The Quality of Greatness

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 455, 12 March 1948, Page 25

The Quality of Greatness

Sir,-Some weeks ago, a correspond- } ent protested against Jno.’s harsh review of The Long Night (a protest which, incidentally, I hasten to support.) As the correspondent pointed out, a good film had been damned, I feel that with his review of The Best Years of Our Lives, Jno. has erred in entirely the opposite direction. He has, in my opinion, invested a film with a quality of greatness that it does not possess. I know that I shall find little support for my view that The: Best Years is unnecessarily long, exceedingly boring and wholly superficial. Upon the evidence of the awards tagged to it, the praise of

critics, the adulation of the public and, most important of all, the receipts at the box-office, it is obviously a notable film. To my mind, it is the same American Way of Life, the same symbols of democracy and freedom and the simple virtues triumphant, made all the more acceptable to an un-American audience by such a skilled director as William Wyler. Admittedly, the film has some very fine moments, the situations are often of universal application and appeal, and for anyone who has experienced home-coming after long separation, the atmosphere is real to the point of becoming painful, But do let us be honest. The Best Years is not a great film-not when you get beneath the surface closs.

W.

COLGAN

(Auckland).

Sir,-I wish to register my disapproval of the way the Film Reviews are conducted in The Listener. You give overseas pictures anything from six to 12 inches of space, but what about our own New Zealand-made film? Sometimes you publish two inches in very small type, more often nothing. Why is this? Our own film is good, interesting, and educative. Please cut. down on overseas productions, and put our own film in its place-at the fop of the page.

READER

(Wanganui). |

(This week the Film Unit publicity paragraph did not arrive in time, but The Listener has frequently given prominence to the unit’s work in its news columns-see page six.-Ed.)