The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - Ford's Steinbeck adaptation is a cinematic crown jewel

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Henry Fonda centered in the Joad family on this grand poster for John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath

Tom Joad gets released from prison and finds his Oklahoma family home dramatically altered: Dust storms and the 1930s Depression has, along with the invention of the motorized tractor, made necessary the uprooting of the Joad family. - To a hopefully lighter future in California?

The Grapes of Wrath is written and produced by Nunnally Johnson (Baby Face Harrington (1935)), based on the same-titled 1939 novel by John Steinbeck (Sweet Thursday (1954)), and directed by Mainer master filmmaker John Ford (Cameo Kirby (1923)), whose 47th feature it was.

It is a thoroughly well-made, razor sharp adaptation, which hasn't softened the political (Socialist) sting of Steinbeck's novel: Company owners are brutal and solely oriented towards profits, while qualities such as morality, kindness and community are found in governmental programs and among workers.

Although one possibly isn't oriented towards the left, the film is still formidable. Every one in the cast give luminous performances, seemingly aware that they are acting in something very special. Henry Fonda (Battle of the Bulge (1965)), Jane Darwell (A Yank in London (1945)) as Ma Joad and Charley Grapewin (Eight Bells (1935)) as Grandpa Joad as well as the children are eminent. The scene at the gas station may well be among the most touching in the history of cinema.

The Grapes of Wrath is an extremely engrossing film, very wise on the nature of man.

 

Related post:

 

John Ford: Fort Apache (1948) - Wayne and Fonda clash in Ford's solid western of a massacre of Indians

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 800k $

Box office: 1.5 mil. $ (North-American rentals alone)

= Uncertain, but most likely at least a box office success

[The Grapes of Wrath premiered 24 January (New York) and runs 129 minutes. Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was the bestselling in America in 1939. Shooting took place in New Mexico, Arizona, California, including Los Angeles, and in Oklahoma from October - November 1939. Executive producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent an investigative team to Oklahoma to inspect whether the general Depression conditions were or had been as bad as the novel said and in order to be able to counter any attacks that the film was 'pro-Communist'. The investigation showed that they indeed were terrible. The only gross number available is regrettably a 1.5 mil. $ North-American gross. Still the film was most likely a box office success, in spite of the onslaught of WWII. It was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning 2: For Best Supporting Actress (Darwell) and Director. It lost Best Actor (Fonda) to James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story, Editing to North West Mounted Police, Best Picture to Rebecca, Sound to Strike Up the Band and Screenplay to David Ogden Stewart for The Philadelphia Story. It also won 3 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Ford returned with The Long Voyage Home (1940). Fonda returned in Lillian Russell (1940). The Grapes of Wrath is certified fresh at 100 % with a 9.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Grapes of Wrath?

Carnivàle - 1st season (2003, TV-series) - Grand but oft clotted-up period mystery show

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Beautifully designed poster for Daniel Knauf's Carnivàle

QUICK REVIEW:

This huge and impressive 1930s period production begins outstandingly in Milfay (1), in which the main characters are introduced:

Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)), who SPOILER buries his mother and father and leaves a dessert storm to join the carnival; its leader Samson (Michael J. Anderson (Twin Peaks (1990-91)), and the mysterious Brother Justin (Clancy Brown (Homefront (2013)), who can get coins to flow from a woman's mouth.
Later other characters are presented, like the confounding 'executive' leader 'Management', the bearded lady and Professor Lodz, Rita Sue, the girl (Clea DuVall (Girl, Interrupted (1999)) and the mother who communicate telepathically etc. etc.

The structure of the series leaves something to be wished for: It appears that a final goal has been set up, (it indeed had by series creator Daniel Knauf (Dracula (2013-14), who had mapped out 6 (!) seasons for the show) and that each episode is to serve the overall story. The problem is that each episode becomes thinner and thinner, plot- and theme-wise, although there's no shortage of blood and sex, (in-line with HBO's general crops.) Carnivàle at some point reaches a place where it feels totally without direction, simply wallowing in its own mysticism.
Brown is good as the Methodist preacher, who goes through so much: SPOILER His church (with 6 kids in it) gets burned down by his sister; his escape, suicide attempt; his visions of his own derelict childhood as a Russian refugee, his getting placed in a mental hospital and, finally, his exposure as a demon!
The Hawkins drifter character, on the other hand, stands for good. At the end, SPOILER he saves the dead snake-woman by killing the unpopular Lodz.
The Carnivàle-production is handsome and highly unusual. The product in itself is problematic.
It got a second season, before its benefactor-financier HBO canceled it due to high production costs and dwindling ratings, to the outcries of many thousands of fans. 
The first season's 12 episodes (averaging 54 minutes each) are directed by 8 talented directors behind shows like The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Hannibal, LOST and True Blood. Columbian Rodrigo Garcia (Six Feet Under (2001-05), the most used of them, directed 4 episodes of the first season.
Knauf has been active in several TV-series since Carnivàle, both as writer and producer.

Best episode:

1. Milfay
Story, universe and character introductions

 

 

Watch the season 1 trailer here

Cost: Reportedly 4 mil. $ per episode, totaling a whopping 36 mil. $
Box office: None
= Unknown

What do you think of Carnivàle?
Stories about the production or your experience of the show are welcomed

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - Penn and Beatty's true-crime classic marks a turn in American film

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The wild, lawless allure of the subjects attract on this poster for Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are young and aimless in Texas in the doldrums of 1931's Depression-era US, but they find each other and discover a new kind of freedom, - based on robbing banks.

 
Bonnie and Clyde is written by Robert Benton (What's Up Doc? (1972)) and David Newman (Still of the Night (1982)), with uncredited contributions by Robert Towne (Tequila Sunrise (1988)), and directed by Arthur Penn (The Left Handed Gun (1958)). It is a heist/road movie/drama-romance based on the historical figures.

The film is a very entertaining, albeit perhaps a bit overrated, American classic, first and foremost because it is also very funny, which it seems to be with a charming ease. One example from the film could be Clyde's brother Buck's cow joke. Often the film blends comedy and crass violence for the audience to digest with some ambiguity. 

Gene Hackman (The French Connection (1971)) is Buck, and Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)) debuts in a supporting role. Warren Beatty (Reds (1981)) produced and co-stars; he is great as Clyde. Faye Dunaway (Chinatown (1974)) is beautiful and lost as Bonnie.
Beatty and Dunaway's scenes together are wonderful. The language and the images of Bonnie and Clyde contribute to its distinguished magic. It is a good, oft cited and distinctive film.
But in the outlaw couple sub-genre, I find that both Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973) and David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), both, however, inevitably influenced by Bonnie and Clyde, are greater films.
Bonnie and Clyde was very trendsetting, and served as an indicator for the arrival of the New Hollywood era with young, strong-minded directors like Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, William Friedkin and Martin Scorsese, who revitalized American cinema. It also marked a change in the depiction of violence; a change for the more boldly realistic, explicit and transgressive.
Bonnie and Clyde is heavily influenced by the French New Wave, and the direction of the film was, in fact, offered to both François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, the two most famous directors of the French New Wave, before it ended up with Penn. SPOILER To those who have seen Bonnie and Clyde and wondered at Clyde's sexual problem in the film, it was originally the idea for the character to be portrayed as bisexual, but for reasons of censorship and possibly Beatty being against the idea, Clyde, in the film, is instead meant to be impotent.

 

Related post:

 

Arthur Penn: Top 10: Best heist movies

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.5 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 70 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 28 times its cost)

[Bonnie and Clyde premiered 4 August (Montréal Film Festival) and runs 111 minutes. Truffaut passed on directing the film in favor of his Fahrenheit 451 (1966); Godard wanted to shoot in New Jersey (not Texas) and was not hired as a consequence; Penn was reportedly asked several times to direct by Beatty before accepting. Beatty's deal with Warner Bros. secured himself 40 % of the film's profits (if it would make any); and 10 % for Penn; eventually netting the two more than 6 mil. $ (Beatty) and more than 2 mil. $ (Penn). Dunaway was paid 60k $ for her performance in the film; Estelle Parsons (Diane (2018)) 5k $. Shooting took place from October 1966 - January 1967 in Texas, including in Dallas, and in California. Warner Bros. were unsupportive of the film, which ran over budget, and tried to give it a small release without marketing it, but its impressive reception (and Beatty's threat to sue) made them change their tune, and the film became their 2nd highest-grossing film up to that point, only beaten by My Fair Lady (1964). It was in the North-American top 12 for 22 weeks, becoming one of the 5 highest-grossing films overall in 1967.The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 2: For Best Supporting Actress (Parsons) and Cinematography (Burnett Guffey (The Split (1968)). It lost Best Actor (Beatty) to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night; Supporting Actor (Hackman; Michael J. Pollard (Forever Lulu (2000))) to George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke; Actress (Dunaway) to Katharine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; Costume Design to Camelot; Director to Mike Nichols for The Graduate; Picture to In the Heat of the Night; and Original Screenplay to William Rose for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. It also won 1/4 BAFTA award nominations, 2 David di Donatello awards and was nominated for 7 Golden Globes and a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Penn returned with Flesh and Blood (1968, TV movie) and theatrically with Alice's Restaurant (1969). Beatty returned in The Only Game in Town (1970); Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Bonnie and Clyde is certified fresh at 91 % with an 8.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Bonnie and Clyde?