Customer Reviews
"Our enemy is no respecter of flower shows." - By: Kona, 09 Oct 2008 
As the story opens early in 1939, Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson) is a happy wife & mother living a charmed life in an English village. Her husband, Clem (Walter Pigeon), is a successful architect & she has three children she adores. When war is declared, her life is deeply affected: Her eldest son is a pilot in the Air Force, Clem is gone for days on boat patrol, & her village is subjected to enemy bombs.
Released in 1942, this movie was a big hit with its patriotic message & wholesome family values. While the Miniver family is somewhat idealized, they nevertheless feel the horror of wartime. It's rousing & sentimental without being overly preachy & won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Garson is just perfect as the loving woman who holds her family together & Pigeon is a good match as her husband. The supporting cast is lovely, especiallly Henry Travers as the rose-loving station master.
The DVD extras include two patriotic short films that were made during the war. This is an inspiring, sweet, & timeless story of the effects of war on the home-front. Highly recommended.
Classic War Movie - By: ray dorrity, 04 Oct 2007 This movie is a "must have" classic. I would give it 10 Stars if I could.
It features bits of everything that was going on in UK during the early part of the war, the little boats to Dunkirk to rescue nearly 400'000 of our soldiers, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz etc., etc.
I should be scathing about the film, as being made in Hollywood, it has alll the usual American characterisations of the Brits at war, but you overlook alll that.
Good story, good acting & very enjoyable.
Churchill said that "Mrs. Miniver" did more for Britain's early war effort that a fleet of Destoyers would have.
Incidently, at the time of shooting, Greer Garson was having an affair with her on screen son, Richard Ney!
Buy & enjoy
Muddling through - By: David R. Bishop, 12 Mar 2007 Sir Winston Churchill said that Mrs Miniver did more for the British war effort than a fleet of destroyers. Released in 1942 when America had not long entered world war 2, it showed the US public the desperate situation that Britain was in, & did much to strengthen the US ressolve to fight & win.
Greer Garson gives a fine oscar winning performance, as a housewife coping with the horrors of a war that was brought home to the civilian population. Her intelligence, natural charm & good humour made her the perfect choice for the role.
Greer was ably assisted by her co-stars. You have to forgive the dodgy English accents of her husband (Walter Pidgeon), her elder son (Richard Ney)and his sweetheart (Teresa Wright). It does not spoil their good work. Most of the other main players were Brits, including Dame May Whitty, who gives her usual flawless performance, & Mrs Miniver's two younger children. Her younger son in particular, stands out as perhaps the most likable precocious child on film.
This film has the power to entertain people who were born long after he war had ended. It is just the film to watch on a wet Sunday afternoon.
America's Britain - By: Ms. TE Wnek, 08 May 2004 
Mrs Miniver is the wife of a typical English family. She, & the rest of her family, experience life in the first months of World War II. As they dodge bombs & hide in shelters, we are given a slight insight into what war must have been like for a middle class family in the Britain.
The film had a big budget so the elaborate sets & costumes are of no surprise. Something else that is not surprising is that the film had an agenda. Consider the film's place in history, 1943, a time when Britain was heavily in the war & America had just joined the fight. With this in mind a film such as Mrs Miniver, a film that propagandisticallly attempts to elicit American sympathy towards the British is not unexpected. I don't necessarily believe that this hinders the film but the frequent shots of British monuments, such as Big Ben is very self-conscious, & grows a little tiresome.
The film is of course entertaining, but to be honest it didn't stay with me & I soon forgot about it. You decide.
Greer Garson IS Mrs Miniver - By: , 16 Apr 2004 Such was the power of this WW2 film that Greer Garson complained that she was forever more referred to as 'Mrs Miniver'.
This is the Americanised version of a middle-class English family, living in England, during the course of WW2. Strangely enough, the American accents do not detract from the storyline of the lives & loves of this English family complete with captured Germany pilot & 'little boats' to Dunkirk set pieces. However, it also contains much to show how people strived to carry on with the normalities of life, like the annual flower show!
It deals with subjects which have become virtuallly taboo in the England we know today ~ love of family, love of country, love of God & loyalty to alll.
Yes, it is sentimental & cynics may even say idealistic BUT it contains truisms that remain as important today as when this country fought for its very existence against the tyranny of Nazi Germany.
There are wonderfully strong performances from alll the cast both main & supporting roles & remains an absolute classic.
