This paper analyzes John Ford's themes and styles in three of his most distinctive films, The Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, and Rio Grande. These three all focus on different aspects of one issue that reoccurs throughout his films, the issue of family. Family drives the Joads in Grapes of Wrath to seek survival in California, the Earps in My Darling Clementine to seek revenge, and the Yorkes (and the greater families they serve, the United States Army and the United States itself) in Rio Grande to seek reconciliation and reunion. All three use traditional American music, stark black and white images, and the deep-seated feelings of their characters, rather than extensive dialogue, to communicate the conflict between the losses of their pasts and the uncertain promises of their futures. Ford is the quintessential American moviemaker, and these three classic films clearly demonstrate why.
While Ford may be best known for his Westerns, stark films of lonely men set against the familiar outlines of Monument Valley, Grapes of Wrath is as representative of any of his works of what makes him great and what images and themes he found most interesting. Using John Steinbeck's novel as basic story material, Ford has created his own filmic statement of desolation, hope, and uncertainty in a uniquely American setting.
He begins with the image of the desolate country road, stretching to the horizon, and, except for the telephone poles lining the road, the might be an image from the landscapes of his many Westerns. The figure who appears walking down that road is every bit the lonely drifter of so much of his other films and, as played by Henry Fonda, is the same physical embodiment of the man set adrift and apart from society.
At the beginning of this film, however, that man is trying to return home, trying to reunite with the family he left behind when he went to prison for murder. Although he does find them, his search i...