Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Kyle Perez Said to have inspired Tôkyô monogatari (1953) (with clear similarities between both stories), McCarey's simple story about an incredibly cute elderly couple forced to separate in dire circumstances is utterly heartbreaking. It is incredibly moving, perhaps because one can't help but reflect on their own life while watching it. The acting by the two leads is enchanting and those final 20 minutes are some of the most beautiful and heart-rending moments ever put to celluloid.I said heart twice in this review because this film had so much of it and it was evident in every frame. An overlooked minor gem of the early Golden Age and one that anyone who loves the power of movies should "Make Way for". Maybe today... maybe tomorrow... soon. Incredible.

pdeprima I watched this movie yesterday for the second time and cried . What a great old movie. I told 2 people about and cried while I was telling them the story. Too bad they don't make more movies like this. My mother used to say a mother can take care of 10 children but when it comes time for one of them to take care of them no one will.

ctowyi It was said that Leo McCarey's Make Way For Tomorrow (1937) inspired YasujirÃ' Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953), which in my book belongs in the "must see before you die" category. When Orson Welles was asked whether he has seen McCarey's film, he famously said the film is so sad it could make a stone cry. Dammit! I am a stone!Released right smack in the Depression era of 1937, it didn't stand a chance when almost everyone in the streets is already downtrodden and sad. These days the film is considered one of the great unsung Hollywood masterpieces. Incredibly moving and the last half hour made me an emotional wreck. All this from a 92-minute monaural B&W film.The story cannot be more simpler. Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore headline a cast of incomparable character actors, starring as an elderly couple who must move in with their grown children after the bank takes their home, yet end up separated and subject to their offspring's selfish whims.The movie doesn't make anyone out to be villain. The children are just busy with their lives and who wants a couple of old folks to mess with it? In fact, the characters are so universal that you can immediately recognize them and maybe see yourself in them. McCarey never cheapens the narrative by painting the characters in heavy shades like a lesser film would. It never prescribes or instructs on how you should feel. The camera quietly observes and creates a space where we shared in and we are persuaded to understand the characters. The sentimental trigger is there but McCarey only toys with it and never squeezes it, but yet when the emotional moments hit they hit the bullseye.The final half hour is just effortlessly lovely. Even as I typed out this unworthy wall of words my eyes are welling up. Words cannot encompass what McCarey managed to achieve in that space of 30 minutes. As the children wait impatiently for their parents to grace the final family dinner, the couple spent their final 5 hours together in New York City. I will not say anything more in case you want to seek out the film for a blessed watch. But I will just say this - I hope I can one day grow old like the Coopers. It reaffirms what I have always felt about growing old - that at 90 you are still the same person at 30; the only difference is that you take a little longer getting from A to B. But why do so many young people behave like they will never grow old. You know what I mean?The only regret I had was that I saw the movie on my own lonesome, but it didn't stop me from whatsapping my wifey when it ended. It is the type of movie that immediately makes a lonesome person feel like he is the last person on earth. She made a request for me to tell her the story when she comes back and I did. I don't think I told it well but as the words come pouring out tears glistened in her eyes. I count my blessings in times like these because it is not easy to find a girl that can be moved by mere narratives. But I found her. I will watch this again with her soon.

bandw Anita (Fay Bainter) and Barkely (Victor Moore) are living comfortably in a large house which is soon to be foreclosed on. The couple calls a meeting with their children (there are five, but only four show up for the bad news) to tell them that they will have to be moving out. The situation, how to care for parents when they need help as they get older, is very much a contemporary concern. It seems that with a little tweaking this story could be updated to 2015, but this movie plays it so straight that I am not sure it could be made now. "Nebraska" comes to mind, but it has a lighter touch.There was not much of a safety net in place In 1937--Social Security had yet to write its first check--so financial considerations were then often the instigators for a family's facing taking care of parents, while age itself is a common instigator now. But the resultant experiences are the same. In the movie the parents are split between two of the children's families. The younger people have their own lives, and dealing with an older person landing in the family is difficult, for both the children and the parents. What happens is played out in a realistic way and is completely understandable. One is tempted to judge the children as selfish, but there are really no enemies here.I found a lot of the scenes to be simultaneously sad and humorous. For example, Anita gets on the phone during her daughter's teaching a bridge class and is so loud that an awkward silence falls over the entire class of a couple dozen people. Only one land line per house and no cell phones then.Some delights are to be had for a contemporary audience such as seeing how people dressed in 1937--the women's hairstyles, dresses, and hats are so appealing that it makes me think that we have lost a lot in having moved to casual comfort. At the age of 70 Anita and Barkley are viewed as being quite old. This is hard to accept until you understood that the average lifespan in 1937 was about 62. So, an updated version would have to have the old couple be in their 80s. The picture quality and sound on the Criterion Collection DVD are remarkably good.Be aware that Orson Welles called this the saddest movie he had ever seen.