The Grapes of Wrath: A Window into the Past

Thanks to Hollywood, the 1930's can sometimes be remembered as a glamorous time. Looking back at the old movies of Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and stars of the time, it can be easy to forget the things that were going on at that point in time. We can recall all the great pictures and the stars but what was going on behind all that? What were things really like in those days? In these olden days the movies were a means of escape, and with good reason considering what people were going through.

What may be common knowledge to historians but easy to forget when looking purely at film, is that the Studio Era, now often thought of as a "golden age", coincided with a very dark period in history. While studios profited, the average working man was faced with economic troubles all over the world. Work was nearly impossible to find, and the few jobs that could be obtained paid very little and had very poor conditions.

It was an accomplishment just to be able to scrape together enough for one meal. It was a period that would force people from their homes, losing nearly everything they had, and as if that wasn't bad enough, the thing that finally brought it to an end was a certain dictator's plans for mass genocide. In those days it likely did not have a name, but now we have come to know this point in time by one that is very fitting: the Great Depression.

With all the glamour that comes from Hollywood, it was interesting to see a film that showed another side of the 1930's. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of an unfortunate family that loses everything to the depression, literally forced to live out on the road in a beat-up truck that could easily break down at any moment. Their only chance at any improvement to their situation is already a long shot, that if they can get to California than they might just be able to get a job picking oranges. Unfortunately, getting there is easier said than done, and what really awaits them is a road full of misery, tragedy, and heartbreak.

The basic tone of this story should hardly come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the work of John Steinbeck. I myself have only ever read one of his novels, Of Mice and Men, which also dealt with the troubles caused by the depression. That one focused on the friendship between two men, with the added problem that one is super strong but has the mind of a child. It builds up to them almost getting that place of their own that they wanted, only to end up in a situation where one is forced to kill the other. As you can imagine, Steinbeck has something of a reputation for writing very depressing stories.

The Grapes of Wrath was released in 1940, and for the time it would have been extremely relevant to its audiences, many of whom would likely have lived through the depression themselves (at a time when America was just starting to come out of it). Today it is kind of like looking into the past and glimpsing this old world, and the horrible struggles faced by the unfortunate men and women of the time.

Henry Fonda is really good as the central character of Tom Joad, the ex-convict who just wants to go clean and start fresh with his family only to get roped into this mess. He wants to go clean and be left alone, but as troubles pile upon everyone that becomes increasingly difficult. He has to do everything he can to hold the family together, but situation after situation presents itself where it becomes harder and harder to tell just what is the right thing.

John Ford's direction with this movie is spot on in any way you can imagine. Seeing as he is usually associated with the western genre, it is a nice change of pace to see him tackling something very different and more (for the time) modern issues. The tone of his direction is appropriately dark, but never too much so. There is always a faint glimmer of hope, even if it's nearly impossible to see.

I would strongly recommend The Grapes of Wrath as a classic worth giving a watch. It is a film that will allow you to look at a point in history not often shown in films of the studio era, made by people who would have been affected by it on some level. It is a very emotional experience that will allow you to get a glimpse of just what homelessness can feel like, and appreciate the rare moments of genuine kindness all the more.

Why I Love Westerns

I've been saying a lot of negative things lately and doing a few hateful reviews, so I decided for this one to do something a bit more positive and look at something I like. As you may have already figured out I'm quite fond of the science fiction genre, but I've decided here to look at another area in which I have a certain appreciation for. That area is the Western.

It's hard to say just what it is about the Western that I enjoy. It's a genre that can be simultaneously formulaic and unpredictable. Usually you have some idea what you're getting into. You know there's probably going to be a showdown of some sort, though you can't be sure if it's going to be a one-on-one shootout between the hero and the villain (as in For a Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Blazing Saddles, and Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead), a three-way Mexican stand-off (the famous climax of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, helped by the incredible music of Ennio Morricone), a survival course past numerous outlaws in order to get to the station before your train arrives (both versions of 3:10 to Yuma) a tense fight that goes on to include most if not all of the main cast (the shootout near the end of Rio Bravo), our heroes are going to be hopelessly outgunned but go out in a blaze of glory (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) or they're going to subvert your expeditions and skip any kind of showdown all together (as in No Country for Old Men and Red River, although both by very different means).

One of the most memorable showdowns in any Western.

Despite being a very formulaic genre, the Western does also seem to lend itself to a variety of memorable and lovable characters. From Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" to John Wayne as Chance in Rio Bravo to Bart in Blazing Saddles and his best friend Jim (most people call him... Jim) to the mysterious heroine of Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, not to mention Rooster Cogburn and Mattie Ross in both versions of True Grit.

How could we discuss Westerns without bringing up Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name"?

John Wayne in Red River memorably shifts back and forth between hero, anti-hero, and villain.

The Dude in an eye patch. What's not to love?

It's not just the heroes either. For every good Western you need not just a great hero but also a great villain to stand in their way. There's plenty of those to go around: Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Henry Fonda as Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West (a role cast specifically to surprise audiences expecting him to play the hero), Harvey Korman as Hedy Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles, and John Wayne as Tom Dunson in Red River.

The interactions between Hedley Lamarr and his right hand man Taggart are a source of comedic gold in Blazing Saddles.

I can't understand a word this guy says, but dang it his rousing speech in Authentic Frontier Gibberish is just so inspiring.

Then of course we've often got the impressive landscapes to enjoy. They vary between movies but usually in a Western you can expect to see plenty of desert, which allows for some excellent scenery. 

The very first shot of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly we get an impressive landscape shot only for some outlaw to shove his ugly mug in front of the camera.

Even a modern Western like No Country For Old Men can't avoid the incredible desert landscapes.

Perhaps the interesting thing about Westerns is the fact that they play a significant role in film history. After all, one of the most significant early motion pictures was Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery. Contrary to popular belief, this was not the first motion picture to tell a story (that area had already been explored by Georges Méliès, most famously in A Trip to the Moon a year earlier). However, it was significant in being one of the first to explore then-revolutionary editing techniques such as crosscutting.

This scene might not look like much now, but when audiences first saw it 1903 they thought they were actually about to get shot.

Of course naturally it should hardly be a surprise that some of the biggest directors have made Westerns at some point. John Ford's name became synonymous with the Western, Howard Hawks is know to have done at least two great ones (Red River and Rio Bravo). Even one of my all-time favorite directors, Sergio Leone made a career primarily of making Spaghetti Westerns. In the present day we have people like The Coen Brothers (most memorably No Country for Old Men and True Grit, with some Western influence clearly present in The Big Lebowski). Another of my favorite directors, John Carpenter, even made his 1998 film Vampires because the script seemed to resemble a Western and you can certainly see that in the film's frequent use of desert landscapes and ghost towns.