A review of the classic film”How Green Was My Valley” (1941)
We remember John Ford primarily as a director of westerns (think “Stagecoach” and “The Searchers”), but he had a social conscience (“The Grapes Of Wrath”) and a Celtic sensibility (“The Quiet Man”). In this work, centred on a mythical mining village in South Wales in the late Victorian era, he explores the dirt and danger of the coal mining industry, the hypocrisy of a certain brand of Christianity, and social relations within a working-class family and between classes and there are even sympathetic mentions of a union and a strike.
One can challenge this production: it was not shot on location in Wales but mainly on a set in Malibu, the actors are not Welsh but largely English and American (which explains the odd accents), and most of the characters are rather stereotypical and one-dimensional. But it has real heart and packs some powerful social messages – plus there is a great deal of singing in Welsh and the singers are credited as “themselves”.
The film was based on a best-selling novel of the same name by Richard Llewellyn who was English-born but spent many summers visiting his grandfather in the mining village of Gilfach Goch. The production was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning five, including Best Picture and Best Director, famously beating “Citizen Kane” and Orson Welles.