The 1940 film The Grapes of Wrath portrayed Dust Bowl migrants traveling along U.S. Route 66.
Directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, the film adapted John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel. Its Joad family travels west from Oklahoma toward California during the Great Depression, reflecting the migration of families displaced by drought, economic hardship, and agricultural collapse.
Route 66 became a major westward corridor during this period. Steinbeck’s novel called the highway “the Mother Road,” helping establish that phrase in popular culture. The film brought the story to a much larger audience and strengthened the road’s association with migration and hardship.
The movie is not a documentary about Route 66. It is a fictional drama based on historical conditions, and its road scenes combine narrative storytelling with the broader experience of Dust Bowl travelers.