Who Do We Shoot?
By Greg King, with comments by Lauren Hochman and Kiera Berkemeyer
[1] This scene of The Grapes of Wrath takes us to the deserted Joad cabin, as Tom and Casy approach, trying to find Tom’s family. This is a pivotal scene, changing the direction of the film in a few minutes from one of a potentially happy homecoming and time spent with friends to one of hardship, loss, and eviction. It is for the first time in this scene that we find out what has happened to the Joad family, along with the other families of their area. We first realize that hardship beyond even the meager existence of the Oklahoma farming folks has fallen on these people. This scene sets the stage for the remainder of the film, beginning the continual migration and movement from the one place to which Tom Joad thought he could come home.
[2] There are two settings in this scene -- the first is the exterior of the Joad cabin, composed of two long shots of the cabin and the grounds with a stationary camera, broken by a relatively brief medium shot of Tom and Casy contemplating it. The other setting is the interior of the cabin, which is dismal and very dark and appears to be nearly completely vacant. Again, for the first time, these settings bring us into a world of seeming hopelessness and emptiness. The exterior shots are marked by blowing dust and a broken-down appearance in the cabin, fence, and mailbox. The only sound heard in the exterior shots is the blowing wind. Inside the cabin, Tom and Casy attempt to abate the darkness by lighting a candle, but the candle is barely sufficient to light Tom’s face. It seems as if nothing can beat back the darkness. (see comment by Kiera Berkemeyer)
[3] The scene descends from a series of rather long, stationary shots to a series of close-ups mingled with flashbacks. The first six shots are all over six seconds long -- the fourth, fifth, and sixth being forty, thirty, and twenty seconds long respectively. These are very long shots in which the camera does not move at all. These add to the desolation and anticipation of the scene. When we finally get the first close-up of Tom in the film, it is just before the two-minute mark in the scene (11:44), when Tom asks Casy, “Reckon they’re dead?†The gaunt-looking Casy replies, in his own close-up, “I never heard nothin’ about it.†Having followed the long, stationary shots, this close-up is surprising, especially since the camera actually moves, sliding into the close-up. This shot gives a sense of finality to the scene -- Tom's family may very well be dead, it tells us. The remainder of the scene is done in close-ups and medium shots, interspersed with flashbacks, as Tom and Casy find out from Muley what’s going on. This sequence of shots opens the scene with a sense of dread and foreboding leading into intensity as we find out along with the characters what the movie is going to be about.
[4] The dialogue in the scene is brief until the pair finds Muley. Muley blames the situation on the “dusters,†the dust storms blowing hard just outside the deserted cabin. He relates the series of events that led to his being there in a number of flashbacks. We feel Muley and his family’s frustration as they learn that there is no one to blame, no one they can hold responsible for what is happening to them. One of the most poignant moments of the film comes as Muley finally asks the man telling them to get off, “Then who do we shoot?†We feel for Muley as he breaks down, grasping at the dirt, saying, “That’s what makes it our’n -- bein’ born on it, and workin’ on it, and dyin’ . . . dyin’ on it!â€
[5] This is the moment of the film in which we clearly see the dichotomy between the tenants who feel ownership of the land and the true owners of the land, who see them as nothing more than tools . . . or obstacles. This is reinforced moments later as we see “Cat†tractors running rampant over the farms, and a man whom Muley knows, “Joe Davis’ boy,†comes in a tractor to knock his house down. Muley wants to shoot the man, but the man tells him, “You ain’t goin’ to blow nobody nowhere. First place, they’d hang you and you know it. For another, wouldn’t be two days before they’d send another guy up here to take my place.†Muley acknowledges this, and says that he’s been wandering ever since. (see comment by Lauren Hochman)
[6] This is a monumental scene in the film. Before it, the film could have been about nearly any aspect of Oklahoma farm life. After it, the film moves inexorably toward California and oppression. This scene demonstrates the weather that supposedly caused the situation, the corporations who actually caused it, and the desperation of the people forced to deal with it. Who do we shoot?
Comments
King mentions the dichotomy apparent in the scene between the tenants and the actual landowners. However, the Graves recognize a different contrast between themselves and the “Okies†who have already lost their homes. In this scene, the Graves family remains eager to keep their land and remain separate, different from “the restâ€; however, this scene accomplishes the opposite by uniting the family with the other victims of the cat tractors. As Joe Davis’s boy demolishes the house in one swift motion and then continues on without a backward glance, the family freezes in awe. Each member of the scene falls victim to the elements and a feeling of helplessness. The once separation between the Graves family and those without work has just been literally demolished. The dichotomy between the tenants and the true landowners grows larger, as King states, as the contrast between the Graves and other tenant farmers grows smaller. The shot of Muley and his family, staring at the wreckage, jaws open, finalizes the family’s matriculation into the Okie way of life. The next shot with the shadows of the family members cast against the dirt furthers this classification, stamping their anonymous images against the dust, the very thing responsible for their newfound identity.
I agree with Greg’s belief that the candle that lit Tom’s face was “barely sufficient.†However, I think this particular choice of lighting has more implications than just to “fight off the darkness.†When I observed Tom in this scene, I thought that he was substantially more illuminated than Muley, and as a result (although he wasn’t the speaker) Tom was the main focus. With his pale ghost-like expressions, it seemed to me that the lighting conveyed a message that although in his own home, Tom was like a ghost, displaced and unsatisfied. This observation is confirmed when Muley calls himself "just 'an 'ol graveyard ghos'." Critic Sobchack notes that the faces become "not quite real in the semi-darkness." In this respect the darkness adds to the mystery of the scene. At the exact moment that the plot of the film is unfolding in the bright, revealing light of Muley's flashbacks, the characters remain slightly hidden. We become aware of their places in the story, as lead characters, ghosts, or humble farmers, but the "web of shadows" seems to suggest that there is much more about their dispositions (especially Tom's) that will be revealed at a later time.
