John Ford_The Grapes of Wrath_1940
6.9
The first time I saw a film directed by John Ford, I was not very satisfied after watching it. It only stays at the level of a left-wing movie of Weiguang, although it was released 80 years ago, although the low-light photography is very amazing, although the picture depicts the social ecology in the middle of the Great Depression in the 1930s, as a realistic theme, it seems too much stiff. Although director John Ford has added a lot of design from the shallow to the deep, the misery of the proletariat and the extravagant cruelty of Bourgeois are alternately presented, making the overall emotional context still superficial and monotonous. Among them, the most distorted one is the refugee utopia that was later entered, which is so beautiful that it is not convincing enough. From beginning to end, all the ugliness at the bottom are completely filtered, making this film as distinct as a model show.
"The individual soul is not its own, it is only a small part of the greater soul. I am everywhere in the dark, and all you see is me. Where the poor fight to be fed, there is me; where there is Wherever the police beat civilians, I am there. I am among the angry and shouting crowd.” The sound film appeared 20 years ago, and the novelty has not yet passed. The story of this film also mostly relies on lines, communist slogans and hard truths pile up a few cases, indeed enough motivation, but when Tom Joad fixed his eyes and muttered to himself, I still had the feeling of reciting political texts. The film presumably wants to sublimate the theme here, and in my opinion succeeds in exaggerating the theme a lot.
The three-act road genre film started in part because the land was encroached on and the Joads were forced to leave their hometown. Some of us were born here, we farmed here, and some of us were even killed here, Mulley said in a weeping voice. Because the film is based on John Steinbeck's novel, the literary nature is copied and lost, and the story is very flat. Although there is a slight substitution of emotions when hearing the statement, but generally speaking, the audio-visual depiction of this land is too little, so that their love for the homeland can only be accepted as a symbol but not as a substance.
There are also highlights here. When flashing back in a dark room scene, the candlelight is used as a single source of light to illuminate the sides of Tom and Casey, with a raw and moving texture. The tracks of the bulldozer and the solemn expressions are superimposed, and the direct connection between the flesh and the machine is like the inexorable oppression of the proletariat by the capitalists, and the cruelty is revealed here. Hanging laws are stronger than shotgun bullets, and land ties are stronger than survival instincts. The wooden plank house was flattened directly, leaving only the ruts in place, so that three dollars a day could be made. Joad's mother once nearly killed a hawker on the street by whipping a live chicken with one hand. She had intended to use the axe in the other hand, but got it mixed up, and when the peddler escaped, she only had two drumsticks left in her hand. The chicken roamed the land without feet, and turned into an old cemetery wanderer like Murray, that's all. The latter sentence may have been made up by me, but this story was the part that impressed me the most in that scene.
Another favorite place is that after arriving in California, it shows the group portraits of proletarians and the ecology of people at the bottom through audio-visual scribbles, which is better than nothing, adding some thickness to the film. Is it the truth for him that the stranger is still laughing and crying the next second? That's right. Is it the truth we will face? This is not known. The plot after entering the exile camp is straightforward but also impressive. The laborer just asked him to take out the license, ask him to write the contract, and simply ask for 45-type bullets. They set it on fire, and as Tom Joad said, "It's a real home away from home."
Although the social structure is outlined, the film is qualified or even excellent as a personal biography of Tom Joad, which universally explains why the proletarians rose up to revolutionize. The personal growth process of this newly released prisoner is relatively complete. He was exploited in his homeland and began to live in exile. The so-called land of milk and honey in California is not as beautiful as a postcard. Unemployment, bullying, hunger, poverty and disease All in all, leading to the final rage and awakening.
After talking about the film itself, it is undeniable that its external significance, especially the social textual significance as a record of the westward movement of the United States, represents the pain of the Great Depression to each specific people without any residue. Pain is never out of date, and it works everywhere.
View more about The Grapes of Wrath reviews
