As Academy Award-winning films go, Mrs. Miniver has not weathered the years all that well. This prettified, idealized view of the upper-class British home front during World War II sometimes seems over-calculated and contrived when seen today. In particular, Greer Garson's Oscar-winning performance in the title role often comes off as artificial, especially when she nobly tends her rose garden while her stalwart husband (Walter Pidgeon) participates in the evacuation at Dunkirk. However, even if the film has lost a good portion of its ability to move and inspire audiences, it is easy to see why it was so popular in 1942-and why Winston Churchill was moved to comment that its propaganda value was worth a dozen battleships. Everyone in the audience-even English audiences, closer to the events depicted in the film than American filmgoers-liked to believe that he or she was capable of behaving with as much grace under pressure as the Miniver family. The film's setpieces-the Minivers huddling in their bomb shelter during a Luftwaffe attack, Mrs. Miniver confronting a downed ****** paratrooper in her kitchen, an annual flower show being staged despite the exigencies of bombing raids, cleric Henry Wilcoxon's climactic call to arms from the pulpit of his ruined church-are masterfully staged and acted, allowing one to ever so briefly forget that this is, after all, slick propagandizing. In addition to Best Picture and Best Actress, Mrs. Miniver garnered Oscars for best supporting actress (Teresa Wright), best director (William Wyler), best script (Arthur Wimperis, George Froschel, James Hilton, Claudine West), best cinematography (Joseph Ruttenberg) and best producer (Sidney Franklin). Sidebar: Richard Ney, who plays Greer Garson's son, later married the actress-and still later became a successful Wall Street financier. Mrs. Miniver was followed by a 1951 sequel, The Miniver Story, but without the wartime setting the bloom was off the rose. Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Genre: Drama
- Category Family Drama, War Drama
- Theme: Life on the Homefront, Women During Wartime
- Studio: Warner Home Video
- Run Time: 02 hr 13 min
- Language: English, French
- Subtitle Language: French, English, Spanish
- Format: DVD
- Release Date: February 3, 2004
- Lead Actor: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Dame May Whitty, Reginald Owen
- Supporting Actor: Tudor Williams, Louise M. Bates, Leslie Vincent, Leslie Francis, John Power, Guy Bellis, Forrester Harvey, David Thursby, Connie Leon, Colin Kenny, Charles Bennett, Bobby Hale, Aubrey Mather, Alec Craig, Billy Bevan, Marie de Becker, Sidney D'Albrook, Thomas Lockyear, St. Luke's Choristers, Miles Mander, Leonard Carey, Ian Wolfe, Harold Howard, Edward Cooper, Arthur Wimperis, Billy Engle, Clare Sanders, David Clyde, Douglas Gordon, Eric Lonsdale, Florence Wix, Gerald Oliver Smith, John Abbott, Paul Scardon, Peter Lawford, Rhys Williams, Stanley Mann, Ben Webster, Charles Irwin, Clara Reid, Colin Campbell, Harry Allen, John Burton, Ottola Nesmith, Helmut Dantine, Mary Field, Henry Travers, Henry Wilcoxon, Richard Ney, Tom Conway, Brenda Forbes, Christopher Severn
- Director: William Wyler
awards
- Awards: Academy Awards (5)
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actress, 1942, Teresa Wright
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Actress, 1942, Greer Garson
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Director, 1942, William Wyler
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Screenplay, 1942, James Hilton, Claudine West, Arthur Wimperis
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Black and White Cinematography, 1942, Joseph Ruttenberg
- Nominations: Academy Awards (6)
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Editing, 1942, Harold Kress
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Sound, 1942, Douglas Shearer
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Special Effects, 1942, Arnold A. Gillespie, Warren Newcombe, Douglas Shearer
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actor, 1942, Henry Travers
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Actor, 1942, Walter Pidgeon
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actress, 1942, Dame May Whitty
