Mrs. Miniver

By 1942 World War II was in full force, and it is understandable that the Oscar for that year's films went to a movie that today seems like so much propagandist poppycock. One can watch Mrs. Miniver and have two thoughts simultaneously--it really is shameless, and gosh it's very well made.

The film was directed by William Wyler, who also won for Best Director (he would win twice more, and end up with twelve nominations for his career, as well has steering more actors to Oscars than any other director). It is the story of a supposedly simple English family who endure the Battle of Britain with the characteristic stiff upper lip of those from that island. However, at no time did I believe any of it.

Not that I don't believe that the English were resolute and courageous during what must have been a hellish period in their history. But the events of this film are so tidy and white-washed that it undermines the tension. The film begins with Mr. and Mrs. Miniver, played by Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson, having a sit-com like interlude where each one buys something extravagant. They are supposed to be middle-class, but seem to be pretty well-off to me, with a maid and a cook. They have two small children and another son (Richard Ney), just back from college. He's all full of ideas about the rights of man, and railing against the feudal system that still lingers in the person of Lady Beldon (Dame May Whitty), the local shred of royalty who looks down her nose at every one. Of course, by the end of the film, he's married into the family and Ney and Whitty are sharing a hymn book, singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" in a bombed-out church.

What I didn't believe about Mrs. Miniver is that none of the characters have a meltdown. For example, there's a well-filmed scene in which Garson finds a German flyer in her garden. He's wounded, but pulls a gun on her and has her feed him. The whole thing is ruined when instead of showing us that Germans are people, too, he tells her that they will soon destroy her country and kill them all. So much for understanding your enemy. I contrast that with a film like All Quiet on the Western Front and want to wring my hands. After she gets the upper hand on him and he's captured she goes about her day as normal. Now if I had been held hostage by a Nazi in my kitchen I think I would have had a private moment where I allowed myself to go to pieces. Not Mrs. Miniver, though.

A few notes: Pidgeon, who was from Canada and doesn't even attempt an English accent, starred in two straight Best Picture winners, which wouldn't happen again until Russell Crowe in 2000-2001. The film was the first to earn five nominations for Best Acting (Garson won, as did Teresa Wright, who played her daughter-in-law, Pidgeon, Whitty and Henry Travers were also nommed [Travers is best known as playing Clarence the angel in It's a Wonderful Life]). When Garson won her award, she gave a speech that lasted nearly six minutes, which has since become perhaps the biggest part of her legacy (and for me, her narration of the animated Christmas special The Little Drummer Boy). Sometime later she would end up marrying Ney, the actor who played her son. I thought those scenes when they kissed looked a little more intense than a mother and son should be kissing.