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How Green Was My Valley was a film that both broke and melted my heart. Every single thing about this film was PERFECT!! This is an inspiring classic that in my opinion didn't touch enough hearts as it should have. This is without a doubt the most underrated film of all time. What really annoys me is because it beat the so-called "greatest film of all time" Citizen Kane to Best Picture in 1941, people think that How Green Was My Valley is an embarrassment to beating it. I do love Citizen Kane but I find How Green Was My Valley better than it in almost every aspect. It is more emotional, more interesting story and I personally think it was better filmed. Citizen Kane received too much credit which is why I find it overrated. Back to How Green Was My Valley, it is a film that reminds me a lot of It's A Wonderful Life because it's a beautiful family film that has a soul and captures you all the way through. The sceneries made me feel like saying "I wanna go and live there!" It was the same thing with Salzburg, Austria where The Sound Of Music was made. It is a beautiful film all the way through that meets with a tragic conclusion. Despite that, it has a very heart melting ending.
How Green Was My Valley tells the story of a now middle-aged man called Huw Morgan who is leaving the town of Cwn Rhondda. He is telling his story of when he was a young boy. His middle-aged self is narrating the story. Huw as a young boy is portrayed by Roddy McDowall. His performance was very heartfelt and powerful which wasn't really very common back then. Walter Pigeon, Maureen O'Hara and Donald Crisp all deliver great performances in this film. Donald Crisp won a Best Supporting Actor as Mr. Morgan and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Sara Allgood. What I find quite interesting is we never see the actor who voices middle-aged Huw (Irving Pichel) on the screen so we don't know what his life is like at that point.
John Ford directed this film absolutely perfectly!! William Wyler was the original director for this film but was replaced. Wyler selected McDowall for Huw Morgan and that is almost the only thing he did for that film. John wanted to film How Green Was My Valley in Wales and seeing as it was 1941, in Europe and during World War II, it didn't seem possible. Despite William Wyler is a great director, I don't think that it would have turned out as good if he directed it instead of John Ford. John Ford won an Academy Award for Best Director and it was rightly deserved! The narrating screenplay was very moving!! I found it narrated as beautiful as Forrest Gump, Big Fish and Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. I think it would have made a great Eric Roth script.
Overall, How Green Was My Valley is a CLASSIC MASTERPIECE that I think is the most underrated film of all time! Better than Citizen Kane and deserved every Academy Award it got. A must-see and is the best film I have seen in 2010 so far.
10/10
