He's barely Joe Isuzu.
I didn’t think the movie was bad at all. I think it depicted a time in America when things were bad, really bad, and people were at wits end as to what to do about it personally. Desperation. Like the guy driving the tractor that demolishes the family home early in the pic, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to survive when things are bad.
I know that hearing countless recounts of times during the depression from my grandparents and others growing up that what’s depicted in this movie did not seem exaggerated or overblown.
Say what you will about Steinbeck, but Ford wasn’t necessarily some bleeding heart looking to make America look bad with this film. His politics were checkered alright but he was a Goldwater and Nixon supporter as well as supportive of the Vietnam War in later years. I find it hard to call much if any of his work as anti-American.
Ouch. You know how to hurt a guy!