Chloe Zhao’s 2020 film Nomadland is an incredibly raw motion picture that wavers between both fiction and documentary. It is a film that captures the reclusive lifestyle of the wandering American nomads as they move from job to job, never setting down roots in one place. Although these nomads may remain off the grid for most of their lives, the film has not gone unnoticed or underappreciated by critics. Zhao, as recently as April 10th 2021, has won the BAFTA for best director, making her the second woman and the first Asian woman to win the award. Nomandland’s leading lady, Frances McDormand also won for best actress. Earlier last month, Zhao also became the first Asian woman to win the Golden Globe for best director, also taking home the coveted Golden Globe for best motion picture. Zhao's Film adaptation of Nomadland is based on Jessica Bruder's 2017 nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.
Nomadland follows the story of a woman named Fern, who is a sixty something year old widow, portrayed by Frances McDormand, who has taken up permanent residence in a van following the death of her husband and of the town she once called home. Fern had lived in a Nevada town called Empire which had been virtually erased a year earlier. The town was operated by U.S. Gypsum, but due to a decreased demand for sheetrock during the Great Recession, the town laid off its workers, becoming nothing more than a discontinued zip code.
Zhao ultimately blends both reality through the made-up Fern’s encounters with the other nomads, aside from actor David Strathairn, who are playing fictional versions of themselves. This adds a particular depth and poignancy to the film, as Zhao takes her viewer on a cinematic journey through the American West. And although the nature scenes are nothing short of picturesque, the portrayal of nomadic life is anything but romanticized. Fern has no indoor plumbing, is often alone during holidays, battles the cold, thus representing the consistent struggles of a nomad. She is only in the company of those she meets on the road. However, Fern believes that ‘she isn’t homeless, she’s houseless,’ and that ‘it’s not the same thing.’ This lifestyle and notion of finding a “home” within various contexts is remincest of Steinbeck’s critically acclaimed Joad family of migrant farmers. Both the Joads and Fern travel to wherever they can find work, constantly impoverished and consistently on the move.
Nomadland has been proclaimed a modern day version of The Grapes of Wrath as both works expose the underbelly of the American dream. Both Fern and the Joads struggle to find low paying jobs as a result of American economic recessions. The Joads struggled through the Great Depression, heading West in hopes of finding steady work. Fern heads West with a similar goal of finding a job that can support her, as the movie opens depicting Fern as only a seasonal Amazon worker at a distribution center.
However, both the ending of Nomadland and Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath share some striking similarities. I would argue that both conclusions can be viewed as incomplete. Neither story is given a so-called “happy ending.” Both nomadic fictions reflect that of a wanderer’s life— concluding in uncertainty, perhaps generating more questions than answers. Both stories, although fiction, are rooted in reality and hardship. Each story deconstructs the myth of the American dream, indicating that going West does not always ensure prosperity. This harsh and uncertain reality is reflected through both Fern and fellow nomad Bob and through Ma and Tom Joad. Tom Joad has to depart from his family but explains that he’ll still be “all around in the dark'' (572) even after he’s gone and that he’ll come back “when it's all blowed over” (572). A prominent nomad in the film named Bob makes a statement reminiscent of Tom Joad, saying, “I don’t ever say a final goodbye. I just say, I’ll see you down the road and I do.” Thus, Zhao’s portrait of the modern American nomad not only reflects reality through those actors who play themselves, but evokes the ghostly nomads of the past, such as the Joads and the real migrant farmers they represented. Neither the ending of Steinbeck’s book nor Zhao’s film are outwardly optimistic, but each arguably resembles glimmers of hope. Each is a story of survival that ends seemingly houseless, whether it be a van or rising flood waters, but not necessarily homeless.
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