Quotations from How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley is a historical-fiction drama about the Morgans. The Morgans are a close, hard-working Welsh family at the beginning of the 1900s in South Wales coalfield. The story chronicles the famliy's socio-economic way of life. Directed by John Ford. Starring Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall. This movie is preserved in the United States National Film Registry. How Green Was My Valley won five Oscar awards, including Best Picture.
How Green Was My Valley is considered one of the greatest films of the 20th century. Read some quotes from the masterpiece below.
Mr. Gruffydd: Huw, I thought when I was a young man that I would conquer the world with truth. I thought I would lead an army greater than Alexander ever dreamed of, not to conquer nations, but to liberate mankind. With truth. With the golden sound of the Word. But only a few of them heard. Only a few of you understood.
Beth Morgan: Nothing is enough for people who have minds like cesspools. Oh Huw, my little one, I hope when you're grown their tongues will be slower to hurt.
Dai Bando: [Cyfartha is holding Mr. Jonas in boxing position] Now look, to make a good boxer, you must have a good... *right hand*, you see?
[strikes Mr. Jonas with a right jab, the force of which knocks Mr. Jonas into the wall]
Dai Bando: Now, you see, that is how you will punish your man - with a right and a left, and put your shoulder into it!
[Mr. Jonas is slumped against the wall, dazed]
Cyfartha: The gentleman is talking to you!
Mr. Gruffydd: But remember, with strength goes responsibility - to others and to yourselves. For you cannot conquer injustice with more injustice - only with justice and the help of God.
Ianto Morgan: We are not questioning your authority, sir, but if manners prevent our speaking the truth, we will be without manners.
Beth Morgan: I have come up here to tell you what I think of you all, because you are talking against my husband. You are a lot of cowards to go against him. He has done nothing against you and he never has and you know it well. How some of you, you smug-faced hypocrites, can sit in the same chapel with him I cannot tell. To say he is with the owners is not only nonsense but downright wickedness. There's one thing more I've got to say and it is this. If harm comes to my Gwilym, I will find out the men and I will kill them with my two hands. And this I will swear by God Almighty.
Mr. Gruffydd: Who is for Gwilym Morgan and the others?
Dai Bando: I, for one. He is the blood of my heart. Come, Cyfartha.
Cyfartha: ...'Tis a coward I am. But I will hold your coat.
Huw Morgan: [Narrating] I think I fell in love with Bronwen then. Perhaps it is foolish to think a child could fall in love. But I am the child that was, and nobody knows how I felt, except only me.
Mr. Gruffydd: I know why you have come - I have seen it in your faces Sunday after Sunday as I've stood here before you. Fear has brought you here. Horrible, superstitious fear. Fear of divine retribution a bolt of fire from the skies. The vengeance of the Lord and the justice of God. But you have forgotten the love of Jesus. You disregard His sacrifice. Death, fear, flames, horror and black clothes. Hold your meeting then, but know if you do this in the name of God and in the house of God, you blaspheme against Him and His Word.
Huw Morgan: [Narrating] It is with me now, so many years later. And it makes me think of so much that is good, that is gone.
Next: It's a Wonderful Life
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