8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
In the troubling times of the Great Depression the Joad family, accompanied by their friend Reverend Jim, migrate from Oklahoma to California in the hopes of finding work in a vineyard and improving their financial condition. But the road is long and rough, and when they reach their destination things aren't quite what they expected.
Starring: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin, Dorris BowdonDrama | 100% |
Period | 18% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
German: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital=Latin American / DTS-HD MA=Castilian
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
For some, it's the Great American Novel, a multi-layered epic of family, social injustice, and westward expansion. For others—
the less literary minded, let's say—it has a reputation as that long-ass book I had to read in high school. But The
Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck's elegiac 1939 novel, has always been divisive. Upon its release, the book—
about evicted Okie sharecroppers struggling to make a new life in California—was banned and burned and derided as "red"
propaganda. In those days, as today, it was considered suspect to overtly sympathize with the plight of the poor. However, it
was also an immediate best-seller, widely read and discussed from coast to coast.
A film adaptation was inevitable, and it came quickly. 20th Century Fox producer Daryl F. Zanuck bought the rights, Nunnally
Johnson dashed out a script, and only a few months after the novel was published, the screen adaptation was placed in the
hands of director John Ford, who was recently responsible for the reinvigoration of the western with his 1939 film,
Stagecoach. Though some have called it strange that a noted right-wing filmmaker would take on such a left-leaning
story, Ford was not yet the Nixon-voting, Vietnam War-supporting Republican he'd eventually become. Politics aside, The
Grapes of Wrath fits perfectly in Ford's body of work; it's something of a contemporary western, following a tight-knit
clan making their way through unfamiliar and hostile territory, hounded not by bandits or warring natives but by wealthy
landowners, crooked cops, and unwelcoming locals.
Tom Joad
The Grapes of Wrath's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is simply one of the best black and white Blu-ray presentations I've seen so far this year. For starters, the 72-year-old print is in nearly immaculate condition. No scratches. No tears. No brightness flickering. Even tiny white specks are few and far between. Whether this is the result of careful restoration or a preternaturally clean negative, I'm not sure, but either way the film looks wonderful. The natural qualities of the 35mm picture have been preserved too, with a tight, untouched grain structure and no evidence of DNR or edge enhancement. No compression issues either. Clarity is substantially improved from prior releases, and you get a far better sense that you're seeing the film as it was meant to be seen. Facial features, clothing textures, the details of the Joad's heavily loaded truck— everything is more finely resolved. The tonality of Gregg Toland's masterful black and white cinematography is reproduced perfectly as well. The film has several scenes where a single light source illuminates an otherwise intense darkness, and the chiaroscuro contrast here is spot on, with deep but never detail-crushing blacks and highlights that are bright without peaking. Feel confident trading in that old DVD; The Grapes of Wrath has never looked better.
The film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio mono track might not be as immediately impressive as the picture, but for a film from the early 1940s, the sound quality is fantastic. You expect a certain degree of tinniness from older films, but that just isn't present here. The mix has a full, grounded sound, with no brittleness in the high end. Neither are there any distracting splice pops, crackles, or dropouts; everything—from the effects to the characters' conversations—is cleanly recorded and nicely balanced. Between Eddie Quillan singing "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad," the strategic use of Ella Fitzgerald's "A Tisket, A Tasket," and Alfred Newman's tender orchestral score—which reworks the old folk tune "Red River Valley" as its central motif— music is extremely important to the film's mood, and it all sounds great here. Dialogue is always easily understood, but for that might need or want them, the disc includes several subtitle options, which appear in bright white lettering, and a number of dubs.
The Blu-ray ports over all the extras from the 2004 DVD, and also includes—via seamless branching—a U.K. version of the film that's identical except for an introductory prologue that sets the scene for Brits unfamiliar with the Dust Bowl.
One of the best American films of the 1940s, John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath is many things—an almost biblical American myth of westward expansion, an epic road journey about family and survival, and a plea for compassion and social justice. It's also strikingly relevant to our own times, making it eminently worth revisiting now. This new Blu-ray edition is basically a straight port of the 2004 DVD—with all of the special features intact—but the drastic increase in picture quality and the addition of lossless audio make for an all-around upgrade-worthy release. This is a film that belongs in every classic movie lover's collection. Highly recommended!
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