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Karthik
17May12
Toland's photography is stunning, the politics of the film (generally) admirable, Grandpa Joad wonderful, and even though the little bits of pimping (eg the zoom on the DoA, the camp director, the diner and the truckers) are discountable, the overall polish and gloss leave me wishing it were directed by someone like de Sica instead.
Roscoe
26Feb12
The "we're the people" speech can be forgiven, considering the excellence of the rest of the film. Even Fonda, who I usually just cannot stand, rises to the occasion. Watered down in many ways from Steinbeck's novel, yes, but there's still plenty to impress. Until someone decides to remake it, we'll just have to accept it as is. And who'd dare remake it? We'd wind up with Zack Snyder directing Streep as Ma Joad.
Karthik likes this
Catarina Gomes
31Dec11
One can only regret for the breastfeeding scene. Even knowing that it would be impossible to make it back in the 40's, it's still an absence I struggle to accept.
João Pedro likes this
Lights in the Dusk
13Nov11
A ghostly road movie (where characters are projected, apparition-like, against the dead landscapes of a depression-era U.S.) and one of Ford's most powerful films. Despite its subject matter, the visual approach creates an abstract tone, more evocative of supernatural melodramas, where a feeling of sorrowful calamity overwhelms any sense of political or social commentary, placing the emphasis on the psychological...
Black Irish likes this
MarcH
24Oct11
My pick as Ford's best film (Though I'm probably not the best judge...John Wayne rubs me the wrong way). This film is beautiful, real...and the acting is so good...it's easy to forget anyone is directing it at all.
LifeofFiction and Howard Orr like this
Tony Zhou
3Sep11
I think this is a terrible adaptation of Steinbeck's book but it's a must-see for Gregg Toland's work. The rest of the crew is making a Message Movie with a Point. Toland is taking Dorothea Lange photographs. If someone handed me a book-long collection of his images, it would tell a better story (and be more true to Steinbeck) than the final product here.
Adam Eisentrout
3Feb11
Bleak and powerful. The first thirty minutes are breathtakingly gorgeous. The rest of the film comes close with its great story telling. I don't know how it stacks up against the book.
Topher-Liam
15Dec10
I was braced for something awfully melodramatic, but this was by and large honest and naturalistic. Exceptional.
homer harianja
16Aug10
masterpiece. this is the film that should be played in every august 17th. i hope that riri riza will do it in bumi manusia. now i'm gonna read the book. "It's my dirt! Eh-heh! No good, but it's - it's mine, all mine"
Matt Whitlock
14Jun10
So untrue to the book, I couldn't finish it. But then again how can one fit 600 pages into 2 hours?
Raditya Prasta Suryatmaja
1Jun10
"Rich fellas come up an' they die, an' their kids ain't no good an' they die out. But we keep a'comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out; they can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we're the people." goddamnit!!!! that's really somethin'!
Joel Cobbs
16Feb10
I love this movie, but felt rather disappointed. Due to this being released following the Communism scare and blacklisting, the film was greatly changed from the book as the book bashed the government's involvement, or lack there of, during the Depression and the Dust Bowl. Events are out of order to make the government look better than it was. I would like to see this remade with a more faithful adaptation.
Byron Brubaker
2Jun09
The "I'll be there" monologue near the end is awesome. Very inspiring after seeing the whole of the movie.
