Review of The Stratton Story (1949) by Chad G — 24 Jul 2008

James Stewart is my favourite actor, so I bought as many of his films as I could find. I had never heard of this film until I read that it was available in a James Stewart DVD box set, but the premise really intrigued me, so it was the first film that I watched upon opening the set. After watching it, I can honestly say that I'm glad I own it and I'm glad that I watched it. It's a good film - not a perfect film, but it's better than most.

I liked a lot of things about the film. The movie's main strength are the performances by all of the stars - all of which were great. They truly were their characters and, in turn, this made the movie very believable. Even though James Stewart is my favourite actor, I saw him as the character in this film, rather than just Jimmy Stewart playing a role.

I also thought that the writing was quite good, as all of the characters were fleshed out well and everything worked well within the plot. I didn't discover any plotholes or anything, which is nice. The movie was very clean in appearance and in how it was written, by which I mean that everything was covered and it didn't try to do too much.

I know I've been gloating about this movie, but it definitely isn't perfect. One major problem that I had with this film was the directing. Whenever any of the baseball scenes were shot, the director chose to use camera angles that reflected the sport poorly and didn't show much action. It was hard to get a sense of the game with the camera angles used to portray the action. It could have also been partly the editor's fault, but I wish they would've used better angles and shots for the baseball scenes.

If you're a fan of classic films, James Stewart, or films from the 1940s in general, I recommend this film. You really can't go wrong. It's a great watch.