Goodbye Mr. Chips

This is the kind of movie you wish came with a time machine so you could go back and see it in a theater with audiences for the first time. Seeing it today is still good, but it may be difficult for today’s audiences to identify with the extreme “Englishness” of the story; cricket just isn’t that important to most people, but it’s the ultimate English sport to the students at the university where the movie is set. The movie follows the career of a teacher named Chippington, Mr. Chips to his students and friends, as he goes from stern novice educator to beloved old mentor of generations. Robert Donat won an Oscar for his performance, which may be part of the whole Anglophile fever surrounding the picture that year. Still, it’s hard to deny the heartwarming nature of the story, no matter where you come from or when you see it.