...one of the most powerful films Hollywood ever made, and it's just as moving today as it was all those years ago.
The hardships of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the poverty-stricken migrant farmers, the transient camps, the rise of labor unions, and the power of the people are all touched upon in the movie, as they were in the book. In the century before, Mark Twain had said that "Human beings can be awful cruel to one another," and, in fact, things had not changed by the 1930s. That people in America could be thrown into the street and left to starve was a circumstance hard for a lot of better-off Americans to believe. Public and government apathy toward the plight of America's underclasses might have gone unnoticed longer than it did had it not been for the attention Steinbeck's book, and to a lesser extent the movie, brought to the problem.
"The Grapes of Wrath" is inspiring and touching, a story of family togetherness, family separation, and the need for unity among all people. Moreover, I have to admit to always getting teary-eyed when Ma Joad goes through her meager possessions trying to decide what she should take with her when she's forced to leave her home. Any film that can move me to tears is a film I figure has to be reckoned with; and when it's accompanied by Steinbeck's supreme humaneness, Ford's unabashed sentiment, Fonda's and Darwell's superb acting, Johnson's fine screen adaptation, Toland's spectacular cinematography, and Zanuck's determination to make a quality product, I find it impossible to resist.
Video:
The movie was digitally restored for DVD from the best two surviving elements the Fox studio could find, the original camera negative having long been lost. The result is not quite in the category of the best, state-of-the-art restoration, but it's plenty good. The 1.33:1 ratio, black-and-white presentation is largely free of age marks, deterioration, flecks, specks, lines, or specks. Darker areas of the screen are perhaps too dark to admit much inner detail, but blacks are solid and true, and object delineation is fairly sharp. Moiré effects are sometimes noticeable, despite a respectably high bit-rate transfer. All in all, Gregg Toland's stunning B&W cinematography shows up splendidly under the circumstances.
Audio:
The sound comes in its original monaural, unfortunately presented in two channels, and in a 2.0 stereo remix. In both instances background noise has been largely eliminated, but from there the choice is yours. The advantage of the stereo is that it spreads out the sound a bit more widely between the front channels, providing a more modern listening experience. With it comes a slight increase in brightness and edginess, however. The original mono appears smoother, if more confined. In any case, whichever choice you make, you're getting a soundtrack that is better than anyone has probably ever heard it before.
Extras:
Rather than use two separate discs, this Fox Studio Classic release uses both sides of a single disc. The first side contains the feature film, plus an erudite audio commentary with film scholar Joseph McBride and Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw. One of the commentators gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how and why the film was made the way it was, while the other provides us a glimpse of the film as it was adapted to the screen from the novel. It's fascinating if a bit slow and bookish for non-film buffs. Side one concludes with a U.K. Prologue to the film, helping to explain to British audiences how the Depression affected the American Midwest; thirty-two scene selections; and spoken languages and subtitles in English and Spanish.
Side two contains a forty-five minute documentary on the film's producer, "Darryl F. Zanuck: 20th Century Filmmaker," made for A&E's Biography. Also included are three Movietone News drought reports from 1934, plus some news outtakes, demonstrating how closely Hollywood captured the hardships of Depression life; a featurette of President Roosevelt lauding the motion picture industry at an Academy fete; a restoration comparison; a stills gallery; a theatrical trailer; and five additional trailers for other films in Fox's Studio Classics line.
Parting Thoughts:
"The Grapes of Wrath" is a worthy addition to Fox's burgeoning Studio Classics lineup. The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1940, including Best Picture (Darryl F. Zanuck and Nunnally Johnson), Best Actor (Henry Fonda), Best Director (John Ford), Best Supporting Actress (Jane Darwell), Best Editing (Robert L. Simpson), Best Sound (Edmund H. Hansen), and Best Writing (Nunnally Johnson). It won two: Best Director and Best Supporting Actress. The winner for Best Picture that year was Hitchcock's "Rebecca," which, much as I love it as pure entertainment, does not compare in importance to "The Grapes of Wrath." Maybe the Academy should consider waiting and making their choices after, say, fifty or sixty years have passed.
"The Grapes of Wrath" is inspiring and touching, a story of family togetherness, family separation, and the need for unity among all people. Moreover, I have to admit to always getting teary-eyed when Ma Joad goes through her meager possessions trying to decide what she should take with her when she's forced to leave her home. Any film that can move me to tears is a film I figure has to be reckoned with; and when it's accompanied by Steinbeck's supreme humaneness, Ford's unabashed sentiment, Fonda's and Darwell's superb acting, Johnson's fine screen adaptation, Toland's spectacular cinematography, and Zanuck's determination to make a quality product, I find it impossible to resist.
Video:
The movie was digitally restored for DVD from the best two surviving elements the Fox studio could find, the original camera negative having long been lost. The result is not quite in the category of the best, state-of-the-art restoration, but it's plenty good. The 1.33:1 ratio, black-and-white presentation is largely free of age marks, deterioration, flecks, specks, lines, or specks. Darker areas of the screen are perhaps too dark to admit much inner detail, but blacks are solid and true, and object delineation is fairly sharp. Moiré effects are sometimes noticeable, despite a respectably high bit-rate transfer. All in all, Gregg Toland's stunning B&W cinematography shows up splendidly under the circumstances.
Audio:
The sound comes in its original monaural, unfortunately presented in two channels, and in a 2.0 stereo remix. In both instances background noise has been largely eliminated, but from there the choice is yours. The advantage of the stereo is that it spreads out the sound a bit more widely between the front channels, providing a more modern listening experience. With it comes a slight increase in brightness and edginess, however. The original mono appears smoother, if more confined. In any case, whichever choice you make, you're getting a soundtrack that is better than anyone has probably ever heard it before.
Extras:
Rather than use two separate discs, this Fox Studio Classic release uses both sides of a single disc. The first side contains the feature film, plus an erudite audio commentary with film scholar Joseph McBride and Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw. One of the commentators gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how and why the film was made the way it was, while the other provides us a glimpse of the film as it was adapted to the screen from the novel. It's fascinating if a bit slow and bookish for non-film buffs. Side one concludes with a U.K. Prologue to the film, helping to explain to British audiences how the Depression affected the American Midwest; thirty-two scene selections; and spoken languages and subtitles in English and Spanish.
Side two contains a forty-five minute documentary on the film's producer, "Darryl F. Zanuck: 20th Century Filmmaker," made for A&E's Biography. Also included are three Movietone News drought reports from 1934, plus some news outtakes, demonstrating how closely Hollywood captured the hardships of Depression life; a featurette of President Roosevelt lauding the motion picture industry at an Academy fete; a restoration comparison; a stills gallery; a theatrical trailer; and five additional trailers for other films in Fox's Studio Classics line.
Parting Thoughts:
"The Grapes of Wrath" is a worthy addition to Fox's burgeoning Studio Classics lineup. The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1940, including Best Picture (Darryl F. Zanuck and Nunnally Johnson), Best Actor (Henry Fonda), Best Director (John Ford), Best Supporting Actress (Jane Darwell), Best Editing (Robert L. Simpson), Best Sound (Edmund H. Hansen), and Best Writing (Nunnally Johnson). It won two: Best Director and Best Supporting Actress. The winner for Best Picture that year was Hitchcock's "Rebecca," which, much as I love it as pure entertainment, does not compare in importance to "The Grapes of Wrath." Maybe the Academy should consider waiting and making their choices after, say, fifty or sixty years have passed.
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