The Grapes of Wrath

Cinematographer Gregg Toland bathes the great expanses of Oklahoma, ever parched by the merciless sun, in a white that almost creates a sense of two-dimensionality. This is the landscape Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) wanders through after being released from prison in search of his family, who have just been banished from the piece of land they leased by an unscrupulous landowner. Full of expectation, the big family now heads to California to find work at the fruit plantations there. Yet their new home turns out to be a place of exploitation and injustice. Ford’s adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Steinbeck criticized the excesses of American capitalism, which turn out to be just as merciless as the sun, in unusually strong fashion for the Hollywood of the time. (mg)