Hi I wanted to bump this thread up after watching the film the other night.
I'm not sure about posting the screencaps here. If it is too much please let me know. I don't want to break any rules.
Anyway here goes.
Well I had never seen this before and it was a very moving experience. I don't know what was wrong with me last night but from the opening narration, where Huw talks about his relationship with his father, my eyes started welling up.. Maybe it brought out memories of my own father, or an idealized picture of what a father and son relationship should be. I don't know, but the film struck a very emotional chord with me.
The whole opening scene, with the talk of the past and how people long gone seemed so alive in his mind was very touching.
The film was beautifully photographed and the shots were so well framed. Robert Osborne's introduction (I had recorded it from TCM a long time ago) said it was filmed on the Fox back lot in what is now Century City. I find that incredible. I thought it really had the feel of a Welsh mining village of long ago. The film was just visually stunning.
The theme of family was front and center. Donald Crisp and Sara Allgood were wonderful in their parental roles. I liked how Crisp was so calm as patriarch, even when his sons went against his wishes. The whole family had a quiet unspoken ritual of mutual respect it seemed.
Allgood was very vivid in her role as the mother . I really loved the scene where she comes downstairs after being bedridden and finally sees Huw again. The expectant smile on her face was so real. The moment of reunion between the two of them had me welling up again.
I was really taken with young Roddy McDowall's performance. His face was so expressive. He did a good job observing life and the people around him.
The female characters were very strong willed. I really liked Bronwyn. She was so kind. She took right to the whole family and stepped in to her role so well. Anna Lee did a great job here. O'Hara was so very beautiful.
I liked the relationship between Gruffydd and Huw very much. The relationship between Gruffydd and Angharad? Well I will just say I was more moved by Angharad's plight for some reason. I'm not really sure why yet.
One of the things I liked was how every once in awhile one of the characters, whether it be Gruffydd or Angharad to the flock, or Mrs. Morgan to the miners, would just call them on their hypocrisy or idiotic behavior. I liked the scene were Mrs. Morgan goes to the meeting of the miners and threatens them. She was a feisty lady.
It was interesting to me how the townspeople would come together in tragedy or celebration at times and at other times they resulted to nasty or even ruthless behavior. The scene were the lady is cast out of Church for example. I love how Angharad confronts Gruffydd about that. Telling him in her fiery way that the Bible says
go and sin no more. While Gruffydd does call out his flock in the climatic showdown. I ,like Angharad, was left wondering why he was so silent in this case.
I think there was a lot of ritual in this film. Not only in the Church and the weddings but it permeates through all things. The relationship between parent and child for instance seems established through time. These children would never act otherwise or else it would be like going against all they knew about how one was to act. It was something carried from generation to generation. There was ritual in courting, ritual in death, ritual in singing but there was also ritual in the men simply going off to work and coming back home everyday and in the way they ate their meals.
The love of the parents toward the children never seemed rigid though. Mr. Morgan was stern but he also showed great feeling and would let himself laugh and see the humor in situations. His interactions with his wife were just wonderful. The way he cared for her. You could just tell in his face. I loved the scene were he gets exacerbated with her while Huw is studying. She goes on about
a tub full of holes. She is a silly and impulsive women in some ways but very humane. The way she worries about Bronwyn and the way she doesn't like Huw fighting.
keep it up and he'll walk home dead. She is a wonderful character. One of the great "film mothers" to me.
I just love that scene where they give the schoolmaster boxing lessons! That had me cheering. What a mean old so and so he was! The music was an integral part of this film and the images, so many great shots. I noticed those doorway shots. I always think of John Ford when I see those.
The film got to me on an emotional level. I very seldom get teary eyed about a film. There was just something about this one. The characters, the sense of loss of home, of place, and of past. How it always remains alive in your heart for you to revisit. Ford seems to have a way with this sort of thing. A very beautiful film.