Too much of everything

One of my all time favorites.

Fresh and Exciting

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Some films hold up very well, even with time. Examples are Citizen Kane, All about Eve, The Maltese Falcon, Metropolis, Sunset Boulevard, It happened one night, among others. Others, while well-regarded during their release, just don't. "Since You Went Away" is one film that has not aged well at all.For one thing, the doomed "teenage" lovers are way too old for their roles- they were 25 and 31 and both kind of look it. I might be biased, since I have never thought very much of Jennifer Jones as an actress to start with, but I cannot believe she was nominated for this film. During the entire film, all she did was laugh girlishly and bat her eyes- first at Joseph Cotten, and then at Robert Walker, ironically her estranged husband at that time. Jones was decent in "Song of Bernadette" and making this film right after was a huge step backwards for her in my opinion.Robert Walker is a better actor, in my opinion, than Jones, but this role is pretty much thankless and does not showcase any of his talents. In fact, he pretty much looks miserable throughout this film, but I can't say I blame him. If I had to do a movie and kiss my ex-husband, I'd be miserable too.I'm not exactly sure what the point of Joseph Cotten's character was. He just creepily hangs out at their house, clearly lusting after his best friend's wife, while also well-aware of the older daughter's crush on him. I wish they had just left him out of this film- he really added nothing to the story and just came off as a giant leech.Shirley Temple, all grown up here, also does not add much in her role. She also still has the same, whiny baby voice she did at the age of 6. What worked for her as a child definitely did not work for her as she got older.Colbert is kind of the same as she was in any role- dignified, and elegant. But the role of mother does not seem to be one that really suited her.Some of the other performances hold up better. Woolley fares probably the best, and Agnes Moorehead is also great in her supporting role. Unfortunately, Alla Nazimova, one of the greatest silent film actresses and accomplished stage actress, is wasted in a nothing role where she delivers a "rah-rah, yay for the red, white, and blue!" speech.David Selznick certainly knew how to cater to an audience, judging by the massive success that this film was at the time of its release. However, it is just not a film that has held up with time. Instead of feeling patriotic or uplifted when I saw this film, I felt like I had to visit a dentist because of all this film's saccharine message. It is also far too long, but it fits with the "epic" nature of many Selznick films.

I saw this first on television long after the war had ended so that theoretically it had lost its relevance and sense of immediacy, nevertheless I was moved to tears several times even though I realized I (i.e. the audience) was being manipulated. I found it boasted some outstanding ensemble acting in which - in something of a contradiction i n terms - several performances could be singled out as momentous; if these were led by Claudette Colbert it is fitting as she is the very core of the film but she has first rate support from Joseph Cotton, Hattie MacDaniel, Monty Woolly and Agnes Moorhead who really nails the bitch totally lacking in self-awareness. Special mention too for the real-life husband and wife Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones who manage to convince us they are falling in love even as producer, screenwriter David O'Selznick was destroying their marriage off-screen. Even on a second viewing a good twenty years after the first I was still moved to tears in spots.

I never grow tired of seeing this film and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Though not America born, Claudette Colbert is easily embraced in her performance as a wife, mother and patriot of the United States. Of the war movies I have seen Colbert in, So Proudly We Hail and Three Came Home, I love this one most. There is a scene early on in the movie where after she takes her husband to the train depot,she takes refuge in the bedroom she shared with him. It is so authentic and heartrending, a scene which I'm sure was played out in many homes of the wives who were left behind. The character portrayals are all wonderfully done and the Christmas scene at the end is one to rival the classic final scene in Its a Wonderful Life. As is The Best Years of Our Lives, Since You Went Away is also a must-see WWII film about the effects of war on the families of our soldiers.

There is no point in trying to see this movie as anything other than what it is: a feature-length fantasy. Nothing in it could have happened, been said, been lived in or around, etc., but in the film's terms that doesn't matter. Everything, including the dog and the maid, looks like it still has the price tag on. That doesn't matter either. Even the stupid script doesn't matter: Big Sister. It's Communism, that's what it is. Baby Sister. Oh, pooh! It is easy to see what mattered: in 1944 there were a lot of home-front wives to sell tickets to. What is harder to understand is why a film set in Anytown, USA got made in the Gothic-romantic style of REBECCA. Maybe Selznick was ahead of everyone else (again) in grasping that, in 1944, this glossy banality really was the audience's dream rather than its nightmare. The movie made money.A characteristic moment: that dazzling smile and sisterly kiss the wife (Colbert) lays on her bachelor admirer (Cotten) as he ships out for danger without his reward. The humane alternative, of course, would have been to make herself unattractive to him-- and then explain why after the armistice. The film being what it is-- a talking issue of a women's magazine-- this was clearly impossible, and the dramatic instincts of both Colbert and Cotton in this scene feel right: "If that chump's got to die for our country," you can almost hear the wife thinking, "at least he'll do it with me on his mind!"