Must See Movie...

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Though I'm a huge Oscar buff, it took me forever to get around to watching "Mrs. Miniver," the Best Picture winner from 1942. It's not that I purposely avoided seeing it -- it's just that my impression was that it would be tasteful and mediocre, and there always seemed to be something more interesting that I wanted to watch instead. How surprised I was, then, to find that this film is marvelous. Where I expected to find maudlin, heavy-handed WWII propaganda, I instead found a down-to-earth, unsentimental depiction of regular people making the best of a terrible situation because they have no other option. Greer Garson, whose charms I've mostly been able to resist, is luminous in the title role. The mannerisms that I've found make her somewhat difficult to watch in other movies are absent here. A scene set in a bomb shelter, showing Mrs. Miniver and her husband, played winningly by Walter Pidgeon, trying to comfort their terrified young children while being terrified themselves, is powerful and difficult to watch.Garson deservedly won an Oscar for her performance, and Pidgeon was nominated. The film became the first one to receive both five acting nominations as well as nominations in every acting category, a feat only achieved in later years by "From Here to Eternity," "Bonnie and Clyde," and "Network." It also received Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Supporting Actress (Teresa Wright, who was also nominated for Best Actress that year in "The Pride of the Yankees"), Best Screenplay, and Best black and white Cinematography. With 12 nominations, it was the most nominated film of its year. Other nominations included Best Actor (Pidgeon), Best Supporting Actor (Henry Travers), Best Supporting Actress (May Witty, heartbreaking), Best Film Editing, Best Sound Recording, and Best Special Effects.Grade: A

I can only imagine the impact this movie must have had on American audiences in 1942--the deep feelings of sympathy it aroused for the British people who were suffering under the incessant Nazi bombings. I'm guessing that it was this movie that made my mother say that her favorite male movie star was Walter Pidgeon (something I could never figure out till I saw "Mrs. Miniver" and realized how much she must have cried seeing it and knowing that my dad would soon be shipped out to England).But in retrospect, the movie needs to be seen also in the context of war-time propaganda and its impact on British and American viewers. The biggest surprise in the movie is surely not that "Lady Beldon" renounces her claim to the village's rose of the year and shows her common cause with "the people". Rather, it was the designation of the Brit who was to be the symbol for all of Britain's war dead. From out of the blue, it turned out to be Lady Beldon's grand- daughter (and a more ethereal, tender and vulnerable creature couldn't have been chosen for the role than Teresa Wright).The obvious choice, and the one everyone in the movie theater must have anticipated, was the Minivers' son as fighter-pilot destined to die in the Battle of Britain (and he almost certainly would have died if he had existed in real life--there were very few fighter pilots who survived from the beginning of war to the end). But the death of a beautiful, young woman, symbol of all the "innocent civilians" to die in the war, surely had a greater impact on the movie-goers. In a sense, it prepared Americans and Brits to understand and accept the logic of Total War, where there are no "innocent civilians".And so it's a strange and sad irony that "Mrs. Miniver" plays a part (a small part, admittedly) in laying the groundwork for the legitimation of the firestorm in Dresden (1945) that killed in a few hours 25,000 Germans, more than half of all the Britons killed over the years of the Nazi bombing of Britain. Just one chapter in the story of the war-time bombing of civilians in the 20th century and beyond.

"Mrs. Miniver" is an insightful slice of upper-class life in small British towns. And Oscar-winning Greer Garson was born to play that role. She illuminates the screen with her delicate traits and her naturalness covering a wide range of attitudes (rather than emotions) from gravity and dignity to sympathy and some bits of extravagance. Of course, every now and then, Walter Pidgeon steals the show as the loving and caring husband, but the focus is clearly on the titular heroine.And speaking of heroine, it seems like within its documentary value, William Wyler also tries to highlight the everyday heroism of women like Kay Miniver before the word would take its fullest meaning when War would be declared to Germany. Yes, it takes some moral strength, some guts, to raise a family, to make a man like Vin (Richard Ney) out of a boy, to make his involvement to defend his country going without saying, to take care of a house, man, children during a time where women were not -like feminists love to point out- slaves of men, but like the trustworthy sentinels of the family sanctuary, no less sacred than the city, whose defense relied on men's shoulders.Men outside and women inside, this was not a denigration of women's rights but an equilibrium that every civilization had reached in a long natural process whose ultimate goal was to ensure harmony on a longer term. A film like William Wyler's "Mrs Miniver" is the perfect answer to feminism because it demonstrates the positive role played by women in the early 20th century, they weren't devoted to men, but to an order that valued men and women as well, in different yet complementary ways. And now that characters like Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, Lara Croft or the Bride became fashion, there is something refreshing in the more traditional form of courage and strength embodied by Garson. In her own personal way, she kicks ass.Of course, I'm not ignoring the film's political motives. I concede a similar film could have been made with a "Frau Muller" mother a happy German family, but "Mrs Miniver" is immune against such accusations because the film clearly was made at a time where Germany had the upper hand (maybe even released before America's involvement) therefore, Britain was the hunted, the wounded one, and it's legitimate to show British people victims of a war they didn't start, well, not the civilians anyway. Later, a film would show Germany destroyed by the bombings, "Germany: Year Zero" but it was in 1947, "Miniver" is from 1942, these five years, let's just say an eternity, war wasn't over yet and Germany still could win, "God defend the 'right'" was still a prayer, and the year of the film's release makes the atmosphere of the final act even more unsettling.And the film evokes the War's infamous 'innovation', as the vicar says at the end in the memorable speech: "it's people's war", homes became battlefields. It's very revealing of the war's barbarity that the three victims of the final bombing were a child, an old man and a young lady. Fighting became such a natural choice, the word 'hero' I mentioned lost its meaning. For us, these people are worthy of admiration, but for them, they were just doing their duty. Men were assigned to escort some ships and could not 'sail back'. Being a father myself, I hope I'll never have to cover the ears of my daughter, and pretend nothing will happen while hearing a strident whizzing getting louder. The merit of "Mrs Miniver" is to show the war from the distant perspective of civilians, working like warning for future generations. No one who lived a war can wish for one to happen, and no wonder we have so many warmongers in our politicians' baby-boom generation.Still, "Mrs Miniver" could've been just a war picture, with an emphasis on 'picture', a story, with events working like plot devices. A brave wagon master played by Henry Travers wants to enter his beautiful rose named after Mrs. Miniver, in a contest that only Lady Beldon (a great Dame May Witty) ever participated in and won ... we know the old coot will have a change of mind (or heart, in that specific case). When Carol, her grand-daughter, played by the beautiful Teresa Wright comes to ask Miniver to convince the man to withdraw his rose, her son Vin accuses her of snobbery ... naturally, they fall in love right after. Men talk about a disappearing German pilot, and bingo, guess who finds him. It's like every chain of events works in the most predictable way, and this is why, as soon as good old Vin joined the RAF... he made his death the most predictable one.The omen starts with his parents' concerns, the last-minute calls of duty, the reluctance of Lady Beldon to have her Carol lose her husband at war like she did at a younger age, and naturally, Carol herself, who shares her fears with her mother-in-law, and explains that she wants to make the most of life before turning into a widow. And God, I didn't see it coming ... the story's masterstroke. I don't know if it can be labeled as a twist ending, but it had for me the same shocking effect. It's an irony of fate or maybe God's response to men's presumptuousness. Tragedy struck down the Miniver family by killing off Carol, and as sad as it was, this was the highlight of the film for me, I was blown away by that ending, because all the inspirational and emotional stuff that rhymed in conventional was immediately redeemed by Carol's death, one that was true to life's unexpectedness.Sorry to conclude with movie-geek jargon, but enough of grandiloquent words, "Mrs. Miniver" features perhaps one of the most underrated (and powerful) twist-endings, and this is why I went from liking to loving it.

Superb World War 2 drama, and the 1943 Best Picture Oscar winner.Great depiction of the effects of WW2 on a family and community, what they have to go through and how they survive. Not at all sugar- coated: quite gritty and realistic. Conclusion is very stirring. Also covers social issues, especially the English class system, though this is not tackled in a very in-depth or very confrontational manner. Considering that this was made in 1942, it would have have been intended as a propaganda movie, but it doesn't come across at all as being jingoistic or overly nationalistic. It is a movie for all time.Greer Garson and Teresa Wright are excellent in the main female roles, and well-deserved their Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars, respectively. Both are stunningly beautiful too. Henry Travers and May Witty are great as Mr Ballard and Lady Beldon, respectively, and deserved their supporting actor/actress nominations.However, among these fantastic performances are two weak ones which reduce the quality of the movie somewhat, and make it less than perfect. What possessed the producers to cast two Americans (though Walter Pidgeon might be regarded as a Canadian) in the two main male roles is beyond me. Walter Pidgeon is supposed to be the quintessential English gentleman yet doesn't even try to sound it, sticking with his American accent. This and his wooden acting are quite off-putting. Somehow he then got an Oscar nomination too.Richard Ney, as Vincent Miniver, at least put on an English accent, but it comes across as too posh and snooty. Also off-putting.Couldn't they find two English actors?Overall, however, it is a timeless classic.