Ford’s riveting adaptation of Steinbeck’s classic novel of “Okie” farmers made destitute by the Depression and the Dust Bowl is considered one of the very few politically radical works of studio-era Hollywood. Although Ford envisioned the film as a character study - a portrait of a struggling family - rather than an open attack on capitalism, his adaptation faithfully retains the book’s hard-eyed look at the exploitation of the rural poor. Like so much of his thirties work, The Grapes of Wrath reveals Ford’s then-ardent Leftist populism. The suffering of the Joad family as it marches slowly toward California is given iconic status by Ford’s monumental compositions, by the remarkable performances from a talented cast and by pioneering cinematographer Gregg Toland’s successful fusion of Ford’s expressionist aesthetic and photojournalist realism.