Cavalcade (1933)

cavalcade [ˌkævəlˈkeɪd]

n

1. a procession of people on horseback, in cars, etc.

2. any procession a cavalcade of guests

This film is a cavalcade of English events from New Year's Eve 1899 until 1933 seen through the eyes of well-to-do Londoners through events that effected their family and friends such as the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic and WWI.


One thing is beyond reproach: Cavalcade was easily the most difficult of the Best Picture winners so far to find. It's possible that it was never released on DVD and we could not find it on ITunes, Amazon or the public library. We ended up downloading a rough copy with Spanish subtitles and wonky audio, so watching the movie was an occasionally humorous experience. Due to it being hard to find, I was braced for this to be a mediocre film. The first 30 minutes of Cavalcade played out like a "what the hell" version of Peter Pan or Mary Poppins with no fantasy or humor (intentional humor, anyway). But the movie steadily improved as it gained it's legs and the characters got older. Essentially, this film is one scene after the other of naive, boundless optimism crushed by tragic hindsight as the 20th century plays out. This is all the more depressing as WWII was right around the corner when this film was made. The major shortcoming of this movie was that in its effort to squeeze in 30+ years of history, it rushes through and trivializes many things; a scene that announces "war is here!" will be followed by a "the war is over" mere minutes later... and 90% of the acting from the female actors is awful. Katie will accurately mention that this movie is much like Cimarron (complete with full screen shots of what year it is), but where Cavalcade finds it's strength is that it does not feel nearly as overlong as Cimarron and the ending was surprisingly effective and impacting (albeit preachy), thereby giving some focus to the whole affair. Cavalcade is not the best or most memorable of the Best Picture winners, but it also certainly isn't the worst (we're talking to you, Broadway Melody) and earns it's place. 

Well, Cavalcade is basically Cimarron in British clothing.  This epic biopic spans nearly the same amount of time following a couple through all of their trials and tribulations... um.. yeah the same thing as Cimarron.  But I liked this one better.  Here's why: first of all the husband wasn't a major douche bag like the husband in Cimarron.  I would've killed that husband.  This husband was a dutiful soldier who was dedicated to his country AND his family.  Sure, the production quality was not so great and sure, some of the women's voices were enough to drive someone completely nuts, but there were redeeming qualities.  Not many, but more than Cimarron in my opinion.  This film got significantly better whenever the kids were on screen.  "Daddy!  When you go to war will you slice them into a billion bits?"  Except in a British accent.  Wonderful.. I am a sucker for making fun of children with British accents.  There were a few excellent scenes.  One of them was a newlywed couple talking about their future on their honeymoon cruise only to find out that it's the Titanic.  The problem with the movie is that it's a propaganda film about war with scenes jumping around from one disaster to the next.  While the plot line I guess is war, it just jumped around too much for me.  

Cavalcade is based on Noel Coward's play of the same name.  It is, however, one of the few Coward plays to never have been revived, probably due to the huge scale of the production. 

"There should never be any good reason for neglecting someone that you love."