his land.  The way that Qualen passionately replays how he was chased off his land is heart-wrenching.   He is so convincing when he is found by Tom and Casey in the Joad’s abandoned home that you feel like he really has gone mad, a self-proclaimed graveyard ghost.

This is a story about the hard times many Americans found themselves in during the depression.  It is a social commentary on how human beings are sometimes treated as less than human.  Among many things, this is also a story of a mother’s love. 

Ma Joad, Tom’s mother, played by Jane Darwell is convincing as the matriarch that is the glue of the family as they are forced from their sharecropper land in Oklahoma and journey west to California to find work.  The morning of their departure from the family home, Ma is seen going through memorabilia; disposing almost all of it in the wood cook stove.  She knows it is futile to bring such non-vital items to California.  However, there are a couple of things she just can’t bear to leave behind.  One is a tiny, porcelain dog.   As she looks over the keepsake, she turns it in her hands and we can see writing on the top of the animal, “Souvenir of Louisiana Purchase Exposition St. Louis 1904”.  She quietly pockets the animal before finding a pair of earrings that she knows she will never get a chance to wear again.

To add to the absurdity of the situation of being chased off land that you were born on and worked your entire life, the family had to spike Grandpa Joad’s coffee with alcohol in order to get him on the overloaded truck.  Charley Grapewin’s portrayal of Grandpa ended too early as he died from a broken heart from being forced off his land.  The family was forced to bury him on the roadside after they passed through Oklahoma City.

There are so many moments throughout this movie that are simple, yet elegant in their execution and portrayal.  Every second of the film is a worth watching.  The culture of the depression is captured in a way hardly found in other films.  Humorous anecdotes are peppered throughout and are welcome among the desperate hard-times of the Joad family.

After watching it again, I’ve changed my mind.  Nobody should remake this movie.  No one would be able to come close to the brilliance of these mid-century actors.  The acting is just about as good as it gets.  I’m sure that modern movie-making technology could improve upon the sound quality of Henry Fonda and David Carradine as they are supposed to be walking outdoors but the echoes and backdrop make it obvious they are in a studio.  And as the family pushes their truck over a pass and can see the fields of California for the first time, it would be a nice addition to see the land truly green, not in black and white.   In addition, it is such a depressing movie.  The depression was a really tough time for so many people.  But, it is a necessary evil to know what has happened in our past so that we don’t repeat it in our future.

So, instead of remaking this movie I suggest that we all just watch it again and be thankful for what we do have.  I know I am.