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 often wondered where Margaret Buell Wilder got the title for her book. There is a song from 1922 titled, "My Buddy" that matches the melancholy mood of the movie and may provide a clue. Versions were covered in the late 30s and the 40s, to it was probably a popular tune during the War. The second verse goes:"Nights are long _since you went away_, I think about you all through the day, My buddy, my buddy, Nobody quite so true."I remember my mother, born in 1923 so she was too young to hear the original release, talk about this song and singing it once or twice in the 60s, so I believe it was popular in her young adulthood during the War. As other posts tell, "Since You Went Away" is about wartime on the Home Front, coping with rationing and shortages, making ends meet, and still trying to watch your children grow and form relationships. It's well worth watching. Again, knowing that Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker were breaking up in real life makes their performances all the more powerful. The second movie of my favorite wartime trio (probably my most favorite of the three) is "The Best Years Of Our Lives." If you haven't seen this one you need to. It involves how returning servicemen, one with no hands, try to integrate back into civilian life. An Infantry Sergeant (Al) who was a bank vice president, an Air Corps Captain and Bombardier (Fred) who was a soda jerk in a department store, and a Sailor (Homer) who left his sweetheart at home and lost his hands in combat, all try to fit back into their former lives with varying degrees of success. Look for Fredric March's drunken dinner speech about why they "couldn't take the hill because they didn't have the collateral." Hoagie Carmichael dispenses music and wisdom as Homer's uncle, the piano player in the local bar.The third in this home front trilogy is a sometimes dark movie called "Bright Victory." A sergeant from the Deep South (Florida) is blinded by a bullet and must learn to cope with never being able to see again. He is in a special training hospital that really existed in Valley Forge, PA, where all the locals knew that blind servicemen were there for rehabilitation. He makes a fast friend of another blind soldier, Joe, not knowing that Joe is a Black American. He has to learn to accept that his fiancée in Florida can't deal with his blindness and that his parents are also uncomfortable with it, he has to come to terms with his relationship with Joe, and he has to decide if he is brave enough to accept a new love to share his new life.Three powerful movies about life on the Home Front. See them!

"Since You Went Away" would make an amazingly fitting film to watch along with "The Best Years of Our Lives". "Since You Went Away" is an incredibly well-crafted tale about one family as they deal with losses and separations caused by having the men in their lives serving in the armed forces. And, just as well-crafted, "The Best Years of Our Lives" shows men returning home to their families--like a fitting conclusion to "Since You Went Away". Both are highly emotional films, so be sure to have a Kleenex handy--but it's well worth it, as they are two of the very best films of the 1940s. While "The Best Years of Our Lives" won many Oscars (which it richly deserved), "Since You Went Away" only earned one--as the more schmaltzy "Going My Way" swept the Oscars that years. I really like "Going My Way", but it's simply not in the same league as this film--truly a must-see film of the era.The film begins with the man of the house having just left for the war. You never see the guy--just photos of the actor Neil Hamilton. Left behind are his adoring family--his wife (Claudette Colbert) and two daughters (Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple). Through the course of the film, the oldest daughter falls in love (with her real life husband at the time, Robert Walker), the family takes in a cranky boarder (Monty Woolley) and the wife entertains an old friend (Joseph Cotten). While the film is very deliberately paced and lacks excitement like a traditional movie, it is completely engaging throughout because the film is so well made. The acting is tops. The direction (more about that in a moment) is tops. And, the writing is tops. The film really pulls you into what it must have been like for the folks at home and your heart breaks several times through the course of the film--just like it happened with families during the war. In a way, it's like vicariously living through their lives.It's interesting that this David O. Selznick film is shear perfection--just like "Gone With the Wind". I say interesting because the meddling Selznick did EXACTLY what he did with this earlier film--he kept changing directors and actually filmed parts of the film himself because he was such a control freak. It paid off very well in both case--you'd never suspect multiple directors as the camera-work and mood are consistently wonderful.The bottom line is that the film is amazing and there is NOTHING negative in the least I could say about it. The film comes off as sincere, beautifully crafted and a wonderful glimpse into the past. See this film and you'll enjoy it from start to finish.By the way, as you watch the film, listen to the wonderful Max Steiner music. He is considered a genius at his craft and here he is at his best. Another thing to listen for are the wonderful nonsense words used by Hattie McDaniel in the film.

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!"