How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Chris W

  
  If I'm not mistaken, this film is probably best remembered as the won that scored an upset victory over Citizen Kane at the Oscars by nabbing five out of the ten awards it was nominated for (the most signicant being best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography (black and… More
  If I'm not mistaken, this film is probably best remembered as the won that scored an upset victory over Citizen Kane at the Oscars by nabbing five out of the ten awards it was nominated for (the most signicant being best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography (black and white), and Best Art Direction (black and white). Donald Crisp also won for his acting, but that wasn't an upset over CK. The story here spans a few decades and concerns a working class mining family named the Millers in Wales in the early 20th Century in a small community going through significant change. The story is told from the perspective of the youngest Miller, Huw (a very young, but impressive Roddy McDowall). Maureen O'Hara plays his sister, and she's also quite good, but then again, when is she not? A lot of what goes on in the film is still relatable- socio economic change and hardships, and they affect they have on family life and dynamics, but, to be honest, as decent as this film is, it's not really all that special or significant. Ford has never made a film I haven't gotten some sort of enjoyment out of, but this is one of his weaker ones for me. Also,, I really start to lose interest after a while and become fidgety. The film never totally failed to lose my interest, but still, boredom began to set in. That aside, the performances are good, the cinematography is pretty nice, and the music (especially the music) is quite wonderful. This film isn't amazing, but it's still pretty decently made and an okay variation on a theme, despite its flaws.

• AJ V

  
  Other than getting to see a young Roddy McDowall, there wasn't anything of interest in this movie. I did just watch the beginning, really, but it's a very long movie spanning 50s years of the character's life! And what a boring life it was. Maybe some people like… More
  Other than getting to see a young Roddy McDowall, there wasn't anything of interest in this movie. I did just watch the beginning, really, but it's a very long movie spanning 50s years of the character's life! And what a boring life it was. Maybe some people like these real life dramas, but not me.

• First L

  
  It's a rare quality in film to be able to look back at the safety of youth and remember long dead family members in their healthiest days, but director John Ford does the near impossible thing of inspiring nostalgia for the good old days we never lived. Roddy McDowall stars as… More
  It's a rare quality in film to be able to look back at the safety of youth and remember long dead family members in their healthiest days, but director John Ford does the near impossible thing of inspiring nostalgia for the good old days we never lived. Roddy McDowall stars as Huw Morgan, the youngest son in a big family of welsh coal miners. With the same rose-colored glasses all older people view their youth, the adult Huw recalls his childhood in idealized fashion, where family members don't fight and the men come home from work with a song on their lips. In a little picturesque coal mining town in Wales, the turn-of-the-century family all live and work together- a household of 9 (6 boys and 1 daughter) where all the men work in the mine and turn their weekly wages into the family pot. All except young Huw, who's much younger than the rest. Things all start to go downhill for the family when the miner's wages are cut and the workers decide to go on strike. The american minister (Walter Pidgeon- at least I think he's supposed to be american, as he doesn't attempt any sort of accent) is a gentle and duty-bound man who tries to keep his feelings for the Morgans daughter (Maureen O'Hara) in check. The trials and tribulations of this family at times remind me of a welsh version of "A Tree Grow in Brooklyn", only shot better. Seriously, the sets and photography are just beautiful. It's easy to see why it won the academy award that year (even beating out the greatest movie of all time, Citizen Kane).

• Emily A

  
  The sheer irony of this movie being in black and white killed me, and it got an entire star for that fact alone. However, this film never ended up going anywhere, was poorly narrated and didn't have any characters I really cared about. Disappointing.

• Dillon L

  
  So this was the movie that beat Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon out for Best Picture 1941 - bad call ref. If you thought Forrest Gump was overly sentimental, this will make you vomit. Way too syrupy. Hell, it was like watching an episode of The Waltons. But it was well filmed and… More
  So this was the movie that beat Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon out for Best Picture 1941 - bad call ref. If you thought Forrest Gump was overly sentimental, this will make you vomit. Way too syrupy. Hell, it was like watching an episode of The Waltons. But it was well filmed and had a beautiful style to it.

• Mike T

  
  An awe-striking achievement in black-and-white photography, this film is a showcase for John Ford's abilities as a director. Filled with shameless sentimentality, epic sequences and technical mastery, it is a truly absorbing piece of work.

• Stephen E

  
  I'd like to say that "How Green Was My Valley" was given the short end of the stick when it won the Best Picture Oscar in 1941 over "Citizen Kane" and that its poor reputation is entirely undeserved, but I'd be lying. The film is overly sentimental,… More
  I'd like to say that "How Green Was My Valley" was given the short end of the stick when it won the Best Picture Oscar in 1941 over "Citizen Kane" and that its poor reputation is entirely undeserved, but I'd be lying. The film is overly sentimental, sappy, uneven, and a real bore of a motion picture. From a critic's standpoint, it's a visual and technical feat, but as a member of the audience, I wasn't entertained for a second.

• Ivan D

  
  John Ford was known then and today as a delicate director of films in the western genre, but "How Green Was My Valley", his Oscar Best Picture winner, tackles not the mythical facade of the west, but the everyday lives of a Welsh family, chronicled on an epic scope but with… More
  John Ford was known then and today as a delicate director of films in the western genre, but "How Green Was My Valley", his Oscar Best Picture winner, tackles not the mythical facade of the west, but the everyday lives of a Welsh family, chronicled on an epic scope but with its emotions still on the ground, still reachable and affecting. Lavish pictures made at the time contains melodrama performed by A list larger than life movie stars just to show how towering the emotions contained in such films(e.g. Family Chronicle), a recycle formula John Ford never bothered to include in this film. "How Green Was My Valley" was about Huw's(great juvenile performance by Roddy Mcdowell) coming to terms with his consciousness of his place in the family as much as the film is about the family itself and its trials. The unexpected familial tragedies that has occured in the picture was common plot devices today, but the way these turbulent events was turned from present anguish to Huw's melancholic longing of the valley, a narration not as a plot mover, but fragments of memories, of how green the valley used to be, and how blue it is to go, and leave it all to pass away.

• Lord N

  
  ya know, I can't see why this won. it had a decent film and some good performances and some great plot points. for instance the last scene when the boy is bringing his dying father up from the coal mine cave in, wow that was a brutal and powerful moment. however it was very weak… More
  ya know, I can't see why this won. it had a decent film and some good performances and some great plot points. for instance the last scene when the boy is bringing his dying father up from the coal mine cave in, wow that was a brutal and powerful moment. however it was very weak in a lot of places and there were spots that just downright bored me. it was overall a decent. Final Verdict: it was undeserving of it's Best Picture win. and the 1941 Best Picture win goes to...CITIZEN KANE! Citizen Kane just blew past this movie. this movie doesn't even remotely compare to the magnitude of Citizen Kane.

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