How Green Was My Valley
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Movie Reviews of How Green Was My Valley
Movie Review: How Green Was My Valley
Summary: 5 Stars
Have always loved this movie and am so glad to now have it in my DVD collection. It is a movie you can watch over and over.Movie Review: Great Film
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a great film from long ago. The quality was outstanding, probably better than the original!!Movie Review: How Green was my Valley
Summary: 5 Stars
Best picture Oscar Winner for that year, family oriented, very much enjoy waching this movie.Movie Review: How Green Was My Valley
Summary: 5 Stars
A movie I watched when I was young and really enjoyed. A great movieMovie Review: A John Ford Classic
Summary: 4 Stars
I admit to having put off watching this film for some time, and only did so finally as "homework". Given that background, I was pleasantly surprised by How Green Was My Valley. On the plus side, I was totally blown away by the realistic look of the 19th century Welsh mining town (recreated right in the hills of Malibu!). To my utter surprise, the sets looked absolutely convincing throughout. Roddy McDowell, so uncharismatic as an adult, is fairly benign here as a youth, and his screen time is mercifully inconsistent. Donald Crisp (born in 1880) gives the standout performance as the Morgan family patriarch. While some might find this dated, my favorite part was when he called the organization of a union "socialism" and ended the entire conversation. Ford loved to evoke such old-fashioned Victorian morality, which although severely out of favor since around 1914, was the dominant worldview during the 19th century, the setting of so many of his films. This authenticity, despite however "dated" it may feel to us today, is one of the things which imparts such relevance to his films.
On the less than positive side, however, I must admit that Maureen O'Hara's acting was frequently terrible. She sounded like an undereducated American girl only half-trying to work a British accent. And Walter Pidgeon (aren't appellations like that what prompted the whole idea of stage-names in the first place?), despite an otherwise good performance, didn't even try to sound English, let alone Welsh. For heaven's sake, he didn't even sound Canadian! As for the story, while it had some wonderful moments, it could also be dull and unengaging. And Ford's characteristic preachiness occasionally showed up, as sure and as welcome as a drunken and disorderly uncle over the holidays. Finally, to me the ending felt a little contrived.
My recommendation: By all means see this film for yourself. Ford's marvelous tableaux images of the mine over the village alone merit at least one viewing. But I do feel it's primarily for diehard fans of 1940s cinema, readers of the novel, or the John Ford faithful. How Green Was My Valley is not a bad movie at all, it's just not a truly great one.