The Oscar Project Part VI - Cavalcade

"Cavalcade" was released in 1933 and was the 6th film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

This is the only other movie (in addition to "Wings") that is currently not available on DVD. Fortunately I was able to track down a digital copy to watch it. Why these two movies are not on DVD I don't know, but hopefully they will be released soon.

The movie follows a family from the beginning of the 20th century to 1933, focusing on how the family is changed and affected by the events that happened during these years. The story starts with New Year's Eve 1899 and jumps right into the second Boer War. The movie captures the departure of the men to the war well, with the different reactions from the women they are leaving behind done very well. Some of it was over dramtic, but this was the style at the time. Once the men come back we see how they have changed and how these changes effect their family dynamic. This is followed quickly by the death of the Queen of England. The story jumps ahead several years and we see the children develop further and see how the war has affected the men over a long period of time. The story moves on and covers the sinking of the Titanic. This was the only part of the story that I felt was handled poorly. It features a young couple talking about how happy they are and that they would be happy even if they ended up dying tonight. It is at this point that they move and we see they are on the Titanic, there is also no reaction to their death, we instead skip ahead to World War I. Again we see a new generation of men go off to war and they do a fantastic job of how war changes a man through his relationship with a young girl. The movie ends on New Years Eve of 1933 with an awkward toast that is given directly to the camera that tells the audience to remember the past and look forward to the future.

The directing in this movie was handled well for most of it. The sets felt authentic and the shots were well done. The addition of musical numbers throughout the movie felt forced and seemed to only be there to attract more movie goers with song and dance. The scenes used to depict World War I were handled very well. They used a montage of scenes overlapped on top of each other. I thought this showed the deadliness of the war without having to focus on any actual events or battles. I found the acting in the movie to be decent and appropriate for the movie. There was nothing that really stood out, but there was nothing that really ruined the movie either.

Overall this was a decent movie, but had nothing spectacular. It gets 3.5 out of 5 stars.