The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame IV

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How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Mrs. Morgan: Where ya goin'?
Mr. Morgan : To get drunk.

This is the story of a family living in a small, Welsh mining village. You have the father, who is kind of a liaison between the coal miners and the mine owners, the mother aka the heart of the family, four older brothers who work in the mines, an older sister who is quite fetching and catches the eyes of many men in the village and finally the the youngest son Huw, who is the first of the family to be able to attend school and is also the stories narrator.

These are tough movies to review as a lot happens but it's not a plot heavy movie. It's more here's a slice of life in a Welsh mining village movie. Everything happens to the family in order, almost like acts in a play. The four sons union issues and fallout, then the daughters story and finally Huw's story, which makes up most of the movie.

The film is filled with conflict and resolution. Sometimes those resolutions aren't very... they can be messy. Sometimes they are fun (boxing lessons anyone?) and it always feels real for the time. A movie like this needs to have solid acting and I thought everyone was great, especially the mother and father.

If there's one thing that bothered me it's that the movie seems to take place over a few years but Huw never ages. It makes the timeline feel a little weird but that's a minor nitpick.

So was it good? I'd say it's a very good movie and one I probably would never have watched had it not been recommended. It gets flack for being one of the weaker BP winners but if it was released in almost any other year I don't know if it would have that rep. I've seen six Ford films so far and I don't know if this cracks his top three for me but that's more a testament to how good his movies are than any slight to How Green Was My Valley.