Though I was nine when this movie appeared, and well remember all of the talk about it at the time, amazingly I had never seen the movie until 50 years after its release. This is an outstanding movie. My wife and I started watching on AMC at 3:00 A.M. and could not go to bed until 6:30 when it was over, we were so gripped by the story.
Contrary to some reviewers who believe the editing should have been tighter and the movie shortened because some parts of the movie could be left out without affecting the main plot; I believe that this movie demonstrates very effectively the random capriciousness of life. It demonstrates as well that our actions have consequences, but also that things happen which intrude upon our lives entirely by chance.
The writing and acting are excellent for the most part. Watching the movie, one feels that these are events that really happened just as they were portrayed. These are emotions that were really felt just as they were portrayed. Contrary to what one may think from the way in which the movie and book title became a catch phrase for the supposedly stultifying conformity of the 50's, there is no ideological feel to the movie at all, just a human story, a story of the things which happen in a man's life, how he tries to deal with them honestly, yet practically, and the effects of his actions upon all those he loves.
The movie has the feeling of being powerfully real. It is life as we remember it from those days. Not surprisingly it is the thinly disguised autobiography of Sloan Wilson, the novel's author. Excellent drama, equal to the great, but more highly praised Best Years of Our Lives.
Contrary to some reviewers who believe the editing should have been tighter and the movie shortened because some parts of the movie could be left out without affecting the main plot; I believe that this movie demonstrates very effectively the random capriciousness of life. It demonstrates as well that our actions have consequences, but also that things happen which intrude upon our lives entirely by chance.
The writing and acting are excellent for the most part. Watching the movie, one feels that these are events that really happened just as they were portrayed. These are emotions that were really felt just as they were portrayed. Contrary to what one may think from the way in which the movie and book title became a catch phrase for the supposedly stultifying conformity of the 50's, there is no ideological feel to the movie at all, just a human story, a story of the things which happen in a man's life, how he tries to deal with them honestly, yet practically, and the effects of his actions upon all those he loves.
The movie has the feeling of being powerfully real. It is life as we remember it from those days. Not surprisingly it is the thinly disguised autobiography of Sloan Wilson, the novel's author. Excellent drama, equal to the great, but more highly praised Best Years of Our Lives.
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