TV and Movies

[Love my grandkids]

@golding76 You said it perfectly. It touches my soul deeply as well. IMO it's absolutely timeless.

[JamandBread]

I just watched. What an awesome movie.

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@golding76 wrote:

Love my grandkids, I agree that the biggest cry comes at the end.

This movie touches my soul.

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[Lucky Charm]

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@golding76 wrote:

Lucky Charm, my former in-laws were the children of miners in Pennsylvania and Weirton, W. Va.  

One set of their parents moved to Baltimore and opened a restaurant, and their two sons became lawyers, with one advancing to district judge.  

One of the brightest women I've ever worked with was born to a father who was a coal miner in Pennsylvania.  

Don't sell miners short.  That I've learned.

The opening minutes of the film show what the town looked like before the advent of the coal mines.  Time passes.  Changes come.  We remember the past.  

(Corrected this.  My in-laws had the advantage of going to college and then law school for him and grad school for her.  The parents of my father-in-law opened a restaurant in Baltimore.  The way I worded this before, it sounded as though my in-laws worked in the mines.  It was the father of each of them who was a miner.) 

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@golding76  Oh, I wasn't saying anything negative about the coal miners.  My husband's grandmother wanted so badly for her son to go to school and not take the risk of working in the mines.  

[golding76]

Lucky Charm, I did not think you said anything negative -- not for a minute.  Honestly. 

I just wanted to point out that coal miners, who might be dismissed as a group without certain capabilities in other fields, so often show their intellectual mettle through their children.

So many children of immigrants know this sort of prejudice and are sensitive to it.  Maybe my sensitivities are showing.  I hope I did not distress you.

[rms1954]

Never saw this movie.  I did enjoy reading your post of your memories.  I can almost feel like I'm there.

[golding76]

John Ford was a masterful director who was of Irish Catholic descent.   I've seen How Green Was My Valley several times, but tonight, for the first time, the symbolism of one scene crystallized for me.  I do not know why I did not notice this before.

With his arms spread in this particular way, actor Walter Pidgeon, who plays the role of the town's pastor and spiritual advisor, is not only the overarching protection for the dead father and his grieving son, but he is also -- and I believe this is the main intent of Ford's direction here -- symbolizing the resurrection of the dead.  Pidgeon resembles Christ's position as seen on a crucifix.  To buttress my thought, in the very next scene, the mother tells her daughter and daughter-in-law that she has had a vision of her husband with their dead son Ivor, and they are happy with God.  There is a beautiful life after death, Ford shows us, as he interprets the book he put on the screen; there will be everlasting life in the Kingdom of God. 

THIS IS NOT A RELIGIOUS STATEMENT.  I AM INTERPRETING THE MOVIE SCENE.

[JamandBread]

@golding76 I think you've nailed that scene. Resurrection. He is literally rising from his grave.

[golding76]

JamandBread,  bravo!  I overlooked that cinematic representation of the Resurrection.

Brilliant!  Thank you.

[JamandBread]

@golding76 Have a found a symbolism in film kindred spirit?????
I look for it all the time! My husband says I overthink but I'm like NOOooooo....look ..it's right there. Clear as day!!!!!!!
😂

[lovescats]

this movie is free on youtube   the youtube app is available for roku