Mrs Miniver [1942]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
A movie doesn't win seven Oscars for nothing. A glowing Greer Garson (Best Actress) commands the screen as Mrs Miniver, a middle-class British housewife whose strength holds her family together as World War II literally hits their home. Walter Pidgeon as her architect husband seems to be the prototype for future TV dads in this affecting portrait of love--familial and romantic--during war. But the relationship between Mrs Miniver's college-age son (Richard Ney) and the upper-crust Carol (Best Supporting Actress Teresa Wright) is filled with inherent drama--as the war speeds up their young love, it also has the potential to doom it. The 1942 film, which also won for Best Picture and Best Director, is filled with colourful characters, snappy dialogue and sensational plot twists. Although you spend much of the movie dreading that one of the Minivers will become a casualty of war, when it finally happens, it's not what you anticipated. Exactly what you would expect from a legendary film that lives up to its billing. --Valerie J. Nelson, Amazon.com

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-10-09 rating:
"Our enemy is no respecter of flower shows."
As the story opens early in 1939, Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson) is a happy wife and mother living a charmed life in an English village. Her husband, Clem (Walter Pigeon), is a successful architect and she has three children she adores. When war is declared, her life is deeply affected: Her eldest son is a pilot in the Air Force, Clem is gone for days on boat patrol, and her village is subjected to enemy bombs.

Released in 1942, this movie was a big hit with its patriotic message and wholesome family values. While the Miniver family is somewhat idealized, they nevertheless feel the horror of wartime. It's rousing and sentimental without being overly preachy and won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Garson is just perfect as the loving woman who holds her family together and Pigeon is a good match as her husband. The supporting cast is lovely, especially Henry Travers as the rose-loving station master.

The DVD extras include two patriotic short films that were made during the war. This is an inspiring, sweet, and timeless story of the effects of war on the home-front. Highly recommended.

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review by: ray dorrity date: 2007-10-04 rating:
Classic War Movie
This movie is a "must have" classic. I would give it 10 Stars if I could.
It features bits of everything that was going on in UK during the early part of the war, the little boats to Dunkirk to rescue nearly 400'000 of our soldiers, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz etc., etc.
I should be scathing about the film, as being made in Hollywood, it has all the usual American characterisations of the Brits at war, but you overlook all that.
Good story, good acting and very enjoyable.
Churchill said that "Mrs. Miniver" did more for Britain's early war effort that a fleet of Destoyers would have.
Incidently, at the time of shooting, Greer Garson was having an affair with her on screen son, Richard Ney!
Buy and enjoy

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review by: Bishbaby date: 2007-03-12 rating:
Muddling through
Sir Winston Churchill said that Mrs Miniver did more for the British war effort than a fleet of destroyers. Released in 1942 when America had not long entered world war 2, it showed the US public the desperate situation that Britain was in, and did much to strengthen the US ressolve to fight and win.

Greer Garson gives a fine oscar winning performance, as a housewife coping with the horrors of a war that was brought home to the civilian population. Her intelligence, natural charm and good humour made her the perfect choice for the role.

Greer was ably assisted by her co-stars. You have to forgive the dodgy English accents of her husband (Walter Pidgeon), her elder son (Richard Ney)and his sweetheart (Teresa Wright). It does not spoil their good work. Most of the other main players were Brits, including Dame May Whitty, who gives her usual flawless performance, and Mrs Miniver's two younger children. Her younger son in particular, stands out as perhaps the most likable precocious child on film.

This film has the power to entertain people who were born long after he war had ended. It is just the film to watch on a wet Sunday afternoon.

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review by: 1000_pages date: 2004-05-08 rating:
America's Britain
Mrs Miniver is the wife of a typical English family. She, and the rest of her family, experience life in the first months of World War II. As they dodge bombs and hide in shelters, we are given a slight insight into what war must have been like for a middle class family in the Britain.

The film had a big budget so the elaborate sets and costumes are of no surprise. Something else that is not surprising is that the film had an agenda. Consider the film's place in history, 1943, a time when Britain was heavily in the war and America had just joined the fight. With this in mind a film such as Mrs Miniver, a film that propagandistically attempts to elicit American sympathy towards the British is not unexpected. I don't necessarily believe that this hinders the film but the frequent shots of British monuments, such as Big Ben is very self-conscious, and grows a little tiresome.

The film is of course entertaining, but to be honest it didn't stay with me and I soon forgot about it. You decide.


review by: date: 2004-04-16 rating:
Greer Garson IS Mrs Miniver
Such was the power of this WW2 film that Greer Garson complained that she was forever more referred to as 'Mrs Miniver'.

This is the Americanised version of a middle-class English family, living in England, during the course of WW2. Strangely enough, the American accents do not detract from the storyline of the lives and loves of this English family complete with captured Germany pilot and 'little boats' to Dunkirk set pieces. However, it also contains much to show how people strived to carry on with the normalities of life, like the annual flower show!

It deals with subjects which have become virtually taboo in the England we know today ~ love of family, love of country, love of God and loyalty to all.

Yes, it is sentimental and cynics may even say idealistic BUT it contains truisms that remain as important today as when this country fought for its very existence against the tyranny of Nazi Germany.

There are wonderfully strong performances from all the cast both main and supporting roles and remains an absolute classic.

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