This was definitely one of the duller Best Pictures we've watched so far, though it was not insufferable. It's basically a nostalgia piece about a Welsh coal mining valley with a man looking back on his idyllic childhood there and the gradual end of his innocence. We get to watch as life in the valley for the boy (Roddy McDowall) and his family slowly slide from happy to intolerable, and it was really hard to care. The most engaging scene was when the local boxing talent goes to the boy's school and beats the shit out of the teacher because he was excessively punishing the students. But it also shows what passes for excitement compared to the rest of the movie. It simply isn't very attention-holding.
It is an interesting note that this movie beat Citizen Kane for Best Picture. Certainly Citizen Kane has had a more lasting cultural impact, though its quality to anyone but film students is, I believe, open for debate.
This is an early role for child actor Roddy McDowall, who went on to star in films like Lassie Come Home and Planet of the Apes, and had supporting roles in a long and illustrious TV and feature length career that included Cleopatra, The Poseidon Adventure, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Pinky and the Brain, and A Bug's Life.
Watched: October 29, 2017
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