In The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Henry Fonda played Tom Joad, a man released from prison who returns to find his Oklahoma family driven from their farm by the Dust Bowl and the Depression. Directed by John Ford and adapted from John Steinbeck’s novel, the film follows the Joads west to California in search of work and dignity.
Fonda’s Tom is quiet, thoughtful and increasingly angry at injustice, and his famous speech about being present wherever people struggle has become one of the most quoted passages in American film. The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American cinema, and Fonda’s Tom Joad is its conscience — a character who embodies Steinbeck’s belief in ordinary people’s resilience.