I'm watching 'The Grapes of Wrath'

[fleur-de-lisa]

on TCM tonight as I goof around on DU. The movie's almost over. It's at the point where Tom has to leave his family out of fear of persecution from the 'law'. Again.

I'm afraid this is what our country is becoming. I'm trying not to cry . . .

[onethatcares]

1. me too.

great movie. it seems that the only thing that moves on is time.

Peace to you friend.

[fleur-de-lisa]

3. To you as well!

[liberal N proud]

2. That is exactly how far back they want to take the country

[fleur-de-lisa]

5. Yep. No safety net, no security . . .

Every man for himself in their Ayn Randian dystopia.

[Elwood P Dowd]

6. And when they get us to that point

they will then want to take us back to the days of slavery and debtor prisons.

[cos dem]

4. Coincidentally, listening to to Springsteen's "Ghost of Tom Joad"

Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me.

[Mendocino]

7. Grapes was filmed in

a month and a half with many on location shots. Amazing!

[braddy]

8. Be sure and watch the 1945 Renoir film, The Southerner, it is also of the era and the fields, and

sharecropping. It makes me think of my mother's family and her.

It is on youtube.

Awards
Wins
National Board of Review: NBR Award, Best Director, Jean Renoir, also Top Ten Film; 1945.
Best Film, Venice Film Festival, 1946
Nominations
Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Director, Jean Renoir; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Werner Janssen; Best Sound, Recording Jack Whitney (Sound Services Inc); 1946.

[Brother Buzz]

9. Tom Joad's money quote:

I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.

[oasis]

10. That was the highlight for me in a most excellent film. nt

[Staph]

11. From the Trivia section of IMDB:

Prior to filming, producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent undercover investigators out to the migrant camps to see if John Steinbeck had been exaggerating about the squalor and unfair treatment meted out there. He was horrified to discover that, if anything, Steinbeck had actually downplayed what went on in the camps.

This is our future, unless we persist. And resist.