How sad is this?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

"How Green Was My Valley" has the personal distinction of being the very last Best Picture Oscar winner I watched in order to be able to claim that I've seen them all. From the stinkeroos to the masterpieces (and there have been both), I can now claim that I know which way the Academy wind blew in any given year. Where does "How Green Was My Valley" fall on the list, you might ask. Somewhere between "there were better films that year" and "are you kidding me?"I mean come on. The 1941 Academy Awards, which would have been held in early 1942, took place soon after the U.S. had just been bombed at Pearl Harbor and pulled into WWII. Ok, so the Academy was never going to give the award to the rightful recipient of it, "Citizen Kane." But if they weren't going to give it to "Kane," why on earth didn't they give it to "Sergeant York," a film I don't even like but that would have at least had the stamp of relevancy. Instead, they vote for this turn-of-the-century yarn about a young man coming of age in a Welsh mining town. I mean, it's an ok film, but it has virtually nothing to say to me now, and I can't imagine it had much to say to audiences back then. The stars of the film are Richard Day and Nathan Juran, the art directors who admirably recreate a mining village. I also liked Sara Allgood, as a feisty matron who practically bitch slaps the entire town when they step out of line. As for the rest, I had some trouble keeping my eyes open.Along with Best Picture, John Ford won his third of record four awards for Best Director; Donald Crisp won the Best Supporting Actor award for playing one of the most recognized character types in this category, that of the world-wise dad; Arthur Miller took home the Best Cinematography award for his black and white compositions; and Richard Day and Nathan Juran won for Best B&W Art Direction. Allgood was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, as was the film's screenplay by Phillip Dunne, and its editing, score, and sound recording.Grade: B-

My Father was born in 1931 and grew up in South Wales, he said that virtually everything about this film is complete fantasy. They lived in the worst possible conditions imaginable in those days, he didn't have proper shoes, only wooden clogs, till he was old enough to wear an old pair of his fathers boots.The worst parts has to be the ridiculous singing and Irish accents of some of the actors. A small but interesting pointer to how the film cares little for reality or any sort of British audience, on the notice at the coal mine it says how the wages for all labor will be cut. Labour is not spelt labor in any part of the Uk then or now.A really good film could be made about this story but only by the British or indeed, maybe only by the Welsh.

John Ford followed up "The Grapes of Wrath" with another socially conscious film: "How Green Was My Valley". This one looks at a community of Welsh coal miners trying to stay together amid all manner of hardships. It gets told from the point of view of the son of one family (played by a young Roddy McDowall). When the narration says that it's a way of life that has long since passed, that reminded me of the numerous instances in which cultures have gotten impacted by outside forces. Indeed, we see the coal slag starting to pollute the landscape around the town. I suspect that the miners' way of life completely ended when Margaret Thatcher shut down the mines after the 1984-85 strike (although the reality is that we should be ditching coal if we want breathable air).I liked getting to hear Welsh sung in the movie. I wouldn't recognize the language if I heard it spoken, but I like hearing a variety of languages in movies. More specifically, I like movies that show us cultures that we don't often get to see. As to this movie's Oscar win over "Citizen Kane", I'd say that "Citizen Kane" was the better movie while "How Green Was My Valley" was the more important one. I don't know if I would call it a perfect movie, but the socially conscious stance combined with outstanding performances makes it one that I recommend. Definitely worth seeing.

What stays with me is the singing. They sing on their way to work. They sing on the way home from work. They sing at weddings, funerals, church services. They sing during downtime, during happy occasions and during sad occasions. Their singing comes in the form of choral arrangements that doesn't come from formal practice but from their very souls. When they sing it comes from the echoes of the past, of the heritage passed down from their fathers. Their singing sweeps across the hills and becomes part of their daily breath.John Ford's adaptation of Richard Llewellyn's book How Green Was My Valley is a movie about the hardships in a small 19th century mining town in Southern Wales, in which the people live in poverty and grief yet they sing all the time. Were it not from the singing this might be just another good-looking memoir, so the singing gives it texture.The movie is a memoir told from the point of view of a man who is about to leave his native land. He tells us his story in flashbacks so that we understand where he came from and why he is eventually driven to vacate. This is a mining town, but it has become so industrialized and over-populated that the place no longer resembles the land of his formative years. The story is told from the point of view of the young Huw (Roddy McDowell) as he watches the hardships within his own family. His proud father (Donald Crisp) and his mother (Sara Allgood) struggle against generational differences to hold their family together. Among the siblings are Ivor (Patric Knowles), Huw's older brother, and Angharad (Maureen O'Hara) his older sister. There is also Bronwyn, Ivor's wife whom Huw harbors a serious crush. And there's Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon) a good-hearted minister who marries Huw's sister.The problems within the family have to do with the children's restlessness, and their desire to escape the generational heritage to find their own way in the world. The first cracks begin to form when the mine worker's pay is cut and they go on strike. The boys in the mine want a strike, but Mr. Morgan is supports the mining company and, for a short time, becomes the town pariah. This is the beginning of their problems and won't end until the Morgan children are scattered across the globe.The heritage given to the children of this town is to work in the coal mines. Everyone has their problems, whether they be marital strife, accusations by the church or simply a matter of personal difficulties that turn into life-long grievances. This is not a happy story to say the least. Even little Huw has his problems at school where an egotistical teacher makes him humiliates him in front of the class because of his low social standing.The narrative given in How Green Was My Valley feels more like pieces and short stories rather than one continuous thread. It looks and feels like pieces of memory and that would be fine if we felt any real connection with the characters. We can't help but feel for them, but while we understand their circumstances, the characters remain sort of unknown to us. We feel the texture of their location and their heritage, but the individuals are missing. There are things in the movie that work. John Ford creates a sense of time and place and of memories. We feel that these are events that are being looked back on, but something in the intimate detail is simply not there. We reach for the emotional pull but our hands grasp at empty air.Possibly for that reason, the film's historical legacy is not so great. Despite being acclaimed at the time, earning ten Oscar nominations and taking home the prize for Best Picture, How Green Was My Valley has more or less faded into obscurity. It is rarely screened on television except in the occasional annual Oscar marathon and even then only rarely does it show up. That could be because the film doesn't really reach out to the viewer. The involvement factor remains somewhat at arms-length. Well-made as it is, the movie feels like homework. It is not the first John Ford movie that you reach for or even the second or third or fourth. This is a film with just as many things that work as things that don't. There are elements that stay with me, but as a whole, it doesn't.