5 comments

• 

  M.A. Peel

  2 years ago

  My father was also a huge Ford fan, but the two movies that elicited the most emotion from him were Going My Way--when Barry Fitzgerald's 90-year-old mother, whom he hasn't seen since he was 20, comes in at the end--and the Alistair Sim Scrooge, when he gets giddy at the end because he hasn't missed Christmas.
  
  Nice to read a positive thought about How Green Was my Valley. It has been maligned over the years for beating out Citizen Kane for best picture Oscar.
  reply
• 

  Dan Leo

  2 years ago

  Hey, Siren: I read this piece a couple of times over at your joint, and now I've read through it a couple more times here. At the risk of being redundant:
  thanks.
  reply
• 

  Viscount LaCarte

  2 years ago

  One of my favorites.
  reply
• 

  Campaspe

  2 years ago

  Ms Peel, I made the same point, about How Green getting unfairly dissed because of beating Citizen Kane, in a post a while back about Best Picture winners. I think a contemporary example is Shakespeare in Love.
  
  Thanks Dan. :)
  
  Viscount, having met you & read your blog many times, I am not surprised you like the film. :) Ford's own politics, as Lance has argued, were not as conservative as some folks like to argue, especially not in a contemporary sense. But looking at the movie as it stands on its own, it is as harsh an indictment of rampaging, unregulated, unaccountable capitalism as you are likely to find in an American film of that era. You see how not only the Morgan family disintegrates, but also the environment of the valley itself. (That may also be due to the avowedly left-wing screenwriter, Philip Dunne.)
  reply
• 

  Viscount LaCarte

  2 years ago

  Well, after meeting you, I'm not surprised that you had a pretty cool Dad.
  reply