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Summary: I Love This Movie
Review: The first time I watched this movie I was blown away. I have seen nearly all of Ford's major films, but only the Grapes of Wrath astounded me quite on this level. Everything about this film is beautiful. Roddy McDowell's performance is excellent and memorable. The little town feels alive and real.
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Summary: This movie was the best I have seen!
Review: The Movie How Green was my valley is a wonderful heart taking movie about the hardships a welsh family must go through to make it, my favorite actor in this movie was the always wonderful Roddy Mcdowall (Huw) He stole my heart in this beautiful movie, I will miss him, but he still lives in my heart!
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Summary: EVERY HOME SHOULD HAVE A COPY
Review: The movie, given the limitations of language and depiction in 1941, deals with many topics including the church and unions, family unity, and the importantce of duty in both public and private life. There is humor and tragedy. If one knows the writings of George MacDonald (At The Back Of The North Wind)they will recognize the little nuggets of truth that are dispersed throughout the movie. All ages will enjoy the movie and value repeat viewings for years to come.
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Summary: Wonderfully acted, bittersweet and a must-have!
Review: The transfer of this classic film to DVD is astonishing, much better than I anticipated. I viewed this disc with great expectations and I was not disappointed. I was, however, a bit surprised that Roddy McDowall's role was slightly less prominent, as the other actors really stood out. This is to not minimize McDowall's part, as he is one of the finest child actors that ever was, and any role he plays will definitely be noticed. The ending was more sadder than I expected, but overall this will be a cherished addition to my movie collection.
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Summary: I Dare You to Sit Dry-Eyed through this Picture!
Review: There are some movies where you reach for your hankie at the end, like Melanie's death in GWTW, or Lassie's triumphant return Home, and then there's "How Green Was My Valley", where you find yourself choking back the tears every ten minutes or so. So many moments: matriarch Sara Allgood taking her first feeble steps outside after an arduous recuperation; Roddy MacDowall learning to walk again after the same accident that nearly killed his mother; daughter Maureen O'Hara as a windswept bride leaving her real love the minister behind at the church as she sets off in her loveless marriage with the colliery owner's son, and not to mention the BIG BAWLING SCENE at the end when all hands are on deck for the terrible explosion at the coal mine. This is an extremely affecting movie, the story of how the life of the Morgan family, so happy in their green valley, must change as the industrial revolution's aftermath must take its toll on the family as well as the land. Director John Ford plays on heartstrings like a virtuoso, but you don't care about that, only about the sad dissolution of this loving family as one by one the young people must find a life outside the valley. Get yourself a box of Kleenex and let it all out!
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Summary: How Green Was My Valley: A Life-Affirming Movie
Review: There is a genre of films whose underlying theme is the continuity of the family. In such movies, the family unit is placed at the dramatic center, often facing challenges from the external world that threaten the solidarity of its internal cohesiveness. Such a film is HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, which traces the evolution of one middle class Welsh family over a period of many years. The narrator is an adult whose memories of his youth form the basis of the film. Huw Morgan (Roddy McDowell) recalls his life beginning when he was about thirteen. What he sees and relates is not only the changes that his family goes through, but he also notes the symbiotic interaction that society has on them. At the start of the movie, life for the Morgan family is pleasant. The family unit is cohesive, loving, and disciplined. His father Gwilym (Donald Crisp) controls them with a stern but loving hand. His mother Beth (Sara Allgood) is the loving mother who seems to spend most of her time as an eternal washerwoman. He has five older brothers and a sister Angharad (Maureen O'Hara), who silently loves the unapproachable village vicar Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon). Soon enough, a changing society exerts a corrosive effect on the Morgans. The villain is not any one person, although the mine owner has been unfairly castigated for that. Rather, the creeping evil is a changing society that slowly is evolving from an agricultural base to a mechanized one. Workers at the mine are being downsized so they strike, and this strike sets is motion other wheels which further flatten the once strong solidarity of the Morgan family. The Morgan sons quarrel with the father over the strike and move out of the house. The daughter Angharad loves the vicar Gruffydd, who must reject her because of his clerical collar, so she is pressured into a loveless marriage with another. And there are several tragic accidents at the mine that are fatal for some of the male Morgans. While all this is going on, Huw sees the changes and feels the pain of their consequences. His schooling is a disaster as he is beaten mercilessly with a cane by his teacher. He suffers but does not know how to reconcile his suffering with the words of patience doled out by the vicar. There is no traditional happy ending, except that some of the Morgan family adjust to changes in their macrocosmic and microcosmic universe. Huw hears the words of endurance and tries to live by their meaning. At the end of the film, Huw is now an adult, with an adult's vision, but it is not clear if the joy he feels at the telling of his story is the joy only of joyous memories or the clarity of vision that his youthful pentitences have so painfully taught him.
HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY was a deserved winner of an Oscar for Best Picture. Donald Crisp won Best Suporting Actor for his role of the crochety but understanding Gwilym Morgan. What this movie suggests is that the inspiration one needs to overcome adversity need not be found only in the wisdom of others. Sometimes, it can be found within one's own heart. Huw Morgan found that out even as a child.
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Summary: DVD review
Review: This DVD includes the AMC documentary on the making of the film, an audio commentary track with Anna Lee, a still gallery, newsreel footage from the Fox Movietone newsreel archives and a still gallery of behind the scenes photos.
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Summary: Beautiful!
Review: This is a beautiful movie! I am not a fan of "classic" black-and-white movies, but this has to be one of the greatest movies I ever saw, simply because it's a movie that explores whole ranges of emotions - love, anger, forgiveness, dispair, and more - without the need for scantily clad woman, or gazillion dollars in special effects. If only modern movie-makers could capture the feeling of this movie, they would have true blockbusters. Not the rinky-dink movies that you forget about within a month. This one will stay with you, and if you're not moved to tears by it, well, you need some help :) There's no nudity in this movie. Except if you count one scene where they're massaging a boy's stiff legs. There's no sex in the movie. Except if you count one innocent bittersweet kiss. There's no foul language. Except for some words that may make a you giggle from the lightness. There's no special effects. Unless you count the scene where the coal-mine blows up. In short, this is a family movie, and one that should prod everyone into thinking about what is truely important in their lives. The love of Jesus is excellently portrayed by the "new" preacher man in the movie.
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Summary: Passionate Family Brings Tear to Watchers of
Review: This is a captivating film about the Morgans, a simple coal mining family: strict rules, a pot of weeks' shillings, sorrows, love, and hardships. Roddy McDowall (who gives a frightningly strange and disturbing performance and jerks the most tears) is Huw Morgan, a young boy: quiet, meek, the epitome of childhood. His father is the blunt, strong Gwilym Morgan (an Oscar-winning performance by the great Donald Crisp), a father of six boys and the head of his household who almost loses contact with his sons beause of their different opinions through the new era. His mother is Beth (an Oscar-nominated performance by the funny Sara Allgood), a good-hearted mother, a poineer in a new era of thought and wisdom. Then we come to Angharad Morgan, his beautiful sister played wonderfully by Maureen O'Hara. Angharad has the same meekness and childness as her brother though already a grown woman. Angharad and the church's preacher, Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon), have a love at first sight relationship even though he tells her they could never marry which devestates her into marrying her father's boss's son. Anna Lee plays Bronwyn, Huw's tragic brother Ivor (Patric Knowles)'s beautiful wife who Huw has a huge crush on. It is a great movie, a big tearerker, and a movie that'll make you glad for all the things avaliable to us today. The film's cast rounds out with Barry Fitzgerald ("Going My Way"), John Loder, and Rhys Williams as Dai Bando. I'd really give it 4.5 out of 5 stars or 9 out of 10 stars.
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Summary: this is the best movie ever
Review: This is the best movie ever it really pulls strings at your heart. My ansestors were Whelsh and I could relate as if the charachters were my family members. This is a wonderful movie and i highly recommend it. Don't forget a box a kleenex!
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