It seems my opinion of this movie falls somewhere inbetween the scornful and rapturous reviews on this website, and so my rating will fall smack dab in the middle of the scale as well. I can respect that many people here at the IMDb were touched by this film and motivated to share memories of their childhood and experiences during WWII. Honestly I was more moved by these personal stories, so eloquently expressed, than by the movie itself!
"The Human Comedy" is not a bad film, but it's good messages are delivered in a heavy-handed way. The script would benefit from more subtle dialogue. Rather than speaking naturally, the characters tend to give IMPORTANT SPEECHES, obviously aimed at the viewers, and utterly unbelievable in terms of how people actually converse. I found the plot too predictable. Certain characters' deaths were, (pardon the pun), "telegraphed" far in advance. No suspense or surprise. It's crystal clear who will die in the war, and who will come limping back home. The film could've been shorter; some scenes dragged on too long - such as the one where two kids who don't know how to read yet, wander through a public library, marvelling at "all these books". I *should* have been moved by this, but found it tedious instead - partly due to the actor's monotonous line delivery.
Most of the actors are fine. I'm not a fan of Mickey Rooney, but he does tone down his manic mannerisms and gives a more restrained performance here. Unfortunately he gets most of the screen time, and the other characters end up being little more than ciphers, never developing into real people beyond their roles as Good Mother, Brave Soldier, Girl Waiting At Home, etc. It's too bad - I really wanted to see more of Van Johnson and Donna Reed. Van does the best he can, and makes you care what happens to him. Poor Donna is nothing but The Sister, and, as written, could've been played by anyone. Her talents are completely wasted. Frank Morgan is very good, acting as though *he* knows his character's backstory, even if *we* don't.
Nevertheless, this movie does have commendable things to say about family, community, showing kindness towards others - no matter what their nationality/race/social class may be - and fighting to preserve a peaceful, wholesome way of life. Maybe it's not realistic, but what's so great about our real world anyway? Give me corny idealism any day. With all it's flaws, I'd rather watch "The Human Comedy" aspire to uplift humanity - than any of today's jaded and crass movies, which seem to revel in the ugly side of human nature.
*** P.S. I tried to give this film a fair & balanced review, neither bashing nor gushing. I'm pretty sure that weighing the pros AND cons of a film is USEFUL. And I'm not maliciously going through the other IMDb user comments in order to rate each glowing review I disagree with, as "useless". That would be childish. Those of you who do so, need to grow up.
"The Human Comedy" is not a bad film, but it's good messages are delivered in a heavy-handed way. The script would benefit from more subtle dialogue. Rather than speaking naturally, the characters tend to give IMPORTANT SPEECHES, obviously aimed at the viewers, and utterly unbelievable in terms of how people actually converse. I found the plot too predictable. Certain characters' deaths were, (pardon the pun), "telegraphed" far in advance. No suspense or surprise. It's crystal clear who will die in the war, and who will come limping back home. The film could've been shorter; some scenes dragged on too long - such as the one where two kids who don't know how to read yet, wander through a public library, marvelling at "all these books". I *should* have been moved by this, but found it tedious instead - partly due to the actor's monotonous line delivery.
Most of the actors are fine. I'm not a fan of Mickey Rooney, but he does tone down his manic mannerisms and gives a more restrained performance here. Unfortunately he gets most of the screen time, and the other characters end up being little more than ciphers, never developing into real people beyond their roles as Good Mother, Brave Soldier, Girl Waiting At Home, etc. It's too bad - I really wanted to see more of Van Johnson and Donna Reed. Van does the best he can, and makes you care what happens to him. Poor Donna is nothing but The Sister, and, as written, could've been played by anyone. Her talents are completely wasted. Frank Morgan is very good, acting as though *he* knows his character's backstory, even if *we* don't.
Nevertheless, this movie does have commendable things to say about family, community, showing kindness towards others - no matter what their nationality/race/social class may be - and fighting to preserve a peaceful, wholesome way of life. Maybe it's not realistic, but what's so great about our real world anyway? Give me corny idealism any day. With all it's flaws, I'd rather watch "The Human Comedy" aspire to uplift humanity - than any of today's jaded and crass movies, which seem to revel in the ugly side of human nature.
*** P.S. I tried to give this film a fair & balanced review, neither bashing nor gushing. I'm pretty sure that weighing the pros AND cons of a film is USEFUL. And I'm not maliciously going through the other IMDb user comments in order to rate each glowing review I disagree with, as "useless". That would be childish. Those of you who do so, need to grow up.