Rating: 1/2
by Derek Smith 04/28/05

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A nostalgic account of a boy's youth in a small Welsh coalmining town, How Green Was My Valley presents an exquisitely detailed vision of a distinct period and place.  The range of characters and emotions is vast and the conflicting values feel true to this environment as does the delicate balancing of humor, family conflicts, and tragedy.  From the fire-and-brimstone visiting pastor and the more compassionate hometown preacher to the rough, hard-edged miners and the honest, supportive women who stand behind them, it has all the ingredients of a great film.  On the surface, it's portrayal of the miner's struggles (pay cut's that lead to a strike and eventually cost some men their livelihood) is fair, but it is deceptively crafted to set the young boy, Huw, as the protagonist while its socially- and politically-minded sentiments are centered entirely around the actions of his ultra-conservative father, Gwilym.  The seemingly generous, well-rounded approach to the worker's dilemma poses as equally critical of both the "too socialistic" creation of unions and the more conservative ideal of rugged individualism as solutions, but while the characters themselves often land in the middle ground, the film itself constantly supports the latter.

A key example of its muddled morality begins with the scene where Gwilym's oldest sons discuss the creation of a union as way of fighting the injustice of recent paycuts.  Gwilym is quick to stop the talk he dismisses as pure socialism and the brothers respond in a reasonable fashion, leaving the house when he prevents them from speaking their mind.  At this point, their socially active response is seen as warranted while the father's hard-nosed conservatism comes off as a bit too harsh and closed-minded.  Soon after this, there is a worker's strike that was opposed only by Gwilym.  He is the outcast and when the situation is not successfully resolved, the poor, starving workers turn on him as a subversive confirmation that his original stance was indeed correct since the socialistic idea of striking is detrimental in the long run.

The film's support of rough and tough individualism over more progressive solutions doesn't end there, also showing its face in Huw's storyline.  The beatings he takes from his teacher and a fellow student when he starts at a new school mirror the demoralization of the miners at the hands of their superiors.  Rather attempting to first handle the situation with non-violent mediation, two of his father's cronies show up at school one day and assault the teacher to put everyone in their place.  While this is likely an accurate portrayal of how these people would behave, it is also another way the film coyly undercuts the socially progressive ideals it sometimes supports to push its own agenda.  Far from a complete failure, How Green Was My Valley has some compelling drama and is as beautifully filmed as any other Ford film I've seen, but it's moralizing is dishonest and at times offensive.  No matter how effectively a story is told, it's hard to buy into one that so often deceives its audience.