Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Matthew_Capitano Pretty good film, but awfully slow-moving at times. Honestly simple as a bowl of grapes, but even that can become wretchedly mundane.Tom Joad (Hank Fonda) is ultimately a general pain in the butt. He just can't avoid mischief earning him the right to be arrested and thrown in the clink just to get him out of everybody's hair -- and I wished that would have happened. As it was, he continued to screw up despite the constant pleas of his Mom to stay out of trouble.John Carradine (my all-time favorite actor) delivers a fine performance as an ex-preacher. The film is basically well directed by John Ford, but once the Joads arrive at the 'sanitary unit' camp, the movie is, for all intents and purposes, by that time, over. There just aren't any surprises left. Fonda's final "I'll be there" speech is over-rated.Worth tuning in for Ford's direction and Carradine's acting.

Anssi Vartiainen Great drought has brought endless dust storms into the state of Oklahoma. Many families have been driven from their homes by banks looking to reap profit despite the miserable conditions. As such the Joad family packs itself onto an aging truck and sets out towards California in hopes of finding a Golden Land. Based on a novel by the same by John Steinbeck, although I've been led to understand that the book is a lot more depressing and politically minded than this film. And if that's the case, what a depressing book it must be. Because the film isn't exactly a ray of sunshine either.And yet it is a triumph, in a sense. Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell play the leads as Tom Joad and his mother, and in them crystallize the themes of the film. All good things will end, nothing lasts forever and when hard times come, it's up to us to pick ourselves up and journey through them. Individual humans may falter, may fall, may perish, but humans as people have always survived. The film has some truly great monologues and speeches about this, and as an overall film it's all about that willingness to rise up, to bear the load, to survive. The Joads travel from one tragedy to another, and it is truly heartbreaking, but yet they endure. And that's what matters.The film also questions the basic necessities of life. When it matters, what do we need? We all need to eat, we all need to sleep. And if those basic needs are fulfilled, what then? It's natural for us to look after ourselves, including our families, perhaps our closest friends, but it takes something extra to care for anyone else. And yet, that extra caring has a meaning. Is that meaning needed, warranted or even essential? That's the question.The Grapes of Wrath shines as a rare gem. A film brilliantly acted, brilliantly told, with brilliant themes. If you aren't moved by this film, one has to wonder.

sir-mauri When John Steinbeck wrote THE GRAPES OF WRATH it became a highly controversial book, which eventually became a highly controversial movie. For my money it's a near perfect film. The direction by two time Oscar winner John Ford is spot on. He tells his story and it moves along at a very brisk pace. One thing I always find that bothers me most about older films is that the pace tends to lag, a result of the film not aging well or it never had a good pace. This film, upon release, was highly successful and earned several academy award nominations including nominations for best picture and best actor for Henry Fonda. Fonda plays Tom Joad, a man on parole who returns home and discovers that his family has been driven off their land and now must leave Oklahoma and head to the promise of work out in California. The film has a dark view of life in the depression, but to view it any other way in regards to this family's story would be doing Steinbeck's material a great disservice. The family has to struggle to stay together. Grandma and Grandpa are quite old when the journey begins; Rosasharn is pregnant and, to leave with them, Tom must violate his parole. The characters in this film are very relatable because of the idea of family. We can all relate to the various things the characters do to help the family and sometimes to get away from it. One of the films biggest assets is Jane Darwell's touching performance as Ma Joad, a wise woman who is the glue that holds together the family unit. This is a film that must be seen, it's a true landmark film and a cinema classic.

John Brooks As subjective as it may seem, I cannot avoid making the comment this film was a bit boring. Painful to watch. There's a strain that the narrative builds over the watcher, the pressures of an incredibly tough and depressing series of life events, where a viewer may be left thinking: "well I don't have an issue with dramas or tough films, but why focus on such difficult and common life events ?" It's one of these things about historical movies - a particular event having occurred doesn't necessarily make for a great film plot or story to tell. The incredibly rough Great Depression years were awful and all, sure, but to make 2 hours plus of film based on the Steinbeck novel... this is like an American Emile Zola, an American Germinal. That monotonous old naturalism/realism narrative of exploring the misery of the working class... why, out of everything else there is to write about or make a film about... You'd ask yourself why an author would focus all his energy on something so bleak and real, there's such a lack of fantasy, the story telling is just totally flat and linear. What, we're barely given 30 seconds of poetry at the end from Fonda and then a speech from the mother in that last scene, but 2hrs10 for that ?...Good film. Tough to watch. 6.5/10.