evanston_dad This film broke my heart.I've not read the novel on which Elia Kazan's screen adaptation is based, but as a stand-alone film, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is wonderful. Made in a decade when movie conventions of the time can seem overly sentimental and corny now, this film feels like a product of a later era in all the right ways. It tells the story of a young girl navigating the transition into adolescence while dealing with a strict, somewhat cold mother and an alcoholic father, all the while dreaming of a richer, fuller life away from the cramped apartments and stifled atmosphere of working class Brooklyn. The screenplay actually feels like a novel in its detailed characterizations, and the acting is uniformly marvelous. James Dunn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the family patriarch, a complicated one that requires him to convey both a love of life and a dogged sense of failure at the same time. But the standouts for me were Dorothy McGuire and Joan Blondell as the emotionally closed off mom and her blowsy sister, respectively. I've always associated McGuire with prim and proper society lady roles, and I never would have thought of her for a role like this. But she's amazing, and never more so than in the scene when she's giving birth and she lets her guard down in front of her daughter, letting forth with a stream of consciousness assembly of thoughts and worries. And Blondell is vivacious as ever, but she plays her character as much more than a stereotype, giving a rich inner life to this woman other people have labeled a floozy.The husband and wife team of Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis received a nomination for their screenplay, while Peggy Ann Garner, the linchpin of the whole film, received a special juvenile Oscar for her performance, one of only half a dozen or so the Academy handed out over its first couple of decades.Grade: A+

leisurelyfilm Even if you're not into older movies I suggest everyone to view it at least once and by yourself. Probably the movie to brings me to tears every time I watch it all the way through. The struggles that the family go through are heart felt and emotional. It can be overly sentimental at times but it just adds to the charm. -Spoilers- When the dad plays "lori" on the piano you can see in his eyes the anguish of his soul, they just don't act like that anymore. And when he dies, the situations they face as a family are very real. It's a shame, almost a crime that this never had a proper DVD release, and yet we see "the avengers" and "harry potter" getting more recognition.

oOoBarracuda THIS was Elia Kazan's directorial debut? It is rare to see the first film of a classic director and see both complete mastery and a thorough sense of their signature as a filmmaker. With A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, audiences can see Kazan's grasp of the melodrama, a grasp that rivals John Ford, we can also see masterful storytelling typically absent in the beginning of a directorial career. The 1945 film starring Dorothy McGuire and James Dunn shows the struggles of an underprivileged family struggling to get by amidst the trials and tribulations of the early 1900's. The painstaking detail with which Kazan exposes the harsh realities of the Nolan family is a blow to the heart in the absolute best way.Just before WWI in Brooklyn, New York, the Nolan family is struggling to get by. Johnny Nolan (James Dunn), the family patriarch, is an alcoholic lounge singer who drinks his family's money away more often than he brings it home. Johnny is far from the angry alcoholic often depicted in such pictures, quite conversely, Johnny is a happy-go-lucky, sunshine and light kind of dad that never wants the sparkle to leave his children's eyes, despite the fact that it's long gone from his own. Johnny is in a loveless marriage with the Nolan family matriarch Katie Nolan (Dorothy McGuire). Katie has adopted a tougher than nails attitude due to her husband's flighty, head-in-the-clouds disposition. Katie is the one that denies her children of indulgences and keeps their heads in their studies in hopes that they become successful. Both parents act the way they do out of love. Johnny wishes to shield his children's innocence as long as he can, realizing that the world will harden them soon enough. Katie believes that the best way to acclimate her children to the harsh realities out of the home is to immerse them in it as soon as possible and attempt to set them up for success in hopes that they will be positioned to have better lives than their parents ever did. Watching the Nolan family encounter such problems as Aunt Sissy's (Joan Blondell) revolving door of marriages, or the removal of a tree visible from the window of their tenement, acting as a beacon of hope for all those inside, Kazan illustrates each struggle is a painfully beautiful way.Did I mention that this was Elia Kazan's debut feature? I just find the fact that A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a (near) perfect film, as Kazan's first incredible. I've never thought twice about crowning John Ford as the king of the melodrama until the day I watched A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Kazan's debut rivals a favorite of mine, How Green Was My Valley. I find Ford's Valley a perfect exploration of an underprivileged family struggling under oppression, which avoids all contrived elements of forced emotions. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, is equally as impressive of such an exploration. A brilliant aspect of the film is the way we see the family's struggle from each individual involved. Kazan spends a lot of time introducing each character to the audience, then fully fleshes out their perspective at each new problematic encounter. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn would not have worked as well without the exceptional talent of James Dunn. His cheerful disposition despite the emptiness his character feels is the stuff legends are made of. I've never seen a portrayal more deserving of an Academy Award than this one, he was absolutely sensational. I wonder if he was sought after for The Wizard of Oz, as I think of him being perfect for the part of the scarecrow played by Ray Bolger. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn pulls at the heartstrings, then pulls again, several times throughout the film in the most beautiful way you can imagine, a film not to be missed.

gavin6942 Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.I didn't read the novel, so I guess I can't speak to how well they turned it into a movie. But I did see the movie and it is quite good, and deserved all the praise it got at the time it came out. (If IMDb is to be believed, it would be in the Top 250 right now if it just had more votes.) Is this what Brooklyn was like? If anything, Brooklyn was probably worse, as it was breeding all kinds of Irish, Jewish and Italian gangsters. None of that occurs in this film, which is unfortunate. (But not everyone grew up with the gangsters, I suppose.)