Mrs. Miniver-the review
Added 10/10/2008
Mrs. Miniver is Greer Garson at her best. This wartime story tells of a family during the bombings of England. Every member is affected-either by going off to war itself ,or volunteering one's services to the war effort. Mrs.Miniver has some prize winning roses,and the effort made by everyone in the community to lead normal everyday lives is apparent by having a rose judging contest. Although enemy planes are flying and dropping bombs dangerously close,it is a clear case of what people would do to lead normal lives after their world has been turn upside down.
Greer Garson won an oscar for her role as a strong woman trying to keep her family intact inspite the war and the world around them falling apart. Walter Piegeon plays her husband as he does in all Greer's movies,the chemistry bewteen these two actors is something to be marveled. It is rumored that Greer and Walter had an on-again -off-again relationship in real life;for many years. If you never seen a Greer Garson movie,this is the one to start with . It has all the elements that made these type of movies very popular back then. It has suspence{the Germans dropping bombs and opening fire on them}major drama ,and some comedy in certain scenes. Letting the viewer know like in real life at times you might just be able to laugh literaly in the face of danger. After the war,MGM didn't know what to do with Greer,since strong women roles weren't needed as much-and decide to star her in a comedy called "Julia Misbehaves". Greer manages to land on her feet in this movie,and continued to have a successful career after the war.
My only complaint is that they don't have a boxed set of all her movies;and not all of them are on dvd. "That Forsythe Woman"made later in her career with Errol Flynn(his comeback at this point),"Valley of Decision" with Gregory Peck. Mrs.Parkington-Greer ages 60 years in that one -are just some examples of films that need to be on dvd. Check out "Pride and Prudejuice" along with "Random Harvest". A real dramatic tearjerker staring Ronald Coleman. These movies are on dvd, along with "Goodbye Mr.Chips"staring Robert Donat and "Madame Currie". I would suggest to anyone to buy this movie (Mrs.Miniver)to see great acting being played out in a great story to boot. If you like old movies,you will not be dissappointed with this one.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Love this WWII classic
Added 6/2/2008
What a brave woman. The story has love and loss. You will laugh and cry. I must have for a good film collection.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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There will always be an England.
Added 10/6/2005
I find World War II movies about the home front more interesting than actual battle scene flicks. More people can relate to the experience than the small percentage of soldiers that actually saw combat.
There are some really fine movies such as "Since You Went Away", "Tender Comrade" & the essential "Best Years of Our Life", actually made in 1946. Mrs Miniver from 1942 was one of the first of these movies & perhaps just a little better. It takes place in England as the war is about to begin portrays Dunkirk & the blitz that followed. It was aimed smack dab at American public opinion.
Despite this manipulation, it is an outstanding movie worthy of all the awards it received. Remember, at this time the outcome of the war was still in doubt (we were losing).
Greer Garson is absolutely wonderful as the idealized wife, mother & woman in those dark days during the Battle of Britian when England stood alone. Walter Pidgeon is her amiable husband, Richard Ney her grown-up son who joins the RAF. He falls in love with Theresa Wright, the typical girl-next-door type. There are her little children & Henry Travers (remember him?) for humor. Their well ordered life is torn apart, along with their beautiful home when it is bombed. Mrs. Miniver & the whole family are so brave, British, stiff upper lip & all that. You know some tragedy must befall them. When it does it is a bit of a surprise.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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A wonderful movie which deserved all the awards which were bestowed upon it. It is refreshing to view great movies with wonderful stories minus bad language and nudity.
As a big fan of Greer Garson, I must comment on Jane Bedinger's review in which she claimed that Ms. Garson was having an "affair" with the actor who played her son. Ms. Garson fell in love with and married Richard Ney about a year after the movie was made. I don't see how Ms. Bedinger could consider this an "affair".
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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the subtlety and greatness of "Mrs. Miniver"
Added 5/7/2005
When I watch this film, I feel like I am in Britain during those dramatic months when the RAF was fighting daily to ward off the brain-washed German barbarians, and the world was hanging by a thread. (Helmut Dantin shouts in German like Hitler at one point: "We will destroy everything!")Though it won the Academy Award in 1942, it was in fact made in 1941, and it is about events in 1939-1940, when Britain stood alone, a never-to-be-forgetten moment in human history. People more objective than I will call it propaganda; I call it a dramatic portrayal of the essence of a historial moment.
Willie Wilder manages to create on a Hollywood studio lot the atmosphere of village in Southern England (near Portsmouth perhaps). The flower show scene is superbly done: a wonderful madrigal choir sings a classical English folk song. It is a very English moment. Wilder's got the train (as they were then) right and the station, as well as the Enlish church with its private pews for the gentry. He even manages to get English accents out of everyone except Walter Pidgeon. Ney who plays Miniver's son (in real life about to marry his mother) and little Christopher Severn, her other son, are straight up and down Americans, but they pull off the accent perfectly. Dame May Whittey gives the sense of quality and breeding that was then a part of English character. Wilder touches affectionately upon English class obsessions, their former love of and excellence at gardening, the cockiness and the fashionable pseudo-radicalism of young Oxbridge graduates, the understated physical bravery of the English people. It's a brilliant job of director and a fabulous piece of revenge on Wilder's part for Hitler's antisemitism, of which he was a victim.
Mrs. Miniver is more than a film. It is part of history. It communicates the indominable spirit of the English people. Ney, who plays Miniver's son, is a subtle combination of youth and very purposeful strength. He giggles and cackles like a boy in front of his parents and siblings, but when he gets the girl alone he knows what he wants, and you recognize that he is very much a man. You realize also that in a Spitfire dogfight with the Germans over England, he will win. There are many angles to this film that warrant watching it a number of times.
"Mrs Miniver" did a lot to bring world opinion around to Britain's side, and in that, it is unique in Hollywood history as film of historical importane.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Mrs. Miniver-the review
Added 10/10/2008
Mrs. Miniver is Greer Garson at her best. This wartime story tells of a family during the bombings of England. Every member is affected-either by going off to war itself ,or volunteering one's services to the war effort. Mrs.Miniver has some prize winning roses,and the effort made by everyone in the community to lead normal everyday lives is apparent by having a rose judging contest. Although enemy planes are flying and dropping bombs dangerously close,it is a clear case of what people would do to lead normal lives after their world has been turn upside down.
Greer Garson won an oscar for her role as a strong woman trying to keep her family intact inspite the war and the world around them falling apart. Walter Piegeon plays her husband as he does in all Greer's movies,the chemistry bewteen these two actors is something to be marveled. It is rumored that Greer and Walter had an on-again -off-again relationship in real life;for many years. If you never seen a Greer Garson movie,this is the one to start with . It has all the elements that made these type of movies very popular back then. It has suspence{the Germans dropping bombs and opening fire on them}major drama ,and some comedy in certain scenes. Letting the viewer know like in real life at times you might just be able to laugh literaly in the face of danger. After the war,MGM didn't know what to do with Greer,since strong women roles weren't needed as much-and decide to star her in a comedy called "Julia Misbehaves". Greer manages to land on her feet in this movie,and continued to have a successful career after the war.
My only complaint is that they don't have a boxed set of all her movies;and not all of them are on dvd. "That Forsythe Woman"made later in her career with Errol Flynn(his comeback at this point),"Valley of Decision" with Gregory Peck. Mrs.Parkington-Greer ages 60 years in that one -are just some examples of films that need to be on dvd. Check out "Pride and Prudejuice" along with "Random Harvest". A real dramatic tearjerker staring Ronald Coleman. These movies are on dvd, along with "Goodbye Mr.Chips"staring Robert Donat and "Madame Currie". I would suggest to anyone to buy this movie (Mrs.Miniver)to see great acting being played out in a great story to boot. If you like old movies,you will not be dissappointed with this one.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Love this WWII classic
Added 6/2/2008
What a brave woman. The story has love and loss. You will laugh and cry. I must have for a good film collection.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
There will always be an England.
Added 10/6/2005
I find World War II movies about the home front more interesting than actual battle scene flicks. More people can relate to the experience than the small percentage of soldiers that actually saw combat.
There are some really fine movies such as "Since You Went Away", "Tender Comrade" & the essential "Best Years of Our Life", actually made in 1946. Mrs Miniver from 1942 was one of the first of these movies & perhaps just a little better. It takes place in England as the war is about to begin portrays Dunkirk & the blitz that followed. It was aimed smack dab at American public opinion.
Despite this manipulation, it is an outstanding movie worthy of all the awards it received. Remember, at this time the outcome of the war was still in doubt (we were losing).
Greer Garson is absolutely wonderful as the idealized wife, mother & woman in those dark days during the Battle of Britian when England stood alone. Walter Pidgeon is her amiable husband, Richard Ney her grown-up son who joins the RAF. He falls in love with Theresa Wright, the typical girl-next-door type. There are her little children & Henry Travers (remember him?) for humor. Their well ordered life is torn apart, along with their beautiful home when it is bombed. Mrs. Miniver & the whole family are so brave, British, stiff upper lip & all that. You know some tragedy must befall them. When it does it is a bit of a surprise.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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