Steinbeck's 80-year-old warning hits different after 2008.
In April 1939, "Grapes of Wrath" entered the pantheon of literature with a bang. Americans are at loggerheads over the odyssey of the Joad family, tenant farmers from Oklahoma who, like thousands of others, were driven from their land during the Great Depression. Eighty years have passed since the famous work was published, and 90 years since the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929. To mark this occasion, the documentary examines the genesis of the novel, its themes, its renewed reception during the financial crisis of 2008.
Writing
Steinbeck's prose weaponized by French academics.
Editing
Jarring cuts between 1930s footage and 2008 foreclosure lines.
Director
Priscilla Pizzato
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The title's French release—'Les Raisins de la colère'—kept the biblical wrath but lost the Julia Ward Howe hymn reference that American readers instinctively hear.
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