jamoe-49431 Review of Wee Willie Winkie

Wee Willie Winkie (1937)

It's a tear-jerker. A story of innocence, war, peace and friendship.

[10/10 · 19 March 2020]

If you're watching this movie strictly as a Shirley Temple film, you're probably one of the people giving it 6 stars and complaining about it's length. And that's ok. But this is a great film, and a timeless film if you ask me. The meeting at the end between Khoda Khan and Shirley Temple makes it worth the watch alone. But the story is really rooted in the innocence of the child, and her loving nature. She comes to a place that's hard to live "even for a soldier" and befriends Sgt. McDuff. And that friendship is what carries the film I think. Of course she also ends up getting her grandfather to show his lighter side as well, but it's not about her relationship with her grandfather so much as it is her relationship with her friend, McDuff. McDuff trains her to March and carry arms, gifts her a uniform, and gets her a dog she wants. He loved this little girl and she loved him. When McDuff dies, it's as heartbreaking a scene as you will find in movies. The funeral scene a perfect touch, John Ford directed this film beautifully. When Priscilla (Shirley Temple) mourns his death, she asks herself "why did McDuff have to die? Why does there have to be a war?". And this isn't some "anti-war" film or a film with a political agenda. This is just a film of friendship and innocence, and this child experiences death and wonders why it has to happen. She asks her grandfather and she asks his enemy, Khoda Khan. Her authentic, innocent and sincere questions and begging of Khoda Khan not to go to war couldn't be ignored. And thanks to her, war was avoided.