88
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderAs in all the best Fordian cinema, though everything changes and most things die or disappear, what remains in memory and in spirit triumphs—and what on the surface is a tender and sad film becomes instead joyous and robust.
- 100The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherDarryl Zanuck, John Ford and their associates at Twentieth Century-Fox have fashioned a motion picture of great poetic charm and dignity, a picture rich in visual fabrication and in the vigor of its imagery, and one which may truly be regarded as an outstanding film of the year.
- 100LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenLarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenHow Green Was My Valley thrums with an indomitable confidence in a better day, one that’s rooted in the memory that life in this valley – before the mine hollowed things out – was once very good.
- Everything about this film is touching; master director John Ford builds one simple scene upon another with very little plot, using incidents in the life of one family to tell the general tale, demonstrating changes and recording milestones.
- 90New York Daily NewsKate CameronNew York Daily NewsKate CameronThe dialogue follows the quaint Welsh dialect of the book and the picture is as faithful a transcription of novel to screen as it is possible for a scenarist and director to achieve. The screen play, by Philip Dunne, retains all the honest vigor and tender charm of the book.
- 80EmpireDavid ParkinsonEmpireDavid ParkinsonWinning Best Film at that year's Oscars, this John Huston film typically epic with a faithful screenplay to Richard Llewellyn's famous novel. Strong performances from Crisp and O'Hara although McDowall as the young lead, gives a particularly memorable performance while the setting shows Wales at its most beautiful.
- 80The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyFord depicts a working-class solidarity based on morality, tradition, and community; he conveys his nuanced and tender sociology with surprising sound effects and expressionistic tableaux that feature the sort of angles that made Welles famous (and which the younger man borrowed, in turn, from Ford’s Stagecoach).
- 75Entertainment WeeklyTy BurrEntertainment WeeklyTy BurrThe acting is strong (especially that of 13-year-old Roddy McDowall as the youngest son and Maureen O’Hara as the lovelorn daughter), and Arthur Miller’s Oscar-winning photography gives the images a spooky luster, but a little bit of Ford’s salt-of-the-earth piety goes an awfully long way.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliHow Green Was My Valley is dated and quaint, but many of its smaller details - such as the poignancy of looking back to something that no longer exists - nevertheless strike a resonant chord.