--- title: "The Grapes of Wrath" year: 1940 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-grapes-of-wrath" fi1m_score: 86 critics_score: 84 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-20T00:14:29.838009+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T00:14:30.017294+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Directed by John Ford · 2h 09m · MPA NR · Drama **Fi1m score: 86** · Critics 84 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* A family drives two thousand miles towards a handbill, and the handbill was printed by the other side > John Ford’s version of Steinbeck is gentler than the book and one of the hardest things Hollywood made in its studio years. Gregg Toland lights it by lamp and headlamp, Henry Fonda barely raises his voice, and Jane Darwell holds the rest together. ## Synopsis Oklahoma, in the dust-bowl years. Tom Joad (Henry Fonda), paroled from McAlester after four years for killing a man in a fight, walks home and finds the family farm empty and the fields tractored flat. Casy (John Carradine), the preacher who baptised him and has since lost the calling, walks with him. Muley Graves (John Qualen), hiding in the dark house, tells them the bank has cleared every tenant off the land. Tom finds his family at Uncle John’s (Frank Darien), loading everything they own onto an old truck. Ma (Jane Darwell) is burning the keepsakes she cannot carry. Grandpa (Charley Grapewin) refuses to go. A handbill promises work picking fruit in California, so the Joads and their preacher set off west along Highway 66. ## Review John Steinbeck’s novel came out in 1939 and John Ford’s film was in British cinemas by 4 April 1940, which is fast for a book that size and that angry. Darryl F. Zanuck produced it and Nunnally Johnson wrote the screenplay, and between them they kept the road, most of the people and a good deal of Steinbeck’s dialogue. They took some of the fury out. What is left is one of the hardest-edged films a Hollywood studio made in those years, and we recommend it without much hesitation. The Joads are tenant farmers in Oklahoma who have been cleared off their land by the bank, and the first half hour is about how that happened. Ford tells it through Muley Graves (John Qualen), found hiding in the emptied Joad house, and Gregg Toland lights the scene from one candle held under the men’s faces so that the room is black around them. Muley describes the day the tractor came, and Ford cuts to him kneeling in the dirt while a caterpillar knocks his house off its blocks. Nobody in the scene is a villain. The man driving the tractor is a neighbour’s boy who needs the three dollars a day. Toland shoots the whole film this way, from a single source wherever he can: a lantern in a tent, a truck’s headlamps on a dirt road, a match. He went on to shoot [*Citizen Kane*](https://film.one/film/citizen-kane) the following year and you can see him working out how much black a frame will stand. The picture we have not been able to put down is a quiet one. Before the family leaves, Ma Joad (Jane Darwell) sits alone by the stove with a box of keepsakes she cannot take, a postcard, a china dog, a pair of earrings, and holds the earrings up to her ears in front of a small mirror. It moved us more than we were ready for, and it did so because Ford holds the shot, Alfred Newman keeps the music out, and Darwell does not cry. Henry Fonda plays Tom Joad as a man who learned in prison to keep his voice down and his hands still. He does almost nothing for long stretches, and then he moves, and the film moves with him. Darwell is the opposite, broad and unhurried, the person who decides when the truck leaves. John Carradine’s Casy, the preacher who has lost his calling and is talking himself towards a new one, is all elbows and long pauses, and his best scenes are the ones where he is listening. Charley Grapewin’s Grandpa, refusing to leave the land, gets the film’s one stretch of real comedy. Further down the cast, Dorris Bowdon’s Rosasharn and Eddie Quillan’s Connie are given less than they need. The road itself is handled by editor Robert L. Simpson as a run of dissolves, road signs and the truck against the sky, and it is efficient and a little dutiful. The film moves less easily than [*Stagecoach*](https://film.one/film/stagecoach), which Ford had made only the year before: scenes here tend to stop rather than end, as if the film were checking the book for what came next. Newman’s score is built almost entirely on one folk tune, *Red River Valley*, played on an accordion, and by the last reel it is doing feeling the images have already done. Gwen Wakeling’s costumes are right, though: Ma’s print dress washed to a grey, the men’s overalls worn through at the knee, nothing that looks as if it came from a wardrobe department. The larger complaint, and it is the one most critics make, is that Johnson and Zanuck softened the politics. The book is angry at a system. The film is sorry for a family. The second half spends longer than it should in the one place along the road where the Joads are treated decently, and the argument about who owns the land and who owns the people who work it gets made in speeches rather than in what we see. We will not quote the famous one Fonda gives near the end. It is well delivered and it is still a speech. None of that stopped us being got at, and we think it will not stop you. It is a PG, which is right; there is nothing here a child cannot see, only things a child will ask about. Watch it with the lights off. Toland lit it for the dark, and the faces need it. *Fi1m score 86, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Every one of the twelve reviews is positive, and the praise gathers in the same three places. Gregg Toland’s photography is mentioned by almost everyone, usually for the way it finds beauty in dust and lamplight without prettifying the poverty. Henry Fonda’s Tom Joad and Jane Darwell’s Ma Joad are singled out again and again, and John Ford’s direction is credited with keeping familiar material moving at pace. Empire goes as far as calling it his best film outside the Westerns, and the reviews written on release treat it as a classic on arrival. The reservations are small and consistent. Several critics, Radio Times and Slant among them, feel the film softens Steinbeck’s politics, swapping the novel’s anger for religious symbolism and pity. Roger Ebert makes a similar point and is the coolest of the twelve. The Guardian finds the rhythm jerky in places and some of the dialogue stiff. Nobody, though, argues against seeing it. ### Reviews we read (12) - **Radio Times**, Adrian Turner (5/5): This is a magnificent adaptation of Steinbeck's novel, with heart-rending scenes and lasting power in the migrants' fate, though it substitutes corny religious symbolism for the novel's raw politics. It is beautifully photographed by Gregg Toland, with standout performances including Jane Darwell as Ma Joad. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-rerla8/the-grapes-of-wrath/) - **Empire** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it John Ford's best non-Western and possibly his best film overall. Praise goes to Henry Fonda's performance as Tom Joad and Gregg Toland's cinematography capturing the American landscape, alongside Ford's sympathetic take on workers' rights. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/grapes-wrath-review/) - **The New Yorker**, John C. Mosher (90/100, inferred): The critic hails the film as an epic of starvation sustained with majesty that never falters, crediting John Ford’s swift pacing and fresh handling of familiar material. It singles out the script’s success, the landscape’s grandeur, and the ensemble performances for praise. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1940/02/03/1940-02-03-061-tny-cards-000002338) - **The New York Times** (90/100, inferred): The review deems the film a flawless screen edition of Steinbeck’s novel that follows the book closely yet intelligently, with uniformly excellent and suitable performances. It praises the direction, adaptation, and overall execution as adding the picture to the shelf of screen classics. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1940/01/25/archives/the-screen-in-review-twentieth-centuryfox-shows-a-flawless-film.html) - **Variety**, John C. Flinn Sr. (90/100, inferred): The review calls the picture an absorbing, tense melodrama that is starkly realistic and loaded with social and political fireworks, crediting Ford’s courage and skill. It praises the casting (especially Fonda, Darwell, and Carradine) and the convincing treatment of the American social problem. [Read](https://variety.com/1940/film/reviews/the-grapes-of-wrath-1200412937/) - **The Telegraph**, Simon Heffer (80/100, inferred): The piece examines how the 1940 John Ford film captured the essence of the Great Depression and shocked audiences with its portrayal of exploitation and hardship faced by the Joad family. It highlights the film's enduring relevance to themes of economic injustice and migration. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/grapes-wrath-shocked-cinemagoers-can-tell-us-today/) - **Time Out**, MH (80/100, inferred): Ford's adaptation captures the stark plainness of the migrants' journey and struggles during the Depression. The film is shot by Gregg Toland with magnificent, lyrical simplicity. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-grapes-of-wrath-2) - **Slant Magazine**, Chuck Bowen (75/100, inferred): The critic finds Ford's adaptation a major achievement despite some dated lapses and softening of the novel's politics, praising its vivid depiction of Depression-era poverty and masterful direction contrasting with Toland's lighting. He singles out the performances of Fonda and Darwell and powerful scenes for their emotional impact. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-grapes-of-wrath/) - **The Guardian** (75/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's authentic depiction of the Okies' suffering and the excellent casting and acting, particularly noting John Ford's recognition of visual opportunities in the dust-bowl and journey sequences. It criticizes the jerky rhythm and occasional stiffness of dialogue compared to Stagecoach, but overall recommends the film as essential viewing. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jul/17/steinbeck-grapes-of-wrath-made-into-a-film-archive-1940) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (70/100, inferred): Ebert calls the film a left-wing parable about a sharecropper’s son converted into a union organizer, told through sympathetic characters and images of beauty that evoke pity rather than anger. He singles out Henry Fonda’s Tom Joad, Jane Darwell’s Ma Joad, Gregg Toland’s low-light cinematography, and John Ford’s rigorous visual style for particular praise. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-grapes-of-wrath-1940) - **The Playlist**, The Playlist Staff (85/100, inferred): The piece hails the film as Ford’s Oscar-winning monumental work, an almost indecently beautiful yet realist picture that serves as the definitive cinematic take on America’s Great Depression, praising Henry Fonda’s nuanced performance and the breadth of its ambition despite some speechifying. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/the-essentials-the-10-greatest-john-ford-films-20150707/2/) - **Eye for Film**, Jennie Kermode (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film watchable and highly effective despite its age, praising its engaging portrayal of the Great Depression era and the human spirit, though noting it is more optimistic than the source novel. They single out Gregg Toland's cinematography and John Ford's direction for bringing the landscapes and family dynamics to life. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-grapes-of-wrath-1940-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) ## Details - **Director:** John Ford - **Director:** John Ford - **Screenplay:** Nunnally Johnson - **Novel:** John Steinbeck - **Cinematography:** Gregg Toland - **Editor:** Robert L. Simpson - **Music:** Alfred Newman - **Costume design:** Gwen Wakeling - **Producer:** Darryl F. Zanuck - **Cast:** Henry Fonda as Tom Joad; Jane Darwell as Ma Joad; John Carradine as Casy; Charley Grapewin as Grandpa Joad; Dorris Bowdon as Rosasharn; Russell Simpson as Pa Joad; Oothout Zabriskie Whitehead as Al Joad; John Qualen as Muley Graves - **Runtime:** 2h 09m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 15 March 1940 - **Genres:** Drama - **Budget:** $800,000 - **Box office:** $2 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8C_eK2ra3s ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AU, BE, CA, FI, FR, GB, IE, NZ, PT, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1941: Best Actor (nominated); Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Sound (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Director (won); Best Supporting Actress (won) ## If you liked this - *Bicycle Thieves* (1948), Fi1m 92: A father, a son and a stolen bicycle in post-war Rome; the same plainness, no speeches. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/bicycle-thieves.md) - *The Emigrants* (1971): Swedish farmers leave starving land for America; slow, muddy and hard to shake off. - *Sullivan's Travels* (1941), Fi1m 88: A Hollywood director tries to make a Depression film and learns something; funnier than it sounds. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sullivans-travels.md) - *Days of Heaven* (1978), Fi1m 85: Migrant harvest workers in Texas, shot at dusk; the Joads’ road with the anger drained out. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/days-of-heaven.md) - *Nomadland* (2020): A widow lives in her van across the American West; the handbill economy, eighty years on. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-grapes-of-wrath