Yes, there is plenty of tear-jerking sentimentality in this film. But there is also as much social commentary as has ever come out of a major Hollywood picture. Donald Crisp's sons are labor activists in the mine--and their activism splits the family apart. Barry Fitzgerald leads the local church's persecution of a woman accused of adultery--and pastor Walter Pidgeon speaks out against intolerance. Little Roddy McDowell is the country kid ridiculed by his more sophisticated (and cruel) classmates and teacher. (The teacher is subjected to some vigilante justice when Roddy's townsmen invade his classroom.) Women in the film take leading, assertive roles--and not just in the family. So while "How Green Was My Valley" endures as a rich, family drama--enhanced by the Welsh songs and settings--it is a deeply political film as well, embodying the kinds of values of tolerance, fairness, and justice that we went to war to defend in 1941.
Review of How Green Was My Valley
