Best Picture: "Mrs. Miniver," 1942

Movie Stats:

Released 1942 (USA)

American, in English (there is a tiny bit of non-translated German)

Director – William Wyler

Stars – Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Teresa Wright

Plot Summary:

Follows the lives of one British family, the Minivers (Garson & Pidgeon), through the early years of WWII. Teresa Wright plays Carol Beldon, the eldest Miniver son’s love interest.

Bad Stuff:

Lots of good, old-fashioned 1940s ultra-sentimentality. Don’t get me wrong, at least with this movie, I get where they were coming from. It’s essentially an Allied propaganda piece, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It was intended to showcase the plight of the righteous, stoic, beleaguered British people to an American public who had only just entered the war. But I’m still not so stupid as to believe that everything in England was sunshine and puppies until WWII began. And I don’t really like being pandered to that way.

Man, I cannot wait to get to whatever decade of film it was when they stopped forcing actors to use that weird, faux-posh, sort-of-British accent. You know, the accent I use when I jokingly call the husband “dahling.” It drives me crazy to hear everyone talking like that.

Good Stuff:

It has Clarence! (You might know him as the actor Henry Travers.)

It seemed pretty obvious the whole film that a major character was going to die. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that. I give kudos to the movie for it not being the first, or even the second or third, person that I expected. The death, when it finally came, actually surprised me. So, well-played, movie, well-played.

The Verdict:

I think that the worst thing about this movie is that there’s not much to say about it at all. The story and the acting were both solid. It was interesting in parts; dull in others. I completely get why it was a favorite in its day. On the other hand, I also get why it’s been lost to the annals of time. Until I decided to do this project, I’d never even heard of it. I think it’s one of those movies that can’t transcend its era. I don’t think a lot of people today would connect with it, because, in modern times, our war movies tend to be a lot more realistic & visceral.

Still, I don’t think it was bad and I enjoyed it more than some of the other Oscar winners. I give this movie 3 stars.

Bonus Movie Fun Fact: After filming, Greer Garson married the man who played her eldest son Vin, Richard Ney. She was 12 years his senior. The marriage lasted only a few years & it did not end well.