"Vic Smith" wrote in message

stuff snipped

This hubbub reminds me of how the Communists in 1939(?) banned the overtly
socialist film "The Grapes of Wrath" starring Henry Fonda (a must see for
history buffs). While it hewed more closely to Lenin than Lincoln, the film
depicted the "Okies" - the Joad Family - and their eviction by the bank from
their family farm and tragic trek westward. It showed all the evils of
Capitalism and the heroic struggle of the farmer. It showed the government
"saving" them in the end. So why was it banned? Because it showed the
Joads moving westward in a broken down, overloaded, ballooned tired jalopy.
The Russians rejected it because the test audience started muttering: "In
America, even poor have cars!"

The accumulation by purchase, charity, dumpster diving, etc. of a class of
equipment whose value depends so much on its unspecified manufacture date
isn't a poverty indicator. We don't know that, we don't know the veracity
of the self-reported data and we don't know what data they analyzed and by
what methodologies. This is pure, tasty propaganda with a side of baloney.
National expert? Uh-huh.

It bothers me too much not to have the film date correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath_(film)

says:

In a film review written for Time magazine by its editor Whittaker
Chambers, an outspoken opponent of communism, he separated his views of
Steinbeck's novel from Ford's film, which he liked. Chambers wrote, "But
people who go to pictures for the sake of seeing pictures will see a great
one. For The Grapes of Wrath is possibly the best picture ever made from a
so-so book . . . It is the saga of an authentic U.S. farming family who lose
their land. They wander, they suffer, but they endure. They are never quite
defeated, and their survival is itself a triumph."

The film premiered in New York City on January 24, 1940, and Los Angeles on
January 27, 1940. The wide release date in the United States was March 15,
1940.

One year off. Maybe it was the book that came out in 1939 or it was made in
1939.
I got it for 99 cents at the local CD/DVD exchange.

--
Bobby G.