Okay, I can hear the groans.
"I've never heard of this movie."
"Is this going to be what this top 25 favorite film list is going to be like?"
"Thanks for the curveball, Len."
Well, in my book, this movie totally qualifies for a myriad of reasons.
"Since You Went Away" came out in 1944 and it is 100% devoted to the homefront during WWII. For what "Mrs. Miniver" and "Hope and Glory" did for the London bombings (and I have a good friend who lived through that), "Since You Went Away" wonderfully depicts life in the United States when most men were overseas someplace and completely out of touch with their family and loved ones. David O. Selznick produced it and hoped to do for World War II what his earlier effort "Gone With the Wind" did for the Civil War. Yes, it's almost three hours long, but it sails by and, for me, is a big screen version of the best macaroni and cheese you can ever eat.
Claudette Colbert plays the mother of Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple (here, she's a teenager and Bill Robinson-less). The family is semi-well-to-do and lives in Everytown, USA. Hattie McDaniel, who was obviously highlighted in Selznick's phone book for all servant roles, is their housekeeper and there is not a single stereotypical note to her performance. You never see the father as he has just left for active duty on Christmas Eve as the film opens. What follows is a year in the life of the Hilton family with Dad gone. You visit USO dances. You experience food rationing and scrap metal drives. You watch as neighbors lose loved ones in battle and then sense the uneasiness as others in the community grapple to find the right words to comfort them. It is probably the truest picture of life in our country as that war raged on in Europe and the South Pacific. The courage. The resiliency. The dread. It is all here in this terrific slice of Americana.
The tearful railroad goodbye scene between real-life lovers Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones is still referenced by film historians today. And Claudette Colbert was so warm and inviting that I wished I was part of the family. And, in a way, I was.
I came to see this movie for the first time about 15 years ago. I've probably seen it once a year ever since. Because it opens and closes on Christmas Eve, it can serve as a holiday movie. For me, it is a annual reminder of my grandmother, who was a mother during World War II. And she shared virtually all of the stories that are portrayed on screen. On cold winter Sunday afternoons, I would sit in her living room and hear about rationing and community dances and the fear that wrapped around you when a letter from the government arrived in the mail. She lost a son in France in 1945---I was named after him. This movie gives me more than a history lesson. It gives me back my grandmother one more time.
"Since You Went Away" turns up on Turner Classic Movies. It is worth three hours of your time. And, if the calendar says December, it is even better. I defy you not to well up at the end of Act 1 or just prior to the finale. I double defy you.
Dinner last night: Chicken tenders at the Arclight after seeing "Michael Clayton."
3 comments:
My #25 movie is "The Three Stooges in Orbit."
It figures you'd like a movie where two of the stars have little or no hair.
Meow!! Cheap shots for friends.
It is a good WWII home front flick. The scenes of the grocer losing his son are very powerful. Isn't Joseph Cotten walking around calling every chick "Sugar" because he can't remember her name?
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