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Mrs. Miniver

Mrs. Miniver

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $14.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A ROSE FOR MRS. MINIVER.
Review: It's still possible for a sentimental person to enjoy this saga of fortitude in the face of war if only for its bravery and romance and wholesomeness; but at the time it came out, even the hard of heart found it irresistible, for it is sheer, shameless, and superb wartime propaganda about an English family during the infamous Blitz. As such, it brought the war home, especially to Americans just entering it and just beginning to realise how vulnerable everyone was to the threat of rapacious evil. Greer Garson was thereafter forever identified with the heroine she portrayed so perfectly - brave, courteous, resourceful, controlled, and utterly noble. She may seem a bit over the top to be jaded, modern audiences, but moments of crisis have always been known to bring into sharper relief latent personality traits which promp one to "rise to the occasion". In this respect, Garson epitomises the vast majority of hardworking, long-suffering English housewives whose patriotism and deep determination became a palatable defense in the bitter struggle against Nazi Germany. Her inner strength inspires others to tap their own secret depths.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Golden Classic Still Shines
Review: Just had the pleasure of watching this again, I watch it once every few years. Greer Garson & Walter Pidgeon play off each other extremely well as they hold their family together during the air raids right over their own property. Henry Travers is wonderful as the popular stationmaster who names his prize red rose after Mrs. Miniver, for she truly is a beautiful English rose herself. Equally good performances from everyone in the cast. If you enjoy films that tell wartime stories, this is definitely a must-have. Very highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Deserves all the Honors it Received
Review: Made in 1942, after the US entered World War Two, this film depicts the lives of an upper-class family in Britain during the start of Britain's war with Germany, Dunkirk (1940), and the Battle of Britain. The beautiful Greer Garson was the matriarch of this family ,and in addition to her stunning beauty, she provided the backbone for the family and friends throughout. Walter Pidgeon, the husband and father, was no slouch either. His strength and courage complimented Mrs Miniver's most effectively. The movie has the usual patriotic appeals of any war drama made during the war, including the inevitable Savings Bond appeal in the closing credits.

Only those who lived through the Nazi bombings of England can truly attest to the accuracy of the terror depicted, but there is no doubt this family faired better, thanks to their affluence, than perhaps the less affluent Brits did in other regions. Beyond that, the movie starts a bit slow, but picks up and leaves the viewer with a sense of the agony endured by Brits during this period. The ending is a shocker, at least to me, and is much different than expected, although you know something will inevitablly happen throughout the whole film.

The movie was derived from a Book-of-the-Month Club selection of the time, and won a pile of Oscars including Best Picture for 1942. I have known of this movie for years, but did not see it or even realize just how interesting it was until recently. As a collector of war theme movies, this film came to my attention again, and I thought it was an important addition to my collection. I was right. It supposedly garnered praise from the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and it certainly was popular with movie goers of the day. No collection of great movies is complete without this one, whether you are a war movie buff, Academy Award winners collector, or you just like good, emotion evoking entertainment.

I highly recommend it, and doubt if anyone would be disappointed by adding it to their collection.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good film; yet a tad on the overlong side
Review: MRS. MINIVER is a very poignant and touching film experience filled with a great cast and a lasting message. Although it is not a landmark motion picture, it still provides a perception of the Second World War and how it was like on the English side for a family having to split up and decide their fates. The only problems are the fact that it feels like a soap opera often dragging on for over two hours and that the Miniver family, although portrayed by masterful actors, isn't as completely convincing as it should have been. Quite watchable, but never works entirely.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Exceptional!
Review: Mrs. Miniver takes you back to a time when life was simple, when rights were right and wrongs were wrong. A time when family, love and passion brurned bright. A time when freedom was worth fighting for and the loss of life had purpose and reason. This film portrays the the best of who each of us can be and serves as a piercing reminder of who we should be...even when circumstances cause great pain and tremendous loss. By far Ms. Garson's best performance and a video library must!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Morale Booster
Review: Mrs. Miniver was an important film to come out of Hollywood during WWII. Not only was it a critical and commercial success, it had a great message for the British about continuing the fight. It also give the rest of the world a sense of what it was like for the British living with the constant threat of the Germans. The movie has a lot going for it. It's directed by William Wyler, who once again does an excellent job, balancing sentiment with drama in this story of Mrs. Miniver and her family. Greer Garson gives a warm performance as the model English wife and mother, and Walter Pidgeon is solid as her husband. The supporting cast of Teresa Wright, Dame May Whitty, and Henry Travers add much to the film. There are a number of scenes that I really enjoyed, including Mrs. Miniver's confrontation with a downed German airman, the Minivers' night in their shelter during an air raid, and the final scene in the Church. Almost sixty years later, it's easy to see the emotional impact this film must have had on audiences.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Powerful, uplifting drama of a family during the Blitz
Review: One of the most important films of World War II, Mrs. Miniver is the wonderful story of a middle-class English family during the German Blitz. I'll admit that the film occasionally feels a bit forced, but that seems to have been the point. It's telling that director William Wyler battled with studio head Louis B. Mayer to include a fascist-spouting Nazi pilot; once Pearl Harbor was attacked, Mayer let Wyler have his way with the character. Mrs. Miniver provided a great deal of morale in the early war years, so much so that Winston Churchill said the film was more helpful than a fleet of destroyers. The film's real power is derived from the wonderful performance of Greer Garson in the title role; the film established her as THE leading lady of the 1940s and it's easy to see why. She's radiant here, giving a controlled, yet spirited performance (oddly, she didn't want the role, and took it only when Norma Shearer passed it up). She won a richly deserved Oscar for it, though she's gone down in history for having given a one-hour acceptance speech--in reality, it was only 5 minutes, much shorter than some we have to endure today.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A fine picture
Review: Outstanding acting, nuanced direction, and heroic sentiment -- all can be said of Wyler's Mrs. Miniver. Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon are as touchingly romantic as ever as the Minivers. Overall, the picture has a kind of understated beauty to it, a calm strength, and a quiet excitement. Highly recommended!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: British family album.
Review: Some people say: "The best movie I have ever seen in my life", but I think in its time (1942) this was a great movie, now a remembrance of old techniques. Example: It looks as pencil drawings of the city of London, boats that are simply animated cartoons, and the mansion of Miniver Family seems as a postal card stamp. To recapitulate, the plot was simple, appealing to a superficial nationalism, without deep roots of convictions. Why are two women alone in the middle of a battle? Where was Mr. Miniver? What was he doing, he left these two women in this dangerous moment? Else, the rose contest was very "kinder garden" like activity. In addition, the man of Mrs. Miniver rose seems fool in its acting manners. To recapitulate, it was a family album story.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE MOVIE THAT SAVED THE MORALE OF WARTIME AUDIENCES!
Review: 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 optimisim 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 homefront- 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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