Gotta move with the times!

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Another Orson Welles movie, this time a period drama set in the early 20th century when the automobile industry was in its infancy.
The Ambersons were a traditionally rich family via cotton, mills and the like with arrogant George as the sole heir to the family. Upon his coming home from college, his mother holds a party, when George meets Lucy and her father. Lucy's father, Eugene (Joseph Cotton), is considered eccentric as he thought automobile, the unreliable frequently breaking down horseless carriage, is the way of the future.
George's sickly father, Wilbur who outwit Eugene to win his mother in marriage, dies soon afterwards. Eugene, a widower, rekindles his relationship with George's mother, Isabel, now a widow. The haughty
George ridicules Eugene and his automobile industry. As Isabel and Eugene's affair becomes the talk of town, George goes ballistic and tries whatever means to separate this old love couple. Lucy and George's grandfather dies later and the Ambersons fall into poverty. Reality hits and Georgie has to go to work.
Eugene's automobile industry prospers and the incidence of automobile accidents plummets in which George also falls prey. This helps to unite Eugene, Lucy and the remaining of the Ambersons, George and his aunt, Fanny.
Orson Welles wrote the script , directed and narrated in his usual witty thought provoking way. The story is based on a 1918 Pulitzer winning novel. This film is a national heritage and is also considered one of 100 best American films of all time.
The take home message from this offering is that we should change with time and bask in our laurels, otherwise we would be overtaken and left to rot.
May be it is just me but I felt that the movie to be particularly disjointed. Many of the story line is left to my imagination. May be it is because, as in most of Welles' movies, the final product had to be slashed almost an hour of the film!
A good one....though!

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