JohnHowardReid Copyright 24 January 1940 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Rivoli: 24 January 1940. U.S. release: 15 March 1940. Australian release: 23 May 1940. U.S. copyright length: 11,586 feet. 128½ minutes. Australian release length: 12,011 feet. 133½ minutes.NOTES: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award, John Ford, Direct¬ing (defeating George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Sam Wood's Kitty Foyle, and William Wyler's The Letter). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Annual Award for Supporting Actress: Jane Darwell (defeating Judith Anderson in Rebecca, Ruth Hussey in The Philadelphia Story, Barbara O'Neil in All This And Heaven Too, and Marjorie Rambeau in The Primrose Path). Also nominated for Best Picture (Rebecca), Actor, Henry Fonda (James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story), Screen¬play (The Philadelphia Story), Film Editing (North West Mounted Police), and Sound Recording (Strike Up the Band). Oddly, the film was not nominated for its superb Cinematography. Best Motion Picture of 1940 - New York Film Critics. Best Direction, John Ford (for this and The Long Voyage Home) - New York Film Critics. Best American film of 1940 - National Board of Review. Number two (to Rebecca) in The Film Daily annual poll of U.S. film critics. Fox's top money-maker of 1940. On a personal note, actress Dorris Bowdon wed Nunnally Johnson in February 1940. Negative cost: $850,000.COMMENT: So much has been written about The Grapes of Wrath and it has such a reputation as one of the greatest movies of all time, that it is in danger of being regarded by today's cinemagoers as a museum piece. This would be a tragedy. Although the political and economic events which shaped the book and the film have receded into history, the power of its story, the vividness with which its human tragedy is unfolded, and the collectively forceful eloquence of its players are undimmed.Ford and Darwell deserved their Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards. Fonda was cheated out of his. (I mean James Stewart's role in The Philadelphia Story is a supporting one, not a lead. Furthermore, Stewart plays the part with all his usual mannerisms - nothing special nor distinctive at all). I could go on for pages about the dramatic impact of The Grapes of Wrath - how it socked me right out of my seat the first time I saw it. And every time since. It's a masterpiece. Brilliantly directed, breathtakingly photographed, atmospherically set and scored, persuasively written and arrestingly played. Fonda regarded it as the high point of his career. So do I.

851222 Greetings from Lithuania."The Grapes of Wrath" (1940) is a one powerful and heartbreaking movie. It tells a very simple story but does this in a great way. Its been a long time since i felt true sorry for people shown in this movie or more specific life that they had to endure during the time. The craftsmanship of this movie is great - directing (amazing pacing for whole 2 h 8 min), involving and realistic writing as well as great acting. Best performance in this movie was hand down by Jane Darwell who played Ma. She glues the family together in its hardest time - literally i could seen my mom in her - this is a wonderful performance of a wonderful human. Overall, "The Grapes of Wrath" left me heartbroken many times during its time. The most saddest things for me when watching a movie isn't when somebody cries - but its when a life tries to knock good and hard working people down on its knee. "The Grapes of Wrath" is a great movie.

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.

jimbo-53-186511 Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) has recently been released from prison and returns to his family home to discover that his family have been kicked off their land as it has been bought out by greedy developers. Joad and his family head to California to start a new life, but this journey proves to have more hazards and pitfalls than they could ever have anticipated.The Grapes Of Wrath is a film adaptation based on the John Steinbeck novel. I'll start by saying that I haven't read the book, but I can safely say that the 'cinematic' version of the book fell well below my expectations....For starters the film takes an immensely long time to get going (one could actually argue as to whether it ever gets going). The problem is that the first half is awfully slow and dull with very little happening to drive the narrative forward. To me, The Grapes Of The Wrath came across as a character-driven film but when the film is filled with uninteresting and poorly developed characters it became very hard for me to remain interested or give a damn about anything that happens to them on their journey to California.The second half of the film is slightly better (in the sense that it has a bit more urgency about it). Although the better pacing made the second half more tolerable than the first half I still felt that the whole film had a superficial feel to it - we get to see glimpses of the suffering and pain that has been bestowed upon the family, but it's never really examined in much depth and this resulted in a film that just never seemed to take advantage of all of its potential.The cast are all OK and whilst Fonda wasn't particularly brilliant here I appreciated that he tried to give the film some emotional weight (which again probably would have worked better if both the narrative and character dynamics had been stronger and more interesting).So yes I didn't like this film but will say that this was more down to the slow-paced first half, poor characterisation and the missed potential in fleshing the story out and making it more interesting.