Day 02: How Green Was My Valley

How Green was my Valley was the second film of my movie mission.  It won an Oscar for best picture in 1941 beating out Citizen Kane.  So yeah, you can say I had high expectations.

The film takes place in South Wales during the great depression and tells the story of the Morgans.  The film evolves around Hew Morgan, the youngest of the Morgans.  One of the things I didn’t like about the film was the narration.  At the beginning of the film Hew Morgan starts narrating the film.  But after that, he just comes and goes throughout the film.  I felt the narration didn’t add much to the movie and in some cases took me away from the moment.

Some of the issues that the Morgans dealt with in the film felt a little outdated for me (great depression, immigration).  But I can certainly see why the film had such an impact at the time.  People could certainly relate to those problems and nowadays the films serves as portrait of its time.

I interpreted the film as a refexion of how life is.  Life is full of good times and bad times. At times in the film, I felt that life for the Morgans couldn’t be happier as they extravagantly celebrated with the whole town.  But in any moment tragic can strike instantaneously and you just have to keep living.  Tomorrow it will be another day.  I felt this is what Hue Morgan comes to realize as he grows from a kid into a man.  When you realize this, sometimes you appreciate the good and simple times at a whole other level.  Some people interpret this as negative others as positive.  In this case John Ford demonstrates a tragic interpretation.

Again, this is my interpretation of the film.  You may view this film and view it in a whole other way.  But that’s what is great about this movie, I think.  Overall I enjoyed the film but for me it doesn’t come even close to Citizen Kane.  And as for John Ford, I enjoyed more The Searchers.

Anybody here agrees with me?