Film Analysis: The Grapes Of Wrath

A lot of classical movies in Hollywood connect the content of the films to the reality of the status quo. In the early 30’s, after two industrial revolutions, technology has improved rapidly. It leads to excess labor costs. Big companies had been established, but unemployed people became more and more. In Oklahoma, the bulldozers of big companies destroyed hundreds of families’ houses. The farmers who lived on the land for five more decades had to leave this land in order to survive. This movie is about the director’s desire to criticize the party who lead to the Great Depression and feel pity for the working class. In the movie The Grapes of Wrath, the representative figure are Tom’s family and friends, they left their home to California

The first segment is the beginning of the story and it narrates Tom’s family prepare to leave their land. The second segment narrates things happened on the way to California. The third segment narrates things happened in California. The fourth segment narrates life in government camp and tom’s leaving. The title of is movie is The Grapes of Wrath. In the Bible, ‘Grapes’ represent the people of Jesus. Jesus saw himself as a vine and the people who followed him were the foliage of the vine. So in this movie, ‘Grapes’ represent homeless people who have to leave their living land. There is one scene that grandfather wanna sit on the grapes and squeeze out the grape juice (John, 1940). This is an important symbol that the working class is seen as a basket of grapes and the capitalist pressure on their body, squeeze their labor force and the surplus value. This film is a black-and-white film with the dark theme. Its aspect ratio is 4:3. It uses low light to express the theme. At the very beginning, a man walked alone on the road. The photographer uses wide-angle lenses and deep focus shooting to make Tom’s face look like not good. It also shows the empty of the city with the pleasant land and the low sky (John, 1940). After Tom came in the old house, he hold a lit candle and reminisced about the past. The light made Tom’s face like ‘Grapes of Wrath’. The light on Tom’s face is from bottom to top and hard light on his

Joad family was forced to leave the land by an old dangerous trunk. All people up and ties look like no gas with some necessities of life. On the way, we can hear the ‘bang bang’ sound which made by these necessities of life. It expresses how dangerous the trunk is and indicates their future life will stumble. After the death of grandfather and grandmother, they have no jobs and kept driving on the road. In this scene, there is only their car driving on the road and everyone’s face look like tired