You can often tell as much about a people and period of time but what they loved to see about themselves as opposed to more realistic representations - this was an enormously popular look at a British family at war, one of the biggest hits of all time in its day. It has dated a little, but still stands up as a work of enormous skill, as do many films from director William Wyler.There are other reasons for its success: the reassuring picture of Britain with flower shows, friendly pubs, vicars and boats (not totally a white wash - the Dame May Whitty character is a snob - but she's a good egg underneath); Greer Garson's performance in the title role, with bewitching charm and humour (people have criticised her for being overly noble but she's not here); sterling support from Walter Pigeon (he and Garson have wonderful chemistry); a clever structure which emphasises and establishes the characters before bringing in the war, and which sets up audience expectations that the eldest son will be killed... then pulls a switcheroo by having his wife die instead; the beauty of Wright and the skilled performances from two little kids; many memorable scenes: the cute she-bought-a-hat-he-bought-a-car bit to open it, the stunning night time sequence when Pigeon goes off to Dunkirk, Garson stumbling upon a Nazi flyer in her garden (no wonder women loved this - "It's just like my life, the men think we do nothing but we have kids, food, downed Nazi airmen..."), the death sigh of Teresa Wright, the bomb shelter, the flower show ending with Dame May Whitty's shocked and touched expression when she realises the villagers actually like her, and most of all the ending scene in the Church - where Wyler holds off showing how damaged it is until towards the end and we find out nice old Henry Travers has been killed and Henry Wilcoxon gives her stirring speech.
There are flaws - Helmut Dantine overacts his Nazi, as he was want to do (or, more likely, encouraged to do); the village stereotypes do make you laugh (esp the maid with her fellow working class boyfriend - just like Alice and Sam the Butcher in The Brady Bunch); and most of Richard Ney's performance as the Miniver's eldest son is awful - he's this sort of skinny prancy thing with creamed hair who looks like a trout and every time he's on screen the fun screeches to a halt (cutting to him during the final church scene lessens its effectiveness). There is some fun to be had to seeing Garson kiss Ney on the mouth and give him loving looks - the two went on to be married.
It remains a moving and watchable film in which everything actually happened to real people, however glossily presented here, regardless of Garson's five minute Oscar acceptance speech.
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