The Grapes of Wrath In John Ford's film The Grapes of Wrath, the audience travels along with an Oklahoma family that has set out to find wealth and privileges in California during the Great Depression. The film was taken from John Steinbeck's classic novel The Grapes of Wrath. The filmakers intentions in putting this novel to screen was to show how the impact of the Great Depression effected the families of that time. The film was taped in a journalistic, documentary-style black and white texture which helped create a strong feeling of poverty and realism to the audience. The filmakers did a good job at recreating scenery to make the plo