Review of How Green Was My Valley (1941) by Giffy G — 31 Jul 2007

I'll be blunt: I do not like how John Ford directs his movies. I have a hard time understanding how he has so many accolades as a director, consdering I feel psychological pain every time I watch one of his movies.

However, because I am in the minority, I admit that there must be something wrong with me, so I keep watching John Ford movies. Had I not been doing something else while watching this movie, I would not have gotten through it.

The plot was labored, the actors were wooden, the source material wasn't even all that good as far as I'm concerned. The credit I do give John Ford is how much he has influenced cinema. I have seen this plot handled similarly by other directors, and John Ford was definitely their influence.

I did not like the message, I did not like the performance, I am surprised I got to the end of this movie in one piece. There were some redeeming qualities to this movie, though. First of all, the music was BEAUTIFUL.

Let me say that again: BEAUTFUL. Also, Ford did a wonderful experiment in incorporating so much of the source material into the movie itself in the form of voice over. I feel that the experiment failed, but I give him a lot of credit for trying it, and I see how it could have worked if I liked the source material or John Ford.