Goodbye Mr. Chips [DVD] [1939] [2020]

When I first learnt of public schools at the age of about twelve in the mid 1980s, I just couldn’t believe a small number of boys of my age were going to have such an education. I was shocked and stunned and I hated and resented the whole idea of it. A rigid class system dividing the entire education system which you cannot change as you too enter it. I did not want to believe and I just could not believe such schools were going to continue for my generation too. Just as they had done so for countless generations of boys before us. I simply couldn’t understand why all the parents and all the adults wanted them to continue. It seemed so unfair and unjust. Couldn’t they see how unfair and unjust it was? Couldn’t they see how the schools were going to perpetuate inequality in education and society? Couldn’t they see that the class system was going to continue if you allow some boys to have such an advantage and privilege within education? It is difficult to explain, and as a teenager I never thought I would say this, but as you become older you slowly begin to see for yourself the important role public schools (like Eton, Harrow and Winchester) play within education. You begin to understand and also to acknowledge the invaluable and incalculable role these schools have in educating each generation. Especially during the progressive and troublesome decades like the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Above all else, just like with this film, you begin to see how special it would be if it continued. Not only for the next generation but also for the future generations of boys who will follow after them. Put simply the boys and increasingly the girls who attend our public schools are quite frankly very lucky and also very fortunate to do so. We should be supporting them. Not hating them and saying we despise them. For they are the very best of their generation. The cream. The elite. Future leaders. Excellent film by the way. Stirring strong emotions about the idea of a public school system and, of course, the successful perpetuation of the class system which it ensures. You either vehemently hate and detest these ideas or passionately want to protect and defend them and, as I've become older, I can honestly say it is certainly the latter.

The first Goodbye Mr Chips I encountered was the 1969 musical version with Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark, which I loved from the beginning and still do very much, more so than at first.This one with Robert Donat and Greer Garson is simply adorable, particularly the former, who played the character from his youth to the old age so convincingly. An Academy award was seldom so deservedly bestowed. Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo in Casablanca, here credited as Paul von Hernried) appeared as the German master Max Staeffel.This older version is quite faithful to the original book. It is incomprehensible that neither version is still available on BD.

Did you love some of your teachers? They really can form you and leave an indelible stamp on your life. This 1939 film with quite a lot British creators breathes the atmosphere of radical societal changes (1870 – 1933), as witnessed by the teacher of a boarding school (Brookfield Public), lovingly referred to as Mr. Chips. Many generations of students lovingly cherish the memories, both bitter and sweet... Robert Donat won Oscar for his leading role performance, beating James Stewart (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) and Clark Gable's Rhett Butler in "Gone With the Wind". If is was deserved, is not up to us to decide. Still, in the banner year for movies this was a titanic achievement. Overall, though, the movie is rather stale, a standard "biographical" film. That said, it is essential viewing, if you like "To Sir with Love", "Mr. Holland's Opus" or "Dead Poets Society". Greer Garson is excellent as Chips's beloved Katherine.

More moving than I expected. Brilliant film!

I just watched this film for the first time in my life and I LOVED every single minute of it. Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS!This film turned in 1939 tells the story of life of Mr Chippings, who took a post of teacher at Brookfield Public School in 1870, worked there until his permanent retirement in 1918 and still lives near the school in 1933, at the ripe age of 83, willingly advising students and teachers. For the young boys, who are always welcome to come visit him for some tea and biscuits, he is a kind of legend ("Chips has been here for hundreds and hundreds of years") as for many of them he taught also their fathers, grandfathers - and in at least one case he meets the grandgrandson of one of his first pupils! We hear the story of his life through his memories - and this is a wonderful tale (albeit sometimes also very sad).The beauty of this film resides in its warmth and humour and a kind of INNOCENCE, which is no more really pictured in films made in our times... Robert Donat, a British actor mostly forgotten today, plays Mr Chippings and he got very desservedly an Oscar for his performance (and amongst the competition was Clark Gable nominated for his role in "Gone with the wind"!!). Greer Garson, a British actress also little known today, plays a secondary but still very important role of Katherine, a woman Mr Chips meets in the middle of his life in quite unique circumstances...Lyn Harding, an actor already quite aged in 1939 (he was 72), whose formidable appearance made him possibly the best Professor Moriarty ever, appears briefly but is quite unforgettable as the Headmaster of Brookfield, Dr Wetherby - and I am almost certain that in Harry Potter's series the character of Dumbledore was at least partially inspired by him... In fact, some scenes in this film seemed to me also to have been inspirations for Hogwarts school...I must confess that towards the end I cried. A LOT! And I am really not a teenage girl... Also, be prepared that some scenes describing the years 1914-1918 will break your heart.One more reflection (digression) here, before concluding. What an incredible year for the cinema was 1939: "Gone with the wind", "Wizard of Oz", "Mr Smith goes to Washington", "Stagecoach", "Ninotchka", "Wuthering heights", "Gunga Din", "Beau geste", "The women", "Drums along the Mohawk", "Stanley and Livingstone", "Good bye Mr Chips", "The little princess", "Young Mr Lincoln", etc. It seems almost as if God inspired filmmakers to make a special effort for the last year of peace, before the greatest tragedy in human history...To conclude, this is one of the best films I ever watched, a great treasure of world cinema and a uniquely moving and magical thing. To buy and see ABSOLUTELY! Enjoy! (but prepare some tissues...)