Rating: 
Summary: Very powerful and moving
Review: The movie opens with the family fully content. Mrs. Miniver is worrying about the hat she bought, the husband about the car. The eldest son comes home from Oxford and ends up falling in love. It is announced at church that England is now in war with Germany. The boy enlists in the airforce. He and the girl get married and go on their honey moon. Tragedy strikes the family in a way you'll never be able to guess. This movie is a little slow at some points but is definetly a classic.
Rating:
Summary: The war movie without the soldiers
Review: This film highlights the resilient nature of the British in the face of adversity. The movie begins before the war with the typical middle-class family. You learn their joys and their everyday concerns. Then, the message comes to let them know that war, WWII, has started.Greer Garson plays Mrs. Miniver who is at the center of the story. Her oldest son has enlisted as a pilot and serves to defend England in the Battle of Britain. Her husband works with a civil defense unit and helps to evacuate soldiers at Dunkirk. Through all this, you see her continue life, as hard as it is, with a positive attitude and a stiff upper-lip. If you are a fan of war movies, I would highly recommend seeing this movie. It not only provides a contrast, but allows you to see another facet of war. A great movie.
Rating:
Summary: A must-see tear jerker
Review: This is a really great movie for everyone who likes oldies. It's something that the whole family can watch together and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Even for John Wayne Fans
Review: This is by far not your typical war movie. I love war movies. I have the vast majority of war movies on DVD or VHS. I have been anxiously awaiting some of the older classic war movies like "The Enemy Below (1957)", "African Queen (1951)", "Mrs. Minniver (1942)", and "The Pied Piper (1942)" to come out on DVD. I am delighted to see this will be available in February.
No movie that I have seen about WWII tells a better story of how the English endured so much hardship and personal loss for so many years. This could easily have been a very depressing movie but it has many lighter and uplifting moments that balance out the sorrow and make you feel good at the end of the movie. If you bought this just because of the award nominations it received you should consider yourself pretty smart. If you buy it because of the good reviews from people here at Amazon you are intelligent. If you bought it because you only buy the best movies, and this is a great movie with a boat load of extras, well there aren't words to describe how gifted you are. If you enjoy movies that take a more personal look at the impact of war on families you will like this movie. Far from being boring as some family movies drag when they get into far to many personal details. This movie has plenty of action with the Battle of Dunkirk, German bombings and strafings, and a enemy parachutist on the loose. Mrs. Miniver reminds me a little of a tough woman like Maureen O'Hara in the John Wayne movies. Her strength is a little more sophisticated but nonetheless you know it is there. She is the kind of woman you know can weather the storm and you are happy to have her with you. The DVD includes Greer Garson academy award footage, photos, and a couple wartime shorts. The movie itself makes it a great buy, but with these bonuses it's a steal.
Rating:
Summary: Propaganda as Entertainment
Review: This IS [or was] a wartime propaganda film, but one extremely well directed and played. In fact, Adolph Hitler stated that this was be best propaganda film produced by our side during WW II. The only ovely emotional and melodramatic moments typical in such films are the concluding scenes in the church. Otherwise, the approach is restrained, believable and thoroughly entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: A good, good movie, but a bit too much Hollywood thrown in
Review: This movie is about an above average family in Southern England and World War II. Southern England took some especially bad hits from Hitler's V1 bombs as well as air attacks. I found this movie a little unbelievable for a couple of reasons. One, while a distant village is being bombed off the map, Father (Walter Pidgeon) makes a lighthearted comment about the bright lights of the exploding bombs in the distance. Those bright lights signaled the end of hundreds (thousands) of lives of his fellow Brits. I can't believe anyone in a war zone would be so cavalier. The movie does have many high points and is a very interesting drama. The relationships between the characters is interesting and the acting is all done very well. I love old movies but this one didn't hit me. It's certainly worth watching a time or two, but I wouldn't go out and buy it for my own collection. It is a sanitized, hollywood version of war. Sanitized in that every one keeps "a stiff upper lip" in confronting the horrors of war.
Rating:
Summary: A Moving War Drama!
Review: This unique war drama is a little too Hollywoodized, but that doesn't diminish the emotional impact and poignancy of the film that has remains untouched after all these years. Greer Garson gives her best performance as the strong Mrs. Miniver. Walter Pidgeon and Teresa Wright are also great in support. This was one of the first films to look at war from another point of view, how the women left behind, mothers and wives, had to deal with the thought of their sons and husbands not coming back home. Filled with many memorable vignettes; the scene where Mrs. Miniver has to deal with a young German soldier, the flower show, and the last speech in the church is extremely poignant. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 7!
Rating:
Summary: Very Moving, amazingly real
Review: We saw this movie just a few months ago, and loved it. My mom was crying her head off when... well, I won't give it away. You have to see it! It is so great because the war had just started when they made so they really didn't know what was going to happen.
Rating:
Summary: Be prepared with the kleenex
Review: What a marvelous film! I am so impressed. This is a story of war, from the point of view of the civilian. It shows that people will survive anything, and that hardship does not have to mean sinking into a depression, rather that you pick yourself up and carry on.
There are many notable moments in this film for me. I found it very moving when the Minivers were being bombed that they kept reading "Alice in Wonderland" to keep from worrying. Upon seeing their house partially destroyed they focus on what is still standing.
The best point was the ending where the Reverend speaks of this being a war for all, not just soldiers. This speach is so timely now that I am surprised that some politician hasn't tried to use it!
Rating:
Summary: Mrs. Miniver: For Her War is Personal
Review: When MRS. MINIVER was released in 1942, England and Germany had been at war for nearly three years and the British armed forces were no lock to win. The United States had been openly aiding England with war materials, but it had been only a few months before that America became directly involved after Pearl Harbor. Hollywood knew that it would take many months before American aid could tip the scales in England's favor, and MRS. MINIVER was filmed to fill this gap by suggesting that our British allies were getting along well enough for us not to worry. The movie was successful beyond Hollywood's wildest expectation, and this success was not measured only in the seven Academy Awards won (best picture, best director (William Wylie), best actress (Greer Garson) among others, the film galvanized Americans to see a war that was still abstract for most and portray it on a personal level.
Greer Garson plays Kay Miniver, the upper middle-class wife of Mr. Miniver (Walter Pidgeon)in the early days of the war. Kay Miniver, though pictured as the stereotypical English woman chock full of optimism, courage, and resourcefullness, is symbolically seen as more American than British. When she hears about the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, the war seems rather a detached affair for her: life goes on for her and her family in a rather unruffled way. Slowly, the war becomes increasingly personal. She must alter her daily habits of consumption. Her son volunteers for the RAF. Her husband sails to Dunkirk to rescue the trapped British Army. Ultimately, she even physically takes part in the war by capturing a downed Luftwaffe pilot. As Kay Miniver morphs from passive supporter to active participant, the audience does too. The subtle psychological switch is accomplished through the believable interaction of the cast, a result that allows their personal lives to evolve in a manner similar to Mrs. Miniver's. Her son (Richard Ney) falls in love with Carol (Theresa Wright), which in turn allows the audience to empathise with Mrs. Miniver over fears for her son when he flies in combat. Carol is a fully fleshed character whose own life later takes on tearful and tragic overtones that serve to remind the audience that the price of freedom can never be paid in abstract coin, but only in the deeply personal coin that counts.
Much of the power of this movie resides in individual scenes that are stark reminders of the nobility of the Allied cause. Characters in MRS. MINIVER tend to lecture each other rather than engage in spontaneous conversation, but these set speeches are not necessarily a bad thing. Their measured tones simply reinforce the message that England is America's ally. There are two scenes of speeches that resonate even today. The first involves a German pilot (Helmut Dantine) who has parachuted onto Mrs. Miniver's garden, where he holds her captive. Even though he has no legitimate chance to escape, he nevertheless takes advantage of the moment to warn her and the audience that the devastation that had fallen on Europe and Britain was but the precursor to a much more lethal destruction soon to follow. Dantine's voice is full of a slightly hysterical smugness that must have grated on the audience of 1942. The second scene is the famous view of the bombed out church that closes the movie. The vicar (Henry Travers) exhorts the congregation in tones and words that amplify the theme that tragic acceptance of personal loss is the brutal necessity to achieve victory. As he speaks, the camera lingers over empty chairs that had contained living parishioners, many of whom were women and choirboys. God is clearly on the Allied side. MRS. MINIVER achieved its purpose of uniting the allies in a holy war against Nazism. Not many 'message' movies retain their intrinsic entertainment value decades after the message has become an historical footnote, but MRS. MINIVER is such a rare film. It makes you care about that message even when you know you are being manipulated.
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