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Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $17.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE STORY OF THE LIFE OF AN ENGLISH BOARDING SCHOOL MASTER.
Review: THIS IS A GOOD OLD MOVIE. IT IS ONE YOU CAN WATCH MANY TIMES. IT HAS GOOD ACTING BY DONAT AND GARSON. IT IS THE LIFE OF MR. CHIPS, A MASTER IN AN UPPER CLASS ENGLISH BOARDING SCHOOL. THIS MOVIE IS A TINY BIT CORNY BUT EASY TO FOLLOW. NO HEAVY LIFTING. IT IS A LITTLE BIT OF A TEAR JERKER, BUT NOT TOO BAD. IF YOU ENJOY STORIES ABOUT BRITISH LIKE "UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS" YOU'LL ENJOY THIS ONE. THIS MOVIE HAS HELD UP WITH TIME. YOUR KIDS WILL ENJOY IT TOO.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: In my top five of all time
Review: This is a heart warming story about goodness and ( as people have already remarked here ), about how one man can make a difference. Donat is excellent, but Garson is enchanting. It may now seem to hark back to some halcyon byegone age, but I don't think so. It has universal themes. To quote Shakespeare, 'it will endure wind and weather'. Touching, poingnant, sad and yet joyful too. Wonderful. Wonderful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Chips is a keeper
Review: This is a wonderful film. Makes my top 100 films to purchase on DVD list. Why on earth it has not made it to DVD yet, dumbfounds me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Schmaltzy, but who minds?
Review: This is a wonderfully sentimental depiction of public school life in the Victorian and Edwardian eras and beyond. Chipping, like so many other schoolmasters of the time, lives a cloistered life on which the outer world only occasionally impinges -- mostly during wartime.

In the film, he ventures out on only one other memorable occasion -- a holiday with the school German teacher to the Tyrol where he meets the handsome Greer Garson (in her first movie appearance), who somewhat improbably falls for him. This sets off a chain of sentimental events: marriage, introductions to the common room, tea with the boys, her death through childbirth, and a never-ending cycle of Colleys (played by the same actor, but with a slightly different haircut for each generation). The school hymn is also designed to pluck the heart stings.

The movie was actually filmed at Repton. I went to a similarly confined, all-boys, English public school, set in a country town miles from anywhere else, though somewhat more recently than the Chips era. Many of the masters never married because it was so difficult for them to meet any women. We still had corporal punishment -- which Chips continues to inflict even when brought out of retirement to become head during World War One. This film does not reflect the grubby reality of public school life -- the author must have had his rose-tinted spectacles on when he wrote this -- but it's hard not to be moved by it.

I have special memories of first seeing this at the age of 12 in our headmaster's study, together with all the other senior boys at the prep school. Today, its meaning for me is more about staying in the same place for a long time, while all about you moves on. (I've recently completed 25 years with the same employer!) I also enjoyed trying to work out how many of the Tyrol scenes were shot in the studio. (At one stage, Chips and his friend even walk against a film background.)

The DVD has no special extras, but the picture and sound quality is reasonable. I haven't tried the film on my teenage children, but I think this is one of the few black and white movies that they would be absorbed by. (Don't be misled by the colour photo on the DVD box cover into believing the movie is in colour!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is a "curl up, veg and feel good about life" video
Review: This is the "Mr. Holland's Opus" of the 1930's. No blood, no guts, no glory, but a simple tale of how one person can make a difference in so many people's lives. It's also one of Roddy McDowell's first screen appearances (He is the little boy who sits down to have tea with Chips). The movie is inspirational without being preachy - One person can and does make a difference.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Robert Donat is believable
Review: This is the story of the 60 plus year life of a school teacher, Mr. Chipping (Robert Donat), from neophyte teacher to hopefully Head Master. On his way he will make several mistakes and learn from them. The movie has the feel of several stories running in series that all tie in to Chipping's life. He is also destined to meet the love of his life Katherine (Greer Garson) and see that the Danube is blue.

I do not want to go into a detail as that is the fun in watching eh stories unfold however I think it is significant when Chipping and Katherine are alone on the top of the world and time stops finding them selves in eternity. He also gets an insight or different slant of his carrier.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Robert Donat is absolutely brilliant
Review: this movie is a masterpiece. Don't ask me to sum it up, or to put words for it; it just wouldn't do any justice to it: just go for it and see it. Robert Donat is wonderful as usual.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Warm and endearing film
Review: This was a movie that makes you long for a time long since past. Wonderfully sweet story with an absolutely precious main character and equally endearing supporting cast. Loved the film!! Curl up with some hot tea and be transported to a wonderful, more innocent time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Masterpiece in every sense of the word
Review: To be honest, I do not know the players in this piece.
All I can be sure of, is that over the years, I have watched every time that this 1939 classic has aired, and I can get to a TV to watch it. It has never failed to move me, and has brilliance written on it from start to finish.
I am glad that it is now on DVD, and this is one I will definitely buy as soon as I can.
I cannot recommend this film highly enough. Be careful that you do not get fooled by the 2003 remake. The one and only CLASSIC, in all senses, is this 1939 Masterpiece. The 2003 version may very well be good, but it has yet to earn the title "Masterpiece".
Any human with Love in their heart cannot but be moved by the performances in this brilliant film. Worthy of a place in any film buff's collection.


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