Tuesday, November 05, 2019
Make Way for Tomorrow
- Commentary: I first saw this movie the Thanksgiving after my mother died. I was preparing to travel down to the Phoenix metroplex to share a late afternoon Thanksgiving dinner with one of my sisters' families. I awoke early, was ready to go within an hour and looking for something to do until I felt it optimal to leave for the drive down to The Valley. I switched on TCM and up came this movie. I'd never heard of it, but the title intrigued me.
What a film! Despite it having been released in 1937, it addressed a situation so common, today, that the movie industry continues to release a new take on "what-to-do-about-the-elderly" once every couple of years, or so. As a society, here in the U.S., we never get tired of fearing the aging of our parents, and then, our own aging ... and we still don't have it figured out. Every time I watch this movie, I think of a scene out of another movie (which I can't place, at the moment, I don't think I own it), an animated feature, possibly Brother Bear, but I'm not sure, I should rent that movie from the library and see, in which a young character's grandmother features in a short segment, gathering flowers in a forest and explaining the joys of being old. It's a laudable portrayal, but not really true of aging in our society (or some other societies). This movie is true. And depressing. As hell.
Upshot is, I was so impressed with this movie I attempted to talk about it during my Thanksgiving visit. My sister was having none of it. Which kind of proves my point.
With this movie, I'm instituting a new label category, "aging". I'm surprised it didn't exist before this. I guess I share the same psychological malady of having trouble contemplating aging with the rest of my society. Now I'm curious: How many more movies do I own to which this label could apply? Probably not many, which, yet again, underscores my point.
Roger Ebert christened this movie as a "Great Movie", linked to the title of this post.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Victor Moore Pa Cooper Beulah Bondi Ma Cooper Fay Bainter Anita Cooper Thomas Mitchell George Cooper Porter Hall Harvey Chase Barbara Read Rhoda Cooper Maurice Moscovitch Max Rubens Elisabeth Risdon Cora Payne Minna Gombel Nellie Chase Ray Meyer Robert Cooper Ralph Remley Bill Payne Louise Beavers Mamie
For the curious, here's the Wikipedia write-up about this film.
Release Date: 1937
Directed by Leo McCarey.
Labels: aging, beulah-bondi, Criterion1, drama3, louise-beavers, psychological1, spiritual1, thomas-mitchell, tragedy1
