Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 9-January-05
Spoiler Rating: Low

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

"Mrs. Miniver" was the biggest hit of 1942, topping the box office and winning Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actress, among other things. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill both praised it; the former reportedly speculated that the book from which it sprung hastened America's involvement in World War II. A rousing tribute to an idealized Britain at the coming of the Third Reich, it was a cultural phenomenon deeply wedded to the circumstances of its time. What's remarkable is that despite its overt courting (and manipulation) of national sentiment, "Mrs. Miniver" is a good movie with the lasting power to impress.

The story meanders in an inviting, rather literary fashion and begins by looking at the characteristics and prejudices of different social strata. The title character (Greer Garson) is the contented matron of an upper-middle-class family consisting of a stately father (Walter Pidgeon), a son at Oxford (Richard Ney), two younger siblings, a housemaid, and a piebald cat. The Minivers represent all that is right and jolly and admirable about mainstream England circa 1939, just as their neighbor, Lady Beldon (Dame May Whitty), represents all that's ridiculous but still noble about the fading aristocracy. The two households come together when a working stiff (Henry Travers) challenges Lady Beldon in the annual rose-growing contest and names his entry after Mrs. Miniver. Community tensions bloom at this bold move, as does a romance between the elder Miniver boy and the noblewoman's niece (Teresa Wright).

But then war arrives and all class distinctions are swept away. The Minivers might fret about vanity and luxury when all is well with the world, but after the bombs start falling they really prove their mettle. The men rush in to help, of course, but their feats take place off-screen. Here the spotlight follows the quieter battles of women, like keeping homes intact and hopes alive and, in the case of Mrs. Miniver, facing down a German pilot who survives a crash and takes refuge in her backyard.

The principal reason "Mrs. Miniver" succeeds is that director William Wyler and his crew make the characters believable and likable in their roseate heroism. The script contains a generous amount of homey touches that keep sensationalism at bay (and help later viewers relate to the era). Garson is unfathomably lovely and her relationship with everyone close to perfect, yet she doesn't generate any disbelieving resentment. (That's charisma.) To top it off, Wyler refuses to rest on the inevitable appeal of his subject matter for a wartime audience. He crafts a stylish film that makes nice use of imagery, such as the distance suggested by a staircase and the resilience implied by a bombed-out church full of patriotic faithful.

I can just imagine how powerful "Mrs. Miniver" must have been in 1942, since it brought me to tears several times and even — this may sound sick — made me envious of the bygone days when wars could legitimately be portrayed as noble. The movie isn't shocked or embarrassed that war is hell; it exults in the opportunity to glorify the qualities by which we overcome it.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.