I thought it was a dated film with acting so broad I couldn't get emotionally invested. Most of the time I'm thinking, "Are you kidding me?" Greer Garson was fine. Robert Donat, Yikes! His doddering old man routine was embarrassing. The children were mostly shrill and silly. Booooooo!
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Regarding "dull, over the top, silly"... certainly everyone is entitled to his/her opinion... but I'm wondering if we're talking about the same film. "Good-Bye, Mr. Chips" is, I think, one of, if not the warmest, kindest, most compassionate films of all time. It goes beyond mere acting, showing the sincerest love a teacher has for his students, his family, his country, his beliefs. In that it doesn't boast computer-animated graphics or a booming soundtrack, perhaps it may be misconstrued as "dull"...but I'm totally mystified as it being labeled "over the top", much less "silly". God bless "Mr. Chips"...its author, its cast and crew, and the heartwarming message it conveys.
sharethis film is a classic view of what public school was like in the early years of the century, it WAS over the top with snobbery and disproportionality, but you can't go around saying films that are touching 100 years old boring and dull, was schindlers list over the top boring and dull because it was black and white? I think not, so just give it another try if you really dislike it that much; it worked fir me on Salinger's catcher in the rye!
shareSorry, but I'm going to continue to go around saying this movie is dull. To quote myself, "A movie is dull when it's dull." 100 years old or 1 year old. Dull is dull. I never wrote anything about it being dull because it was a black and white movie. I like movies with all colors and those with the absence of color. Another try? No.
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fr AtArmslength:
>...Sorry, but I'm going to continue to go around saying this movie is dull. To quote myself, "A movie is dull when it's dull." 100 years old or 1 year old. Dull is dull...<
You just go ahead and do that. Quite a few people, me included, disagree with you. This is a VERY fine movie, and one of Donat's best performances.
To g-dekok...Thank you for accepting my decision to keep believing this film is dull. I don't fault you for liking it. Also, thank you for not insulting me.
shareare you a retard?
voted for obama hey?
I feel sorry for people who can't get away from the politics of today even when they're watching old movies like this. Then again, maybe you're just a troll; how would I know one way or the other?
"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde
First, thanks for allowing me my opinion. Yes, we are talking about the same film. It was so 1930's warm and kind...the over the top kind. Feel this! It was ALL acting by Donat. "Now I will act this way." I saw a solitary man who had no close, personal relationships. The students were in and out of his life and hardly noticed him. I'm open to any movie. I don't "misconstrue" movies as dull. A movie is dull when it's dull.
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Really? I disagree about the motive. Being a teacher dosen't always make you a saint. It's a job too.
Though you made me think when you wrote how students "come and go." As I wrote, I felt Mr. Chips had no deep, personal connection to ANY of the students. And that is maybe the way it is. Maybe later in life the students would think about their teachers. While in school they're self-involved.
I already know the answers to those questions. I didn't find them in Mr. Chips.
Ahh but you finding it dull isn't the definitive review for anyone but you. If you found it dull so be it, I did not. I was a little amused at the begining with the more or less wooden structure Donat applied to his character early on. The older man had a sense of distraction about him and a sort of staccato walk and the younger Chipping was wooden and similarly staccatto. After he finally marries and opens up all of that fades slowly away and his form and movement and delivery become more smooth and comfortable. This was deliberate and while it was possibly a tad over the top I don't think it was entirely innappropriate.
I am a fan of movies of all ages and I look for good movies without predjudice to when they were made. I do think there are more great among the list of classics because they ARE classics, for the most part the drivel and pitiful films have died away leaving only the gems. Some people who favor newer films over anything older like to point at movies like Chips and suggest that the acting wasn't as good as billed because they believe its over done with noticeable movements and stutters and jerky language and so forth. But I thought about it and I watched teh real people in my life and I realized, people ARE over the top. Its the polished, smooth, syleized, never stutter, never trip never shake archtype we have developed in the last 30 years of film that is unreal. I don't know a single person who isn't at some points in some situations over the top. People get excited, they get defensive, they take body postures they aren't aware of the fall and they stare into space. People do that, its over the top and it looks funny on film, but its real.
I never thought my view was "definitive." I was giving an opinion. Some here have expressed that I'm allowed to have one. I saw no change or range in Donat's portrayal. The "over the top" part was dead on.
Hey, I like movies. All kinds. Young. Old. I just didn't like this one.
fr At:
>...I saw a solitary man who had no close, personal relationships....<
Then you and I must have seen different movies, because Chipping had several VERY close and personal relationships. He became a father figure to the boys of Brookfield, and is clearly deeply in love with Katherine.
Like most Dullards, you can only express criticism, because if you actually said you liked something, you'd be scared to admit it because you can dish it out but can't take it.
Fool...
Love The Oldies
Movies aren't intrinsically dull or exciting or good or bad. To those of us who like a movie, it's good; to those who don't, it's not good. The dullness or excitement are in us when we watch movies. That's precisely why we often find ourselves disagreeing with one another about them.
"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde
" 'Good-Bye, Mr. Chips' is, I think, one of, if not the warmest, kindest, most compassionate films of all time. It goes beyond mere acting, showing the sincerest love a teacher has for his students, his family, his country, his beliefs."
And astoundingly humanistic in its philosophy. Chips' reaction to the death of his Austrian friend-turned-foe (but not really) - and he was killed in action, no less - is memorable.
(BTW, I find any viewer's impossibility to get "emotionally invested" a bit worrying in this case - and it makes me wonder which films DO happen to stir viewers who have a problem with this one.)
This movie made me a huge, huge fan of Robert Donat.
shareHow old are you anyway? For the older generation, this film was quite sentimental. Very good performances. Don't watch films from this era.
shareI loved the story and most of the acting. However, I have to say that I agree about the doddering old person acting. It wasn't very good.
Dull? I was never bored. Over the top?, so what if I'm entertained. Jerry Lewis or Ben Stiller over the top is the kind of over the top that is painful (to me personally) This charmed me.
Marianne
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I think that's great! There are plenty of young people who won't even give a black and white movie a try.
Marianne
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I'm glad you liked it. Over the top works in comedy. When it's "heartwarming" it makes me wince.
John
Lewis and Stiller are in comedies. This wasn't a comedy.
shareForget my age. Judge my judgements. Movies can appeal to any generation. I don't like sentimentality when it makes me nauseous. Who are you? The movie police? You're telling me by my not liking this film I shouldn't watch ANY OTHER MOVIE FORM THIS ERA???!!! Am I incapable of sound judgement because I didn't like a movie you did? Loosen up.
shareI am fifteen years old, and I find that old black and white films are much, much more appealing than the crap they're throwing together these days.
"Goodbye, Mr. Chips" is a very touching film. Personally, I loved Robert Donat's acting! All around, this movie and the actors are very commendable. Anyone who says any different needs to shove it.
I'm a college student and this is one of my favorite movies. I read the book before I saw the movie and I have to say that this might be the best job I've seen a movie do of capturing the book and especially its title character.
"Goodbye, Mr. Chips" was a book before it was a movie. It is one of my favorite books, and I highly recommend it. It's short, a little over a hundred pages. Read it in a day or maybe, like I did, in an afternoon. It's a fast read and has occasional illustrations- and based on them, Robert Donat is the very image of Chips (or vice versa).
Robert Donat was amazing in this movie. He is the Chips I imagined as I read the book. His face, his voice, and especially his "dottering old man" persona. That's what the story (book and movie) is about- Arthur Chipping, a dottering old man.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is one movie I can't stand, though others adore it. I'm just sorry that the original poster doesn't enjoy one of the best movies of the the 1930s, and one of the best movies of 1939 (Others include "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "Love Affair," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Ninotchka," "Stagecoach," "The Wizard of Oz," "Wuthering Heights.")
It seems Donat's "Chips" has at least a few fans here at the IMDB.
my family watched this film and mostly agreed that it was a little boring,we own heaps of b/w classics but we didn't enjoy this film as much
the story seemed to concentrate to much on mr chips later years (it didn't make interesting watching)
still a feel good film with good acting though.
Oh...I worry about people who miss the point of this film. Yes, it might be a bit sentimental but the acting, especially Donat's acting, was superb.
This film was about the personal sacrifices made by those who are silly enough to devote their lives to teaching, as I have done for nearly thirty years. It's also about the wonderful rewards from parents and students the vocation brings to teachers...and I'm not talking about the salary! I cry every time I see the ending of this film and I am a grown man of 47! (I normally don't cry all that easily.)
Geez, Mr. Chips seemed a bit lonely to me. A sad man, or just a loner, who was a teacher. Heavy doses of syrup: the self sacrificing teacher who helped shape generations of blah, blah, blah...Give me a moment of true feeling!...need a tissue?
shareI haven't read the book but I guess its characters are one dimensional as in the movie. He'll be this type, she'll be that type and they'll play it that way throughout the movie.
Again, thank you for allowing me my opinion. You're the second person to do so here. Oh, I thought "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was terrible. I didn't finish watching it. Mickey Rooney as the Japanese photographer...
I've enjoyed many movies from many decades. But not this one.
Dear Queen...I was a college student and the movie wasn't one of the worst but I wouldn't recommend it. I didn't read the book which leads me to concede to your point about Chips being portrayed the same in the book as the movie. If that's how the character and story were written...good riddance...again.
Thanks for allowing me my opinion. "Breakfast At Tiffany's" was terrible. Mickey Rooney is Japanese. With buck teeth.
Seems any movie can have fans. Nothing wrong with that. I'm just not one of this movie.
So eloquent for 15.
shareBravo, Felix the Bat...I couldn't agree more. If you were down here in Australia I'd buy you a beer! :)
shareTo me the main problem was that the movie didn't quite have a "point." Or rather, it had some broad ones - that a teacher can love his students like his own children, that people can change and improve, that there's something comforting about the repitition of the school year, etc - but not a more concrete one to guide the plot along. I do not believe that all films must have strong narrative arcs, but if they are not going to imbue each scene with a sense of discovery or naturalness (and this film does not - indeed most films do not, save the work of the great directors) it would be nice to have something else drawing us along.
But the scene on the mountaintop was nice (suspension of disbelief required, of course) and I actually found Donat's performance warm and sympathetic - though the white hairs and conviction of the performance seemed to bear an inverse relationship.
I think in an entertainment film, one which doesn't really try to captivate us with art, simplicity or spectacle are the cardinal virtues: draw us along with a clean, straight goal in mind or impress us with something visually (and I'd rather filmmakers use the first than the second, which is rather a cheaper way of hooking the viewer).
And each of those points had to be hammered home.
Goodbye and Good riddance Mr. Chips!
AtArmslenghth-
I'm trying to get some perspective. What are your favorite movies? What are some of the best films ever made? Or even better- What do you think is the best movie ever made?
Thanks for replying.
It doesn't matter. I judged this film. I didn't like it.
shareHey AtArmslength:
You are certainly entitled to have an opinion, however uninformed and silly it may be. Obviously you know very little about the British public school system (which in Britain means private, boarding, and all male, or at least it used to be). Pity you never had the quality of education that Mr. Chips' students received.
If you want to see how excellent this film is, look at the remake with Peter O'Toole (a fine actor terribly miscast here) and Petula Clark (who is no Greer Garson!). Had you said negative things about the remake, I could have understood your passion. But to say "dull is dull" is meaningless, a tautology. What do you mean by "dull"? That the film did not hold your interest? Perhaps the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the film but in yourself. Do you mean by "dull" that the script is too sentimental for you? So you prefer hard-edged action-thriller films, like Scorsese's "The Departed" or any of the Schwarzenegger shoot-'em-up comic-book films? What constitutes "sentimental" in excess? Can a movie be both human and humane without offending your sensibilities to dullness?
If you are going to offer judgments on films, then you should have a coherent theory of film criticism that can explain why you feel the way you do about any particular film. Absent that kind of critical structure, and absent a substantial working knowledge of the history of film, you really should refrain from being quite so aggressive. No need to show your ignorance and lack of education.
Oy! Thank Yahweh I'm out of college and don't have to endure your lectures. Your snobbery made me laugh though so thanks.
shareEvery era has "uninspirational" films. My advice is to not watch them.
I just watched Mr. Chips' hair turn grey. That's how I knew the years were passing.
Umm...what about a black and white movie made in, like, 2003? 1998? '77?, '62? How about exposing your children to great movies regardless of their pigment?
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