Mrs. Miniver

1942 ""Mrs. Miniver" is more than a picture... It's dramatic. It's tender. It's human. It's real."
7.6| 2h14m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 03 July 1942 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.

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Reviews

CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.
ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
weezeralfalfa I'm simply amazed at the popularity of this film when originally released. MGM and theaters made a bundle in profits, as it wasn't expensive to make. Today, it comes across as very dated and way too slow paced for most viewers. I almost fell asleep during the first half hour, which was the most boring. Obviously, the main point of the film was to give Americans a better idea of what civilian Brits went through during The Battle of Britain, and what they might again go through if the Germans came up with a better long range bomber It was only when that wounded German pilot was discovered in the Miniver's back yard, that things got mildly interesting for a while. Before this, the air raid warden showed up at their home and demanded that they extinguish all lights so the German night bombers would have difficulty locating targets. Later, the Minivers experience close bombing while hiding in their air raid shelter(a converted root cellar?). Meanwhile, a bomb destroyed much of their home. Strangely, they didn't seem terribly upset at this loss. Meanwhile, their son Vin, who had recently become an RAF pilot, wants to marry the 16 y.o. granddaughter(Carol) of a upper class acquaintance. After some hesitation, this is approved by the parents or guardian, who are afraid the marriage will be very brief, given the casualty rate among RAF pilots. But Carol says she would rather marry Vin now and have him die soon than wait until the war is over. Ironically, it is Carol who dies from German shrapnel while in a car with Mrs. Miniver. The special effects generally looked sorry. I couldn't believe that the fighters flying overhead at the end appeared to be vibrating like crazy! I can't believe this film won the '42 Oscar! I would have opted for either "Yankee Doodle Dandy" or "Holiday Inn" : 2 classic musical comedies.As a side note, 38y.o. Greer Garson, who played Mrs. Miniver, and 26y.o. Richard Ney, who played her son, got hitched the following year. It only lasted a few years.
grantss Superb World War 2 drama, and the 1943 Best Picture Oscar winner.Great depiction of the effects of WW2 on a family and community, what they have to go through and how they survive. Not at all sugar- coated: quite gritty and realistic. Conclusion is very stirring. Also covers social issues, especially the English class system, though this is not tackled in a very in-depth or very confrontational manner. Considering that this was made in 1942, it would have have been intended as a propaganda movie, but it doesn't come across at all as being jingoistic or overly nationalistic. It is a movie for all time.Greer Garson and Teresa Wright are excellent in the main female roles, and well-deserved their Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars, respectively. Both are stunningly beautiful too. Henry Travers and May Witty are great as Mr Ballard and Lady Beldon, respectively, and deserved their supporting actor/actress nominations.However, among these fantastic performances are two weak ones which reduce the quality of the movie somewhat, and make it less than perfect. What possessed the producers to cast two Americans (though Walter Pidgeon might be regarded as a Canadian) in the two main male roles is beyond me. Walter Pidgeon is supposed to be the quintessential English gentleman yet doesn't even try to sound it, sticking with his American accent. This and his wooden acting are quite off-putting. Somehow he then got an Oscar nomination too.Richard Ney, as Vincent Miniver, at least put on an English accent, but it comes across as too posh and snooty. Also off-putting.Couldn't they find two English actors?Overall, however, it is a timeless classic.
tomgillespie2002 Directed by German-born American citizen William Wyler, depicting the plight of the British Home Front, Mrs. Miniver swept the boards at the Oscars, collecting five wins including Best Picture. It is now clearly a piece of propaganda film-making, made at the time where the U.S. were edging closer and closer to war, but this doesn't do anything to dampen what is an often gripping, moving and stirring film. Wyler's views are clear as day - American needed to enter the war before the threat of Nazism becomes too powerful to overthrow - and wanted to show the American audience of the stubborn, stiff-upper lipped efforts of its British allies, from the soldiers on the front lines, to the defiance of the women and the elderly at home.As World War II draws inevitably nearer, middle-class housewife Kay Miniver (Greer Garson) journeys home after shopping to learn that station-master Mr. Ballard (Henry Travers) is naming his potentially prize-winning rose "Mrs. Miniver". Her husband Clem (Walter Pidgeon) has just indulged in an expensive new car and the two patter around admitting to their lavish spending. Their son Vin (Richard Ney) returns home from Oxford and falls in love with Carol (Teresa Wright), grand- daughter of aristocrat Lady Beldon (Dame May Witty). But when war is announced, Vin joins the Air Force, and Clem volunteers to assist in the Dunkirk evacuation.What is most surprising about Mrs. Miniver is its depiction of Britain. With an American director and a cast made up mostly of American and Canadian actors, the film is alarmingly successful in its realism, and doesn't look out of place amongst the many British films made during this era with similar settings. The cast border on perfection (apart from the slightly hammy Richard Ney), and Pidgeon, Wright, Witty and Travers all receiving Oscar nominations for the efforts, with Garson winning. They manage to juggle a mixture of middle-class kitchen-sink drama and some naturalistic humour, with some playful scenes managing to alleviate the doom-and-gloom subject matter.The film is keen to explore themes of social divide, and how this apparent barrier seems to vanish and diminish during wartime. Vin arrives home from his college spouting a new-found enlightenment about his fellow man, and how the wealthy live comfortably in ignorance while the lower-classes suffer, but has nothing to say when challenged as to what he's doing about it by Carol. It is only when he goes to war when he is truly with his fellow man, a revelation shared by the snobbish Lady Beldon (in a powerhouse performance by Dame Witty) during the village flower show in an extremely moving scene.A true milestone film, now admitted to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, that President Roosevelt heralded as being as important to the war effort as the soldiers on the ground, as he rushed it straight into theatres shortly after being completed. The film's famous final scene that shows a powerful speech on the country's unity by the Vicar (Henry Wilcoxon - whose brother Robert was killed in the Dunkirk evacuation), was transcribed and translated by Roosevelt and dropped into allied territory as a morale builder, and is now known as the Wilcoxon Speech. Historically important, but a magnificent film in its own right.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com
thecole777 Another romantic war movie. There seem to be so many. I didn't find this one much different from the rest. The acting of the main roles was good and the camera-work was all good and stuff but I still didn't appreciate the movie as a whole. The ending was OK too but a little cheesy. The death was sad and showed how bad war is. I don't see why she didn't win the flower competition. I also didn't like how they portrayed war as a whole and I thought they were contradicting themselves in some parts with the symbolism and whatnot. The best parts were in the beginning before all the war stuff happens and ruins everything.