The Grapes of Wrath

Neil David Pacdaan Cinematography The movie “The Grapes of Wrath”, directed by
John Ford and written by John
Steinbeck is relevant to our present world problems. The story can relate to many aspects of today’s current world issues some of which includes problems I could relate.
For example, an issue I can relate the movie and today’s society would be the abuse of
African American descent by police officers in the United States. This is displayed in the movie when the immigrants were being attack by the police. The many different governments people live in today are corrupted, due to the fact that they are taking peoples’ homes and therefore leaving people homeless. I believe that even though our world is advancing one way or another through the help of technology, it does not change the fact that our country of Canada has a large portion of our population living either in poverty or being homeless. Currently, the number of families with an average income are decreasing due to the rise of population of higher incomes families, therefore there is a large gap between rich and poor in the country. All of those people are struggling trying to find ways to make money,similarly to those in the movie.The cinematography that Toland gives to the film is that with all the tough camera angles and distances of each shot he was able to give the film a mix of a story and informative kind of look as if it were to be a documentary. All of those aspects from Steinbeck’s book is not too different from our problems that we have now 75 years later. Along with that, the lighting of each shot created some sort of dramatic effect added to their sad

struggle as though there was a deeper meaning to the scene. For instance, something was missing or there was another reason behind their struggles. Toland’s use of black and white was made by choice due to the fact that back then, cinema never had color other than the shades of black and white. Although the film was shot in black and white,
Toland being the talented cinematographer he was, still managed to use that to his advantage. For instance, black and white can help keep the viewer focused as opposed to a film with really bright colors. A colored film would bring the viewer’s attention toward many objects instead of the main subject of that frame or scene. Along with that, the film being shot in black and white caused depth of tone thus making the film feel really realistic and detailed. In the movie, there are many medium­shot and close up angles displaying the appearances of the characters. With the help of the lighting, it also enhanced that features of the character and scenes. Throughout the movie, they travelled to multiple locations,