Great Film overall

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I had never heard of this flick and tuned to it (thank you, Turner Classic Movies) primarily because of the presence of the great Spencer Tracy and one of my favorite character actors, Van Johnson, whose acting skills I find vastly underrated. I was not disappointed, and I was surprised to read the many disparaging comments here. I cannot speak for historical accuracy but I found the story gripping and the script very well written. Tracy reminds us again of the reason he is regarded as one the greatest actors of his generation. No doubt that the love interest between him and Bradford's wife is probably apocryphal, and was inserted to fulfill Hollywood's requirement for a romantic angle, but so what? Leaving that aside the movie is a pretty engrossing depiction of the trials and travails of the Pilgrims, although the conditions on their actual voyage were probably a lot grimmer than Hollywood could politely depict in those days. All in all a very worthwhile effort and well worth seeing.

It tells the Mayflower odyssey , it was the ship that transported the first English Separatists , known today as the Pilgrims , from Plymouth to the New World in 1620 , a very dangerous voyage carried out by a brave passenger list that made the 96-day storm-filled crossing . There were 102 passengers , the majority of them becoming the settlers of Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts and the crew is estimated to have been about 30, but the exact number is unknown . The pilgrims are looking for a land where they can worship according to their beliefs . Captained by Captain Christopher Jones (Spencer Tracy) who piloted and helped the valiant pilgrims , he stayed at the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts , waiting for favorable weather to return home to England on the "Mayflower" . This voyage has become an iconic story in some of the earliest annals of American history , with its story of death and of survival in the harsh New England winter environment . About half of these emigrants died in the first Winter . Many Americans can trace their ancestry back to one or more of these individuals who, 'Saints' and 'Strangers' together, would become known as the Pilgrims . Thirteen of the eighteen servants listed were attached to Leiden families, the other five were families who boarded in London . Four of those travelers listed were small children , to be classed as indentured servants . Other notorious pilgrims were John Alden (Van Johnson) , William Bradford (Leo Genn) , Gilbert Winslow (John Dehner) , Edward Winslow (Lowell Gilmore) , and William Brewster (Barry Jones) . Luckily , it took place the culmination of the voyage in the signing of the Mayflower Compact was an event which established a rudimentary form of democracy, with each member contributing to the welfare of the community . The Native Americans living in the area , the Patuxet, were totally wiped out by a series of epidemics between 1616-1619 caught from English fishermen who landed regularly in the area . Indian tribes ran away and fell ill , and then the colonialists built in the cleared area where the Indian village stood and utilized the cleared farm land that the tribe had abandoned . However , actually , after landing in Massachusetts , the colonists tried three times to sail southward to Virginia, but was driven back by storms .Interesting historical film about the famous feat based on the novel by Ernest Gebler with screenplay by Helen Deutsch , describing trials and tribulations of the risked sea journey , a fundamental event in American history . It packs emotion , drama , love stories and historical happenings . Very good cast plenty of familiar Hollywood faces as Spencer Tracy who has an ill-starred romance with the wife of a religious fanatic well played by Gene Tierney , both of whom had an affair that lasted for the duration of filming . Support cast is frankly excellent , such as : Leo Genn , John Dehner , Barry Jones , Dawn Addams , Lloyd Bridges , Paul Cavanagh and Van Johnson , though filmmaker Clarence Brown later said casting him was a huge mistake . In addition , other uncredited players : John Dierkes , John Alderson , Murray Matheson and Rhys Williams . The film is well based on historical events , though including some fictitious incidents ; as Dorothy Bradford did indeed fall overboard and was drowned while husband William was exploring for a site for the establishment of Plymouth . For once , the colonists are correctly shown building framed houses, and not log cabins as is commonly supposed . Decent production design by prolific Cedric Gibbons , though most film is set on the vessel , being some claustrophobic . Colorful cinematography in Technicolor by William Daniels , Greta Garbo's regular cameraman . Evocative and thrilling musical score by Miklos Rozsa .The motion picture nicely produced by Dore Schary was professionally directed - though with no enthusiasm- by Clarence Brown . Clarence studied and learned with French director Maurice Tourneur . He directed several actors in Oscar-nominated performances. During his career Brown directed or produced more than 50 widely-acclaimed full-length films , many during his long association with prestigious MGM and worked with many of the industry's most illustrious performers . Clarence got a lot of successes , such as : Anna Karenina , Maria Walewska , Intruder in the dust , The yearling , National velvet , Song of Love , among others .

Kids, I was compelled to check the "spoilers" box because you -- lacking in curiosity as you are -- might not know that the "Mayflower" was the ship on which the Pilgrims sailed to Boston in 1620. (That is, 1620 AD.) Henry Cabot Lodge was one of the passengers. (Well, he might as well have been.) The reason the Pilgrims were moving from Plymouth to Plymouth Rock was that they'd been subject to religious persecution in England. They didn't feel that the Church of England had moved far enough away from the sybaritic splendor of the highly ritualized Roman Catholic Church. It's a little complicated, but that's the general idea.Well, it was a perilous trip across the North Atlantic in 1620. They used sailing ships in those days, and they were almighty slow, so people ran out of food and water and stuff like that. Not like the today's QE2, where I left the hair salon with a pompadour that made me look like Donald Trump -- proud and unashamed. I'm not sure the British cuisine on the QE2 was that much of an improvement over the Mayflower's, but so be it. Boy, the Mayflower passengers were lucky to make it at all. But they did, and they gave us the American Revolution, the Constitution, baked beans, four presidents, and ultimately this movie.This is an MGM product so you get solid-as-a-rock family entertainment with magnificent production values. The special effects are fine. There is an exciting storm at sea that threatens to destroy the Mayflower. (Every story of a ship at sea must include a scene of a storm.) All the studio's talent is deployed, including a stellar cast. Spencer Tracy is Captain Jones, skipper of the Mayflower. Gene Tierney is the pouty-lipped married passenger whom he loves but whom he treats as an ordinary doxy. In supporting roles are rough sailor Lloyd Bridges, solemn preacher Leo Genn, civilian carpenter Van Johnson, sturdy diarist and narrator John Dehner, and reliable stalwarts like John Dierkes.There are two problems with the movie, and they're both pretty big.The casting decisions are inexplicable. Spencer Tracy as a consistently contemptuous, cynical, money-grubbing, underhanded Captain Queeg with glands? Hardly. Spencer Tracy is a man who carries moral authority along with his common sense Americanism. He's the firm, authoritative, slyly wisecracking, but empathic boss you wish you had.And Van Johnson as an unemployed carpenter saying lines like, "I had hoped to find me a berth for the night, sir"? Not a bit of it. Van Johnson is the optimistic, rosy-cheeked guy next door. He's polite, cheerful, and in love with Phyllis Thaxter. In any case, he's a lead, not a supporting player.That's the casting problem. Then there's the problem of the plot. How do you fill up an hour or more of a ship at sea full of relatively dull people? I mean, they're not pirates or mutineers. So you invent an intrigue between the gruff Tracy and the winsome Tierney that struck me as completely lacking in credibility. Tracy is not a romantic lead. He's short and rather dumpy and, though handsome in a manly way, looks nothing like Cary Grant. Tierney suffers because she is torn between her love for the adamantine Tracy and the pious Genn. She finally offs herself. Actually, she didn't. Two people died during the voyage, both of illness.I will bet, though, that there was genuine drama aboard the Mayflower. Here's why. There were about 130 people aboard, including both passengers and crew, and the ship itself was about 100 feet long. There was also every bit of cargo that a new community would need in a demanding new environment. One hundred feet is peanuts. The "tween decks", where many slept, was a space probably about four feet high. The people must have been piled on top of one another but you'd never know it. Space and violations of space are not very dramatic. We watch scenes of Van Johnson showing Dawn Addams where he goes when he wants to get away from things and be alone. It's the ship's rope locker, and it's about the size of the Garden Court Restaurant in San Francisco's Sheraton Palace Hotel. Kids, Googling will lead to goggling. You should have LUNCH there if possible. Try the cottage cheese. Tell them I sent you.Anyhow there's no gainsaying that MGM was the biggest most powerful studio in Hollywood at the time this was released, but that doesn't mean that somebody didn't make a couple of big mistakes.

Fairly entertaining adventure yarn,with too much resorting to voice-over. There are two very good moments:the storm -Van Johnson will have known two in the space of 2 years;he'll be on the Caine during the typhoon(the Caine mutiny 1954)- and the little boy who dies with the bird (Noah's dove)in his hand.He ,too,had flown too far from home.Spencer Tracy has a tailor-made part:the grumpy captain with a heart of gold.Gene Tierney's grace and beauty supply the love interest.Her death is quite romantic.The film is somewhat too short and the building of the village and the first winter are botched.An interesting scene shows the birth of a democracy and ideas that 1789 French revolution will rekindle.