Witness another John Ford masterpiece that shows you the existence of dark clouds raining on a seemingly perfect life. John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley is about a hard-working Welsh family at the turn of the century who disintegrates based on the harsh mining conditions and the talk of the town.
Based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn, the Morgan family lives in the mining community of South Wales Valleys. The sun is shining and people are singing on the streets. All told from the perspective of the youngest of the Morgan family, Huw, that makes sense. When you’re a little kid, everything looks grand and you prefer to only see the happy parts of your life. He has a tight-knit family of six other siblings including his sister Angharad (Maureen O’Hara). She is in love with the town’s preacher despite the negative gossip from the townsfolk. Everything changes with this family when the men have to do their part in the mines.
What I really loved about this movie was the family dynamic. Just like in The Grapes of Wrath, tragedies are easier to experience when you have love all around you. Whether it is helping your mother after falling in a lake or teaching the youngest member of the family how to defend themself in school, this is a loving family who stays connected through the good times and bad. Considering we are currently dealing with an ongoing pandemic right now, this movie can teach you how you can never be isolated from family. I also like that this film has a more realistic ending compared to the standard Hollywood one.
The biggest controversy that came from How Green Was My Valley was that it won Best Picture over Citizen Kane. The truth is that as much as I liked Citizen Kane, I can truly understand why this film won. While Citizen Kane introduced audiences to a number of innovative film and storytelling techniques, How Green Was My Valley can tug at your heart more. I didn’t really care for too many of the characters in Citizen Kane. In this movie, I fell in love with the innocent Huw, the lovelorn Angharad, their devoted parents, and the rest of the joyous townsfolk. This Best Picture winner is worthy of the praise and deserves to be seen by the masses. Do you believe it was worthy of Best Picture?
Watch this 1941 Best Picture winner below and comment what you think:
Oh, For the Love of 1001 Films! 
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