Arrowsmith (1931)
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Arrowsmith Movie Review
Arrowsmith is a 1931 drama film directed by John Ford and starring Ronald Colman and Helen Hayes. It’s a very rushed movie that is okay, but it should have been so much better.
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“God give me clear eyes and freedom from haste.
God give me anger against all pretense.
God keep me looking for my own mistakes.
God keep me at it till my results are proven.
God give me strength not to trust to God“
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It’s based on a Lewis Sinclair titular novel and because that book is big and sprawling, the film is thus incredibly rushed as it’s only around ninety minutes long. Yes, it’s baffling to me how they thought it okay to shorten this epic story and thus ruin its potential for greatness.
The entire movie is so rushed, so terribly paced and edited and it simply moves from one plot point to another in an instant almost, very hastily. Although that led to a more involving film to watch, it was still frustrating because the story never really got momentum and the characterization and emotion both suffered as a result. Don’t get me wrong, some scenes such as the first meeting between the two, some of his discoveries and the adventurous elements really worked, but most of the scenes were underutilized and overly shortened.
Ronald Colman is excellent in the titular main role. He truly delivered a strong performance and he should have been nominated for an Oscar in my opinion. Helen Hayes is also very strong and quite a solid female character. But all of the other characters are ridiculously underused and thus weakly developed.
Arrowsmith is definitely stupendously made in some technical aspects. I found the dialogue excellent, some of the scenes as I said are quite memorable and the film is effective in portraying the history of early medicine and the important roles of doctors in the society.
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But again, it never got momentum owing to its terrible pacing. It never became sprawling, epic and powerful. And it thoroughly lacks emotionally speaking. It’s so well shot and sometimes quite memorable in its imagery and well utilized setting, but the direction from John Ford is much weaker than in his best works. The film was nominated for Art Direction and Cinematography deservedly so, but Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture are entirely underserved.
Arrowsmith is an okay, but immensely flawed Best Picture Nominee with excellent cinematography, some very memorable scenes and a terrific Ronald Colman titular performance, but it never became as sprawling, epic and powerful as it should have been owing to its horrible editing and pacing which is ridiculously rushed due to an inappropriately short runtime.
