I didn't understand the point of this script until I reached the climax. Sometimes that happens. You don't understand where something is going until it reaches its destination, and then it all clicks.
Armature: We are all the same. (aka the Golden Theme, and my favorite armature ever)
7 steps:
1. Once upon a time, the Joads lived in Oklahoma during the depression.
2. And every day people were getting kicked off the land because there was no money to sustain them all.
3. Until one day, Tom Joad gets home from 4 years of jail, along with the ex-preacher Casey, just as his family has to leave their home to seek work in California.
4. Because of this, the family drives to California to find work.
5. Because of this, Casey dies while trying to change the problem of nobody being able to make enough money to live.
6. Until finally, Tom leaves the family to seek change as Casey did.
7. And ever since that day the Joads have been strong, and taken life as it comes.
Okay, so maybe I suck at applying the 7 Steps to things. It's hard for me to nail down the two biggest "because of this" moments. It's also hard to simplify everything down to just a sentence or two. I haven't figured out yet how to summarize a long plot efficiently, and show the armature in there at the same time. So... sorry for sucking.
This script is really interesting to read after the Mamet one I read yesterday, because it's a completely opposite style. The Verdict was very much cinematography-driven. There were explicit descriptions of shots in the script. This one is about 40 years older, and is mostly made of dialogue. Just like Steinbeck's writing, I guess. There are some descriptions of locations, but not even setting headers. The story still gets across so well, though. The meat of it all comes from the things people say, because that's the important thing here.
This movie is trying to tell us that we are all the same. I'm sure of it. I almost can't even explain it because it seems to apparent to me. The reader (or viewer, whatever) sympathizes so strongly with these human, working-class people and understands their situation so well. At first it just seems to be a historical movie about the trials and tribulations of a family from the dustbowl, but then the ending happens.
I can't summarize it well enough to do it justice. I'm just gonna copy it here.
MA (after a pause) How'm I gonna know 'bout you? They might kill you an' I wouldn't know. They might hurt you. How'm I gonna know? TOM (laughing uneasily) Well, maybe it's like Casy says, a fella ain't got a soul of his own, but on'y a piece of a big soul--the one big soul that belongs to ever'body--an' then... MA Then what, Tom? TOM Then it don't matter. Then I'll be all aroun' in the dark. I'll be ever'where--wherever you look. Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad--an' I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our people eat the stuff they raise, an' live in the houses they build, why, I'll be there too.
And that's how I know. This story isn't about a family trying to make their way anymore. This story is about people. Being part of a greater whole. All being in it together. All being the same. When I got to this part, it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I teared up.
Even just the fact that it did that to me is proving its own armature. This was written in 1940, and when I read it in 2013 I feel sympathy and understanding. People have not changed in 80 years. Isn't that incredible?
I enjoyed this book when I had to read it in high school, and I enjoyed this screenplay just as much. Everyone should read this.
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