How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Another of the films I caught on the big screen during Maureen O'Hara's recent birthday bash celebration is How Green Was My Valley.  It's hard to believe that upon my first viewing of this film five or six years ago, I quite disliked it.  I wasn't so bored by it that I needed to turn it off, and I certainly didn't hate it, but it was definitely in the "2-star, hard to get through" category for me.  I found it excessively tedious and horribly depressing, and for the life of me, I couldn't understand how in the world it had come away with the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1941.  What a difference a few years makes (or perhaps I should say, "a few generations"), for last week's viewing of that Oscar-winning film was seen through new eyes (or maybe I should say "old" eyes). Deeply and powerfully moved, I loved the film and, without question, moved it to 5-star status.

Directed by John Ford, How Green Was My Valley is a period drama with the terrific ensemble cast of Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp, Sara Allgood, Patric Knowles, Anna Lee, John Loder, Barry Fitzgerald, and a very young Roddy McDowall. Nominated for ten Academy Awards, and coming away with the win in five categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Supporting Actor for Mr. Crisp, this heart-tugging film is based on Richard Llewellyn's novel of the same name.

Set in Wales in the late 1800's, How Green Was My Valley is the story of the Morgan family, who live in a small coal mining village.  Family patriarch (Donald Crisp) and his five older sons all work in the local mine at a time when change is on the horizon.  With wages being cut and workers being dismissed, the Morgan sons intend to get involved in the newly-forming unions---a fact which does not sit well with their father.

On the homefront are matriarch Beth (Sara Allgood), daughter Angharad (Maureen O'Hara), son Ivor's wife, Bronwyn (Anna Lee), and young son, Hugh (Roddy McDowall).  Although father and mother bicker regularly, there is deep devotion between them.  Angharad and the local preacher (Walter Pidgeon) have fallen in love; however, not wanting to subject her to the difficult life of a preacher's wife, he steadfastly refuses to marry her.  Young Hugh, after overcoming a near-paralyzing accident, enrolls in a nearby school, where he is regularly taunted and beaten up.  As providing for a family through the mill grows ever more difficult, some of the Morgan sons make the decision to leave Wales behind and to head for America. The remainder of the film chronicles the joys and heartbreaks of this loving, hardworking family.




There is very little that is feel-good about this film.  Quite honestly, it's rather depressing.  But it's well acted, especially by Donald Crisp, Sara Allgood, Maureen O'Hara, and Roddy McDowall. The cinematography is fantastic (and Oscar-winning), quite capturing the gritty harshness of a coal miner's life. Additionally, it's an incredibly heart-tugging story, and I found myself moved to tears on several occasions, all because I identify with it in a deep, powerful, and very personal way---something I did not do when I first watched this film in the mid 2000's.

In the last two years, I have gotten heavily into genealogy, and I have discovered that I, too, have a coal mining heritage.  One of my great-grandfathers and at least five of my 2nd and 3rd-great-grandfathers (as well as several great-grand-uncles) were lifelong coal miners.  While most of them worked in the United States, one of them also mined in England, before immigrating to America in the 1880's. Since the area of England from which he hailed was very close to the northern border of Wales, Donald Crisp's character could easily have been my grandfather, and through most of the film, that is how I saw him. As Mr. Morgan watched his sons leave their homeland and head to America, I pictured my ancestor getting on a ship with his younger children, while leaving his older children and deceased wife behind in England (knowing they would be buried on different continents). Beyond that particular grandfather, one of my other 2nd-greats was killed in a mine accident, and the mine fatalities in the film served to remind me of him; though I never knew that man, his blood runs in my veins. How could I not think of him---and the life he gave up mining coal. The scenes in which the anxious family members hover around the mine opening, awaiting news of those trapped below, affected me deeply and I was very nearly sobbing, as I thought of my relatives who endured similar situations. For those reasons, this film was very personal to me, enabling me to see it through fresh eyes and quite touching my heart. Depressing or not, it is a powerful, deeply moving story.

Out on DVD, How Green Was My Valley should be easy to track down. Additionally, it is on the TCM schedule for Saturday, November 2nd, at 8:00 p.m. (ET).  I hope you get a chance to see it, because it is well worth viewing.

Happy viewing!