The Grapes of Wrath 1940

Critics score:
100 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: Ford's admirers have rightly tended to play this down in favor of his later and more personal westerns, but there's much to admire here in Gregg Toland's sun-beaten photography and Henry Fonda's meticulous performance. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The Grapes of Wrath was often named the greatest American film, until it was dethroned by the re-release of Citizen Kane. Read more

Whittaker Chambers, TIME Magazine: The Grapes of Wrath is possibly the best picture ever made from a so-so book. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: Captures the stark plainness of the migrants, stripped to a few possessions, left with innumerable relations and little hope. Read more

Otis Ferguson, The New Republic: Movies will probably go on improving and broadening themselves; but in any event, The Grapes of Wrath is the most mature picture story that has ever been made, in feeling, in purpose, and in the use of the medium. Read more

John C. Flinn Sr., Variety: It is an absorbing, tense melodrama, starkly realistic, and loaded with social and political fireworks. Read more