I'm sure this is a very fine movie for people coming to the story for the first time, but those of us who have read and enjoyed How Green Was My Valley in book form will find the movie so superficial that it's hardly worth it. As lewis-51 points out in his review, the movie skims the various aspects of the plot, leaving many of them a mystery. As a single example, the movie reveals that Huw Morgan decided to join his father in the coal mine rather than becoming a solicitor, but there's no obvious reason for that, and the sight of what looks like an eight-year-old Roddy McDowell going off to work with grown men is absurd-looking.
The book explains that, by this point, Huw has grown to his mid-teens, had become a VERY good boxer, and had beaten up the sadistic teacher who tormented Welsh children at his school. The school authorities pardoned him for that, but he was later expelled from school when he saw the same teacher tormenting another Welsh child and beat him up again -- so savagely that he nearly killed him. Thus, Huw's decision to join his father in the coal mine was partly because continuing at school was no longer an option for him, and when he did so, he was old enough to do such work.
The book gives the same comprehensive detail for many of the other areas barely skimmed in the movie, including union/management issues in the mines, the lives and fates of the various brothers, Huw's love for his brother's widow, Dai Bando's blindness, and many other areas. Using Roddy McDowell as the only actor playing Huw meant that other parts of the book had to be excluded entirely, such as Huw's own romantic adventures in his teens (including his near-lynching after an affair on the mountain with a local girl).
Nowadays, a book as complicated as How Green Was My Valley might have been made into a series of films, the way Peter Jackson did with The Lord of the Rings. Ford did not have that option, but he could have treated a small part of the book in detail, the way Kazan did with East of Eden. Instead, he decided to skim the highlights of this enormously complicated story, and the public apparently liked it. Maybe they never read the book either, but if you loved this movie, you should.
The book explains that, by this point, Huw has grown to his mid-teens, had become a VERY good boxer, and had beaten up the sadistic teacher who tormented Welsh children at his school. The school authorities pardoned him for that, but he was later expelled from school when he saw the same teacher tormenting another Welsh child and beat him up again -- so savagely that he nearly killed him. Thus, Huw's decision to join his father in the coal mine was partly because continuing at school was no longer an option for him, and when he did so, he was old enough to do such work.
The book gives the same comprehensive detail for many of the other areas barely skimmed in the movie, including union/management issues in the mines, the lives and fates of the various brothers, Huw's love for his brother's widow, Dai Bando's blindness, and many other areas. Using Roddy McDowell as the only actor playing Huw meant that other parts of the book had to be excluded entirely, such as Huw's own romantic adventures in his teens (including his near-lynching after an affair on the mountain with a local girl).
Nowadays, a book as complicated as How Green Was My Valley might have been made into a series of films, the way Peter Jackson did with The Lord of the Rings. Ford did not have that option, but he could have treated a small part of the book in detail, the way Kazan did with East of Eden. Instead, he decided to skim the highlights of this enormously complicated story, and the public apparently liked it. Maybe they never read the book either, but if you loved this movie, you should.