How Green Was My Valley (1941) Review

Title: How Green Was My Valley
Year: 1941
Director: John Ford
Country: US
Language: English

It's hard to believe that any film could beat Citizen Kane (1941) for Best Picture. William Randolph Hearts' campaign to bury the film was a little successful, as Orson Welles was booed during the Oscars ceremony. How Green Was My Valley won the prestigious award instead and, despite very little discussion of it nowadays, I found it to be a pretty heartfelt film. 

At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.

Originally meant to be directed by William Wyler, and shot as a 4hr technicolor epic akin to Gone With the Wind, John Ford scaled down the production and made the picture a more intimate story. Even this "scaled down" version has amazing cinematography, art direction and set design. They spent $110K  & 20,000 gallons in paint in effort to build an 80 Acre set that replicated a real Welsh village. 

Ford does a magnificent job capturing a bygone era; depicting the lives of a family held together by community and shared spirituality. How Green Was My Valley is a socio-political picture that accurately portrays  the hardship of the lower class in the early 1900's. It's quite a bold picture that innovates in its storytelling & camerawork. 

How Green Was My Valley is a great picture that certainly deserves its Best Picture award. If any film could stand toe-to-toe with Citizen Kane, this would be it. I urge cinephiles to seek this picture out as it is certainly one of John Ford's best.