National Velvet
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Movie Reviews of National Velvet
Movie Review: A Fantastic Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm ten and I got the movie " National Velvet" for a Christmas present. I am horse crazy- well you know I love horses. I watched the movie and I loved it! I thounght Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Brown)was a great character. The mother, Mrs.Brown was a good mother to Velvet. I thought Donald Brown, (Mrs.Brown's son)was very funny. I watched the movie twice already and I'm sure I'll watch it much more!!!!!Movie Review: THIS IS A GREAT MOVIE
Summary: 3 Stars
I HAVE LOVED THIS MOVIE EVER SINCE I WAS A LITTLE GIRL. I LOVE THE WAY IT PORTRAYS A YOUNG GIRLS LOVE AND PASSION FOR HORSES. SHE OBSESSED AND WANTS A HORSE OF HER VERY OWN. WHEN SHE IS FINALLY GIVEN A HORSE SHE DECIDES TO TRAIN HIM FOR THE GRAND NATIONAL THE GREATEST STEEPLECHASE IN THE WORLD. SHE IS DETERMINED TO TO HAVE HER HORSE (THE PIE) AND HERSELF WIN AND BE THE VERY BEST THEY CAN. HER MOTHER KNEW THAT SHE COULD BEAT ALL ODDS AND BECOME THE FIRST FEMALE JOCKEY TO EVEN RIDE IN ANY RACE. SO SHE SUPPORTES HER THROUGH THE TRAINING AND SPENDS ALL THE MONEY NEEDED TO HELP HER DAUGHTER SUCCEED. VELVET RIDES THE PIE TO WIN THE GRAND NATIONAL AND THEY ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD.Movie Review: A Classic Tale of a Girl, her Horse, a young Jockey and Mom
Summary: 5 Stars
Somehow I never got around to see this movie until I was 40 years old. I guess it was because I was never really an Elizabeth Taylor fan, although I have always enjoyed "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" But I was at the library and I had always heard good things about it and so I checked in out and took it home and watched it and feel in love with it.The plot line involving Mike (Mickey Rooney) starts off as somewhat melodramatic, the standard story (literarly in this case) of the guy who has to get back on the horse. The twist is that when he does our young heroine has decided she is the only one who can ride the Pie to victory. The twist is the Rooney achieves his victory without winning (anticipating "Rocky" in that regard when you stop and think about it).
The focus of the film is on Taylor and Rooney, but the heart and soul of the film is the relationship between Velvet and her mother. Anne Reeve won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the mother, and while her scenes with husband Donald Crip are small gems scattered throughout the film (they call each other "Mr. Brown" and "Mrs. Brown" and you can tell how much they love each other every time they do it), it is the scenes with her daughter that bring home the film.
Mrs. Brown uses the money from her swimming the channel to fund Velvet's dream of racing the pie in the Grand National. But for Velvet the payoff is not when she wins the race and becames a front page story, but when she arrives home and immediately runs to her mother and says, "We won, Mother. We won." Her mother already knows. All of England knows. But all that mattered was telling her mother. It is a neat scene and an ellegant payoff to the film, more so than her running off to fetch make Mike.
This 1944 film was directed by Clarence Brown and is based on the novel by Enid Bagnold. Final Warning: And if after you have watched and enjoyed this classic film with your children and you screen the sequel "International Velvet" which only leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you have only yourself to blame.
Movie Review: Free spirit meets civilised village life - a faultless film
Summary: 5 Stars
On a fine sunny day we see a boy walking, jauntily with a spring in his step, along a dirt lane whistling a happy tune. The lane is bordered by carefully planted shrubs which form a hedge on each side. In the distance we see an expanse of water. The titles come up in bright yellow followed by the message " ENGLAND IN THE LATE TWENTIES - A LONG TIME AGO IN A SPINNING WORLD". The boy comes to a sign and a fork in the road and ahead is visible a long stretch of beach, a blue sea with white surf breaking on white sand and the hints of settlement in the form of a village. He sits and rests, wiping his forehead. Cut to a school hall resembling a church building with ivy on its exterior, an oak at its side and children joyously spilling out of its door. Cut to interior with a class of girls standing in their places, in order of size behind their desks from front to back, in chorus singing a ditty about "Happy, happy holiday etc". Elizabeth Taylor (as "Velvet")stands out in the class, in the middle, with her jet black hair, violet eyes, red dress and white trim, and her braces; and then at the front of the group when the children rush to the front to hear the words of wisdom from the teacher showing great affection for this seminal authority figure. The light, the hope, that shines from Velvet's face is a marvel to witness. My love for this film rests much on the contrast between the theme of the free spirit versus the ordered life and the benefits that are evident in both but the difficulty indeed impossibility of having both at the same time. The horse "Pi" symbolises, like Mickey Rooney (as Mi Taylor), that free spirit, and Elizabeth Taylor(as Velvet Brown) tries to "civilise" or at least, train, both. With the horse, she succeeds through love. She succeeds up to a point with Mi. Much of the film's tension comes through the conflict between authority (of the father, the mother, the police,etc)and the likes of Mi and the horse which at one point runs wild destroying various items within the village including some carefully cultivated flowers in a private garden. I feel also that Mickey may have represented the free spirit of the American whose presence at this time in England at the time of this film's production (1944) was manifest and somewhat controversial especially regarding the attractiveness(economic and spiritual)of the American Servicemen to the English women. When Velvet wins the race posing as a boy jockey, it's her one victory and the implication is that her life will take its expected path - she rejects Hollywood offers following her astounding victory, for life in the village with her wonderful family. Pi is taken out of racing to be free to roam albeit within the confines of his enclosure by the sea. Mi returns to his travels where the world itself is his home - when Velvet first meets him she asks "Where should you be?" He replies "Anyplace my feet take me." When she tells him that she has two sisters and a brother and her father is a butcher, she asks him what he's got and he replies " The whole world. My Pa left it to me." There is tension between the Romantic and the Practical - in the beginning it seems Mi is filled with practical no nonsense information about horses, food, travel, money whilst Velvet is filled with romantic notions, hope and idealism. In the end, its Mi who continues to travel on his life's journey while Velvet decides to opt for the sensible comforts of her stable village life. Little does she know, but that her world, and ours, has changed for ever. It's the real beginning of the rise of the United States of America. There is a certain poignancy about the film, the knowledge that one kind of life is ending and another beginning. In terms of craft, acting, production values, direction, it seems to me to be faultless. It doesn't deserve to be shunted off as a "family film". It's superior by far to GONE WITH THE WIND for example. It deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as WIZARD OF OZ, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, etcMovie Review: Young Liz Shines
Summary: 4 Stars
It's not hard to see how Elizabeth Taylor became such a big star when you see her as Velvet Brown in National Velvet, her first important role. Besides already being very pretty, she is endearing as the young girl who dreams of her horse winning the Grand National Steeplechase, discovering that she herself may have to be the jockey. The rest of the cast are terrific, with special praise for the understated performance by Anne Revere as Velvet's wise and understanding mother. The sequences at the race are well filmed, the Technicolor beautiful, and the story hits all the right notes. Children, especially young girls who love horses, will enjoy the film a lot.