John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath

Michael J. Meyer (DePaul University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Domains

Cinema/ Film/ TV

Dates

First circulation or publication 1940

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

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While film critic Joseph Millichap (

Steinbeck and Film

) considers Lewis Milestone's screen version of

Of Mice and Men

(United Artists 1939) as the most faithful film version of a Steinbeck novel, he concedes that John Ford's adaptation of

The Grapes of Wrath

is both the most popular and most important of the cinematic translations of Steinbeck's work. Though viewers of Ford's

Grapes of Wrath

(1940) must acknowledge that the director condenses, changes and perhaps even distorts Steinbeck's novel, the film has certainly become the source of the most pervasive and powerful images of 1930's America.

Luckily for Steinbeck, Ford was steeped in the documentary tradition that had impacted many of the creative productions that came out of the Great Depression. Steinbeck himself had contributed to

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1812 words

Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "The Grapes of Wrath". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 January 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13155, accessed 25 November 2024.]

John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath

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