Rent Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Well Rounded War Drama - Mrs. Miniver review by AK

Hollwoods take on telling a British war movie. The story is about the experience of living through WW2 for provincial people. Greer Garson is amazing as the resilient mother figure and the plot twists and charcter arcs are well rendered; making this a meaningful film for all.

Morale Booster. - Mrs. Miniver review by Steve

An archetypal portrait of life in the English home counties in the first years of WWII, and a sanitised vision of the shock and havoc unleashed by the Luftwaffe. The Minivers are an upper middle class family in a rural village hardly changed since the Domesday Book, where everyone knows their place. Much of the narrative centres on the competition for the best rose at the village fête...  

Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson) is a frivolous but kind and resourceful woman of the type that would become the unsung heroes of the home front. She captures a grounded Nazi pilot at gunpoint! Her husband (Walter Pidgeon) sails with the light rivercraft over the Channel to Dunkirk. Her charming son joins the RAF, and marries the daughter of the local aristocracy.

They adapt through courage and sacrifice. It's typical for UK viewers to be sniffy about Mrs. Miniver because it creates an Americanised impression of little England, with its arcane customs and preoccupation with class. But this was the actual model for many British homefront films made in the war years. And William Wyler's images would be copied many times before VE Day.

Mrs. Miniver was a gift from Hollywood, from MGM, to the British war effort. Production was started before Pearl Harbour, before the US officially entered the war. It helped reverse American isolationism. It's a sentimental film, but brilliant propaganda. Greer Garson won the Oscar and she's perfect casting. Of course her character is an ideal, but she became a symbol of the war effort.

Keep Calm and Carry On (Filming in California) - Mrs. Miniver review by griggs

Few wartime films wear their sentiment as proudly as Mrs. Miniver, and that’s part of the charm. It’s completely sincere — the sort of film where every cup of tea and stiff upper lip counts as quiet heroism. Greer Garson holds it all together with warmth and dignity, giving the Blitz a human face without tipping into melodrama.

For all that sincerity, it’s probably the most effective bit of wartime propaganda ever made — all the more impressive since it was filmed entirely in the US, save a few early exterior scenes. Beneath the polished Hollywood gloss are sly digs at Hitler’s ego, his vegetarianism, and that famous moustache. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a perfectly polite insult.

The speeches swell, the emotions are tidy, but it still works. Mrs. Miniver sells courage, decency, and quiet defiance without apology — proof that even propaganda can be beautifully done.