Though he is perhaps best known for his slew of genre-defining Westerns, John Ford‘s timely adaptation of John Steinbeck‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning, iconic 1939 novel THE GRAPES OF WRATH did earn him a Best Director Oscar. The film runs closely to its source material, honestly and realistically telling a story against the socio-economic impacts of the Great Depression and the dustbowl drought upon a representative family in dire straits – the Joads. In one of his most beloved roles, Henry Fonda stars as the just-paroled Tom Joad, who is looking for a better life in California after the family’s drought-ridden farm is seized by the bank. Upon loading up a truck and heading West for greener pastures, the family is beset by hardships, and the Joads meet dozens of other families making the same trek – and holding onto the same dream. Once in California, however, the Joads soon realize that the promised land isn’t quite what they hoped. With Jane Darwell (who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as matriarch Ma Joad) and John Carradine.

“Gregg Toland captures the open spaces and big skies of rural America, while the normally conservative Ford puts forward a sympathetic but radical plea for workers’ rights and freedom for the people.” (Empire Magazine)

“It took courage, a pile of money and John Ford to film the story of the dust bowl and the tribulations of its unhappy survivors, who sought refuge in inhospitable California… An absorbing, tense melodrama, starkly realistic, and loaded with social and political fireworks.” (Variety)

Thursday, August 2
Doors 6:00 pm | Movie 6:20 pm
Advance tickets $10 HERE | $12 at the door

*Minors welcome. Must be 19+ w/ID for bar service and main floor seating.
**Rio Theatre Groupons and passes OK! Please redeem at the door.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH (John Ford, 1940 / 129 mins / PG) Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life… Hopefully.