Rated:
NR
Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, et al.
Director: William Wyler
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 colorful 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'd expect from a legendary film that
lives up to its billing. --Valerie J. Nelson
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The most important picture of World War II was an
intensely moving drama about a middle class British family and its strong
matriarch standing up against the tragedies and terrors of the onset of
World War II. The movie was "Mrs. Miniver".
"Mrs. Miniver" remains today one of the most powerful and
compelling films ever made about the hardships of war even with the lack
of a single battle scene. Like "Gone With the Wind", "Mrs. Miniver's
greatness lies in its revealing look of the individuals affected by a war.
Making the film an even greater emotional experience is the fact that this
film was made just at the time it revolves around, during the onset of
WWII, when the outcome of the war was still uncertain and the future of
the world was hanging in the balance.
In the title role of the film, Greer Garson is radiant,
willful, warm and determined in the role of Kay Miniver, a British
housewife who must keep her head on the homefront with her two young
children while her husband (Walter Pidgeon) and son (Richard Ney) defend
their country at the onset of World War II. Through her faith, her
intelligence, and her love, Kay manages to hold her family together even
as England collapses under the powerful effects of an unstoppable war. The
picture's ending on a strong note of hope is that lingering optimism which
was the hope of audiences during WWII... that one day, there would be
peace.
Garson won an Academy Award for her brilliant portrayal,
and rightly so, for she invests her scenes with a genuine determination
and will: In one scene, she holds a German soldier at bay with a gun in
her kitchen as her children sleep upstairs. In another scene, she reads
"Alice in Wonderland" to her children in a bomb shelter as bombs begin to
fall over them. In still another scene, Garson drives with her
daughter-in-law (Teresa Wright, whose charming portrayal earned her an
Oscar for Best Supporting Actress) through a countryside engaged in sky
battle.
William Wyler's brilliant direction sears through the film
and its cast, earning him an Oscar for Best Director, and for the film
itself, Best Picture of 1942.
Still powerful after half a century, "Mrs. Miniver" is a
brilliant testament to the soldiers who lost their lives on the
battleground- and on the home front- in defense of their country. Wartime
audiences were given a great boost of morale in this movie, and that
morale shines through in this indescribably great film classic.
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