Skip to main content

Since You Went Away (1944)

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Since You Went Away. Feature film. (1944, 177 mins) IMDB

...War propaganda ...

I

t's 1943. WWII is raging all through the world and, finally, the US has got involved. Hollywood did its part. It made films about the war effort and this is one of them. It's a war propaganda film. The message is political: do your part. Sacrifice. Volunteer. Buy War Bonds. Whatever it takes. From start to finish the film is filled with this message. (You could fill pages with examples). It ridicules people who are above making an effort (e.g., a scene on a train). You would think such a film would be tiresome and boring and preachy but it isn't. Go figure. GREEN BERET, a John Wayne war-propaganda film about Vietnam was exactly that and I don't think the nature of each war was the difference.

While all that preaching is going on we see different love stories--a wife whose husband leaves to be in the Army, a grandfather whose grandson leaves, a young woman who falls in love with this awkward grandson and their engagement to be married.

It's a story of making the best of a difficult situation.

The film focuses on a mother and wife of two teenaged daughters. Her husband has left to fight. She must somehow make ends meet with a sudden reduction in income. Enter lodgers and visitors. A servant who leaves and comes back. (The same McDaniel servant in THE GREAT LIE with the same illiterate dialogue.)

The film doesn't make villains out of the enemy, although there are brief derisive caricatures of Japanese. The villain is simply the circumstances of war--the separation of people, the lack of basics. There are no battle scenes. No headlines or newreels about this campaign or that battle. We're never told where the story takes place except in the US, probably somewhere near the Great Lakes (i.e, NY, Ohio).

Given the gravitas of the subject, you would think the movie is entirely a drama, but it isn't. It's played as a comedy for the first two acts. There are dances, and humour and comedic moments. It plays to that. But the comedy fades as the ending nears.

Why I think it works, for the most part, is the range of characters. Interesting characters who rub against each other.

Monty Woolley plays the grandfather, retired general and lodger who is bristly as he was in LOOK WHO'S COMING TO DINNER. As the story progresses, his heart warms. We like the fact he's softened.

When I saw Robert Walker playing his young grandson I knew I had seen him in something before and I had, but here he is a shy, mousy type--quite a contrast to the bold and flamboyant character he plays in Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. Given his personal life, I'm surprised he was in the movie. He plays the love interest to Jane, his wife in real life, who was slowly wooed away by David O. Selnick who produced this film. His career never went that far, but he seemed to have talent to play many roles.

The ending has a magical, tear-jerker power that I'm sure is a major reason why people like it, no love this movie. We remember the powerful effects of good endings, the emotions of tears and joy and vindication, even if we can't remember the details.

Posted 2009/01/29 at 03h32ET in Movie Commentary.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If Only We Could Agree

Monday, June 11, 2012 ... have you been accused of misspelling a word you know is correct ... S usanne O’Leary wrote an interesting article on her experience with the variations of the English language in different countries. You know the obvious ones like colour with or without a “u” but less obvious ones like travelled versus traveled. Growing up in Sweden she learnt English in school—the UK variation. In publishing her books, she read reviews where she was criticized for improper spelling. False accusations as it turns out. While I write tire and cozy, it’s not incorrect to write tyre or cosy. Same language. Both accepted. Just different. You can read her write-up here along with the numerous comments posted by readers. I found it interesting, but that’s me. As a Canadian I deal with this issue everyday. I feel her pain when she’s criticized for something based on ignorance. No fun. I was told by a boss that “data are” isn’t correct. It should be “data is.” Read
2 comments
Read more

Days 9-108: Writing a Novel—The Deep Blue Hold

November 25th, 2016 to March 5, 2017 Note: Unedited writings from my notebook for this novel. Square bracket items represent added comments. At 15:53 Office ... And so began a three month odyssey away from writing this novel, The Deep Blue Hold. ... W herein I try to explain why I stopped working on this novel. The shortest answer is I gave up. The short explanation is I struggle with mental health issues (MDD, GAD, PTSD) that paralyse me at times. When it happens, I’m not able to do much of anything. Don’t want to do anything and that includes things one might expect to enjoy. For a while I spent time trying to create some thirty-second videos that would play a word puzzle like a crossword. Here’s the clue. Here’s the blank spaces. And after an interval, one of the letters would appear until all the letters appear. A bit of a crossword puzzle in that sometimes you come to a word where crossover words give you certain letters and you have to fill in the rest. A
Post a Comment
Read more

Words: BONE—GONE—LOAN—BOAN

Friday, March 31, 2017 You’d think BONE would rhyme with GONE but no. This is the English language after all. But BONE does rhyme with LOAN so we’ll spell it BOAN. It will take some time to update all the existing writings but it can be done. Meanwhile, if you smash up your car, the insurance company will allow you to get a LOANER and if you happen to meet the right person you may get a BOANER. boan Post comments on facebook page Posted 2017/03/31 at 17h28ET in Words .
Post a Comment
Read more