Mrs. Miniver is an American film about the beginning of World War II in Britain.\u00a0 Greer Garson is Mrs. Kay Miniver, wife of well to do, British architect Clem Miniver played by Walter Pidgeon.\u00a0 They live in a rural area outside of London on the Thames River where they enjoy a happy home life with their three children and the requisite maid and cook and beautiful home.<\/p>\n
Their son Vin is just returning from Oxford while the two younger children are a boy and girl who look to be about six and ten years old respectively.\u00a0 Early in the story we meet Carol Beldon, granddaughter of Lady Beldon, the local aristocrat who presides over the social world of the proper residents of their town.\u00a0 Of course, Vin and Carol fall in love.\u00a0 This sets the stage for the dramatic tension that defines the story.<\/p>\n
This is 1939 and war has just been declared.\u00a0 The realities of this slowly encircle the beautiful carefree life of the Minivers and then pummel it like the nightly bombings pummel their town.\u00a0 Vin and Carol marry before he enlists in the Royal Air Force.\u00a0 In a frank discussion Kay and Carol talk about acknowledging that it is very likely Vin will be killed in the war.\u00a0 Carol is especially adamant that this reality makes her determined to charge with meaning and emotion their brief life together before his departure for active combat.<\/p>\n
One of the most affecting scenes in the movie has Kay and Clem huddled in their backyard bomb shelter with their two young children during a bombing raid.\u00a0 The children are trying to sleep in a small bunk bed while the parents sit up and try to distract themselves with chit chat about a book they enjoyed as children, Alice in Wonderland.\u00a0 But the bombing runs keep getting closer and closer and finally the concussions are almost on top of them and the children become hysterical and their parents cradle them in their arms and try to sooth them while hell is unleashed around them.\u00a0 Finally, the shelter door blows open and we realize that the bombs have been landing all around their house.\u00a0 Finally, the attack ebbs into the distance and they sit dazed but alive.<\/p>\n
Vin is given leave and he comes to visit his family.\u00a0 He and Carol are given a room to stay in in the damaged home of his parents and they go to a local flower show where Carol\u2019s grandmother\u2019s prize roses are competing against a rose named the Mrs. Miniver by a local friend, the train station master.\u00a0 At the suggestion of her granddaughter\u2019s husband Lady Beldon is grudgingly convinced to allow her rival to win the grand prize.\u00a0 And this happy moment is quickly followed by news of a massive air raid coming and Vin\u2019s recall to his flight wing.<\/p>\n
Carol and Kay drive him to his base and on the return trip home the two women are caught in the wreckage of an aerial dogfight and some machine gun bullets penetrate the car.\u00a0 Carol is badly wounded and Kay rushes her home and calls for medical help by phone.\u00a0 But shortly afterward Carol dies and Kay cradles her lifeless body and cries inconsolably.<\/p>\n
In the last scene of the movie the townspeople are gathered in the heavily damaged village church and the minister preaches a sermon recognizing the deaths and injuries of so many of the parish including Carol and the station master who won the rose contest.\u00a0 But he paints the war as a sacred duty to preserve their freedom and provide hope for a return to the happy lives they had before.<\/p>\n
In many ways Mrs. Miniver was a war propaganda movie to prepare the American public for the realities of the war that the United States had just joined and to reinforce the bonds of friendship between the United States and England.\u00a0 The Nazis, in the person of a German paratrooper are painted in a very negative light.\u00a0 And the bombing campaign was meant to show Americans that fighting the enemy in Europe instead of at home was a great blessing for us.<\/p>\n
Greer Garson\u2019s portrayal is very effective.\u00a0 In fact, the whole family is extremely likable and they naturally draw the audience\u2019s sympathy at each stage of the film.\u00a0 We are shown them both in their carefree earlier lives and in the midst of great tragedy and they always attract our good feeling for them.<\/p>\n
My favorite scene takes place after Clem has been summoned by the local civil defense authorities to take his small motor boat down the Thames River.\u00a0 He learns that they are looking for volunteers to pilot their boats to Dunkirk to rescue the surrounded British Expeditionary Force in France.\u00a0 While he is away Mrs. Miniver is captured by an injured German paratrooper and held at gunpoint in her own home while the German demands food and drink and a coat to help him avoid detection once he leaves.\u00a0 Luckily, he passes out from his injuries and she is able to take his gun and hide it and call the police.\u00a0 Shortly after, Clem returns from his mission, exhausted, filthy and exultant.\u00a0 Kay welcomes him and lets him bath and go to bed to fall into an exhausted sleep.\u00a0 When he wakes the next afternoon, he asks how things went while he was gone and she tells him all was well.\u00a0 While talking to the cook about the breakfast that Clem wants, she reminds Kay that there isn\u2019t any ham left because she gave it to the German paratrooper.\u00a0 When Clem overhears this, he is outraged accusing her of lying when she said that things were quiet while he was away.\u00a0 He says, \u201cWhat if he had a gun?\u201d\u00a0 And she flippantly replies, \u201cOh I just took it away from him.\u201d\u00a0 Now seeing that she is playing with him, as she bends over to straighten out the bed sheets, he administers a loud slap to her butt.\u00a0 Now those were the days.\u00a0 I have often wanted to do that to Camera Girl when she sasses me but she isn\u2019t as amiable as Mrs. Miniver.\u00a0 Her revenge might be too painful to chance it.\u00a0 And for that reason, I am especially fond of this scene.<\/p>\n
As I said at the beginning this movie is in a sense war propaganda but it was also a way for the Americans to reflect on the shared sacrifices that would have to be made in a war that had been thrust upon them after the attack on Pearl Harbor.\u00a0 I found the script and the acting to be honest and compelling.\u00a0 I recommend this movie when you are in the mood for a World War II picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mrs. Miniver is an American film about the beginning of World War II in Britain.\u00a0 Greer Garson is Mrs. Kay Miniver, wife of well to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237],"tags":[2804,43,38,1355,2736,2618],"class_list":["post-12908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-greer-garson","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-walter-pidgeon","tag-world-war-ii"],"yoast_head":"\n