The Best Years of Our Lives

"Give 'em time, kid; they'll catch on. You know your folks'll get used to you, and you'll get used to them. Then everything'll settle down nicely. Unless we have another war. Then none of us have to worry because we'll all be blown to bits the first day. So cheer up, huh?"---Butch Engle to his nephew, Homer (The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946)

I don't know now whether I am searching for meaning and emotion in these remaining films of the 1940s to suit my own thesis or whether I'm actually catching on to something.  I feel like this film is what would happen if Father O'Malley left the church and went to war for a few years, came back, and started hanging out with Don Birnam after he tried to sober up.  I loved it--even with the corny and predictable ending.  Because I felt that maybe, just for a moment, it might not end so happily.  For making me question the sunshine ending, and for making me yell at my television screen, this movie makes it near the top of my list.

The Plot
It's the end of World War II, and soliders are trying to get home.  Three different men are all trying to get to their hometown of Boone City in the mid-west.  The men, Air Force Captain Fred Derry, sailor Homer Parrish, and Army Sergeant Al Stephenson, all come from different backgrounds, but bond quickly in their shared insecurity about finally coming home as civilians.  Al, played by Fredric March, is a former banker, an older man with a wife and two nearly grown children.  Fred, played by Dana Andrews, is a former soda-jerk with a new bride and big dreams, though he comes from a lackluster upbringing.  Homer, played by Harold Russell, the youngest, has lost both hands in the war and must return to his close-knit middle class family and girl-next-door fiancée.  As the three nervously take a taxi home, they pass a tavern run by Homer's black sheet uncle, Butch, and are happy that there is at least one place they know they'll be welcomed.

Three Veterans on their way home.

Homer is dropped off first, joyfully welcomed by his parents and fiancee, Wilma Cameron, though his mother can't help but sob as she sees his prosthetic hooks.  Al is dropped off next at his high-end apartment, where he is greeting in shock and joy by his wife Milly, played by Myrna Loy. His children have grown up in his absence, and while his son Rob is still in school, Peggy, played by Teresa Wright, has become a young woman.  Lastly Fred is dropped off at the shanty where his alcoholic father and step-mother live, only to find that his wife Marie, played by Virginia Mayo, whom he married while in training in Texas after a whirlwind courtship, has moved out.

Al has come home.

All three are unexpectedly jarred and uncomfortable by being home and end up heading individually to Butch's tavern.  Homer, knowing his family are uncomfortable with him, goes to visit his uncle, where he finds Fred brooding and unable to find his wife.  Al joins them after dragging Milly and Peggy around for a night on the town.  Homer makes it home unscathed, but when the bar closes, Peggy drives the heavily intoxicated Fred and Al back to their apartment, when it becomes clear that Fred still can't find his wife.  Fred has a nightmare about a battle gone wrong and wakes up Peggy, who comforts Fred as he falls back asleep, sobbing.  The next morning she drives the apologetic Fred to his wife's apartment, and he confesses that while he doesn't know what he will do, he knows he won't go back to being a soda jerk.

Peggy comforts Fred during his nightmare.

Al meanwhile wakes with a hangover, and finally embraces his loving wife.  Later, Al must contain his irritation at his former boss, Mr. Milton, who wants Al to start back up right away with a promotion to the head of the loans department at the bank.  Though Al knows he is lucky to have a job, he is having trouble adjusting, and saddened by all those who didn't come back.

Al and Mr. Milton

Meanwhile, Fred has found his wife, Marie, a gorgeous blonde who has been supporting herself by dancing at nightclubs, and seems far more interested in showing off her cute husband in his army clothes than actually getting to know him.  Fred visits his old boss, only to discover that the pharmacy has been bought out by a larger chain.  His old boss tries to introduce him to the new manager, but Fred rebuffs the low-paying and menial job offer.  Homer's fiancee, Wilma, keeps trying to connect with Homer, and loves him as much as she ever did.  But Homer's anger at seeing his little sister and her friends staring at him and his hooks cause her to run away sobbing and Homer to isolate himself even more.

Fred finds his wife, Marie.

A few weeks later, Fred and Marie argue about Fred's dwindling money.  Fred has made Marie quit her dancing job, but Marie can't understand why she still can't go out and have fun every night.  Fred finally concedes and accepts the job at the drugstore.  Peggy comes to visit him at the store, and he takes her for lunch.  Fred confesses how his dreams of getting a decent job and starting a family with a little home have quickly deteriorated against harsh reality.  Peggy is understanding, mature, and sympathetic.  As he walks her to her car, Fred kisses her.  That same afternoon Al grants a loan to a fellow veteran, who is looking to work hard and establish himself after the war.  Though he has no collateral except his skills, Al grants him the loan, only to get gently admonished by his boss for "gambling with the depositor's money."  That night, preparing to go to a banquet in Al's honor, Milly confesses that she thinks Peggy has feelings for Fred.  Peggy has invited Fred and Marie out on a double date that night, and confesses to her parents that she is in love with Fred, but is trying not to be.  She hopes that seeing Fred with his wife will snap her out of it.

Al at the banquet in his honor.

At the banquet, a drunken Al gives a rambling and somewhat caustic toast, but ends by saying that he will gamble to depositors' money on the future of his country.  Although his boss is annoyed, Milly is proud of her husband.  Meanwhile Peggy's double date has backfired, showing her just how wrong for Fred Marie is.  She comes home and tells her parents that she is determined to break up their marriage and fight for Fred.  Her parents try to caution her, but Peggy is too emotional to think rationally.

Peggy's double date.

The next day, Al meets Fred at Butch's and asks him if he is in love with Peggy.  When Fred confesses he is, Al suggests that he prove it by doing the right thing for Peggy.  Fred then calls Peggy and lies, saying that she is the kind of girl who takes things too seriously and he has only been flirting with her.  He staggers out of the bar past Homer, who has come in to show Al that Butch is teaching him to play the piano with his hooks.  Peggy tells her mother of the phone call and bitterly says that she sees things more clearly now.  Some time later Homer visits Fred at the drugstore and gets into an argument with a man at the county who says that the war was unnecessary and a waste.  He insults them both, and Fred asks him to leave.  Homer goes after the man, but Fred pushes him aside and slugs the man.  He is then fired from his job.  As the two walk home, Fred advises Homer to tell Wilma how much he loves her and marry her as fast as he can.

Butch teaches Homer to play the piano while Fred breaks Peggy's heart.

Later that night Wilma comes to see Homer and says that her parents want her to go away with family, as it is clear that Homer no longer loves or wants to marry her.  Homer tries to tell her that she doesn't understand the reality of living with someone like him, but she insists that he let her try.  So he lets her see that after her takes his prosthetics off for the night, he is completely vulnerable.  Wilma, instead of running away, says she will always love him and never leave him, as she tucks him into bed.

Homer is vulnerable to Wilma.

Later, Fred has a final quarrel with Marie, who he surprises at home, about to go out with an old boyfriend.  She tells Fred, who has been unable to find a job, that she wasted the best years of her life on him and wants a divorce so she can go back to being a woman who works for a living.  Fred visits his father one last time and tells him he is leaving Boone City.  He leaves his many military awards with his father, as he now feels they are worthless.  Waiting for his flight at the airport, Fred sees a field filled with now useless military planes being taken apart for scrap metal.  Fred climbs into one and remembers the atrocities he encountered during the war.  The man who owns the salvage yard, Karney, startles him and asks him to get out of the plane.  Pale and shaken, Fred gets out, and after mentioning that he used to fly one, tentatively asks for a job.  Karney explains that they are using the plane metal to create pre-fabricated houses, and after some deliberating, gruffly offers Fred a job.

Fred in the plane's cockpit.

A few weeks later, everyone is gathered at Homer's house for his wedding to Wilma.  Fred is the best man, and nervous about seeing Peggy again.  At first they are pleasant, but awkward with one another.  But the beauty of the ceremony and the obvious love of Homer and Wilma effect them both.  While the rest of guest rush to embrace the happy couple, Fred strides up to Peggy and kisses her.  He pulls away and says, "You know what it'll be, don't you, Peggy? It may take us years to get anywhere. We'll have no money, no decent place to live. We'll have to work, get kicked around--"  But Peggy just smiles, pulls him close, and kisses him.

Peggy and Fred

The History
The Hollywood moguls got down to Oscar campaigning in earnest in 1946, releasing all their big films in the fall, right before the selections.  They had some major competition from foreign films this year, from Roberto Rossellini's Open City to the French film Children of Paradise.  The Brits had three big contenders: melodrama The Seventh Veil, Noel Coward's Brief Encounter (James McAvoy's favorite film, FYI), and Laurence Olivier's reenactment of Shakespeare's Henry V.  Henry V ran for forty-six weeks straight in New York City.

Laurence Olivier in Henry V

Hollywood began to take notice of the growing trend for serious, realistic subject matter.  Samuel Goldwyn decided to produce The Best Years of Our Lives, inspired by a Time magazine article about the difficulties facing soliders after leaving the service. He hired famed war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write a story and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Robert Sherwood to adapt that story into a script.  He then assigned the film to his best director, William Wyler, and began assembling a cast of stars, all to counter statements that were being made about the state of the film industry.  Producer Walter Wanger, on a trip back from the continent, said that the industry was in trouble because of the  foreign market as audiences now wanted "true-to-life" and "mature" viewpoints in movies.  Goldwyn responded, "Times have changed but Hollywood hasn't...to maintain its place, Hollywood must set aside the old formulas.  It must find honest stories, stories with something important to say, stories that reflect these disturbing times in which we live."  What a coincidence that he should make this statement right before the release of his new film....

Filming of The Best Years of Our Lives

Wyler himself seemed unconcerned with political wrangling, and far more interested in making a good picture.  For a realistic feel, he hired recent World War II veterans as most of his crew (props, grips, mixers, etc) and bought all the costumes off the rack.  He also insisted on life-size sets, instead of the usual large scale ones.  This was Wyler's first post-war film, and he modeled several of the scenes and characters after his own life.  He was a major in the Air Force, and flew B-17s just like Fred.  He also modeled the reunion of Al and Milly on his own reunion with his wife.  The character of Homer was originally going to be a man suffering from combat trauma, but when Wyler saw Harold Russell in an army training film called, "Diary of a Sargent" about the rehabilitation of wounded servicemen, he changed the character and hired Russell.  Russell wasn't really an actor, but Wyler liked his natural, unstudied way.  When Russell came on set, he shook all the actors hands with his hooks in an attempt to put them at ease.

Hoagy Carmichael teaches Harold Russell to play the piano

Other studio heads soon got on the bandwagon, and each one tried to outdo the next.  But Goldwyn was determined that The Best Years of Our Lives would be this year's big film, and rode the wave of positive reviews.  Unfortunately, he couldn't control his star director.  Wyler claimed the producer had reneged on a promise to bill the film as "A William Wyler Production" and bilked him out of the profits.  Wyler left Goldwyn to form his own production company, Liberty Films, with Frank Capra.  After working together since 1936, Goldwyn and Wyler were no longer on speaking terms going into the Awards.  Eleven years later Wyler sued Goldwyn for $400,000.00, which would be settled out of court.  The two would never work together again.

William Wyler on set of The Best Years of Our Lives

The year continued as expected.  Each producer tried to outdo the next, while David O. Selznick continued his tireless crusade to top Gone with the Wind with yet another lavish epic (he wouldn't).  Still, Hollywood managed to deliver on the gauntlet thrown down by the Europeans with films like The Razor's Edge, The Yearling, The Best Years of Our Lives, and To Each His Own.  And of course, this year would also bring the return of Jimmy Stewart in my absolute favorite film, It's a Wonderful Life.  Despite its current reputation as one the best film of all time, it did not fit well into the current fad for realistic, grittier films.  It was a moderate success, and going into the Awards, it was considered to be an "Academy Awards dark horse."

Olivia de Havilland receives her Academy Award

The War was over and this year's Awards were a lavish affair filled with Greek columns, a five foot replica of the statuette,16 multicolored search lights, and a 66-piece orchestra.  Unfortunately, the show did not sell out and the left over seats were filled by servicemen hanging around outside.  The program opened with actor Ronald Reagan narrating a silent compilation of the Oscar-winning films of the past.  Unfortunately, due to a production glitch, the entire film was shown upside down and backwards, unbeknownst to the future president, who just continued to read.  Laurence Oliver was given a special Oscar for "his outstanding achievement" with Henry V.  Though Harold Russell was nominated for "Best Supporting Actor," he was considered a long shot at best, and was given a special Oscar for "bringing hope and courage" to the other veterans.  Olivia de Havilland received the award for "Best Actress," in To Each His Own, but created the big scandal of the night by publicly snubbing her sister, Joan Fontaine, and her attempts at congratulations.  The Best Years of Our Lives would go on to sweep the Awards, winning "Best Picture," "Best Director," "Best Actor," "Best Writing," "Best Film Editing," "Best Score," and yes..."Best Supporting Actor."  Harold Russell is the first and only actor to win two Oscars for the same role.  He was so overcome on stage that he was reduced to tears.

Frederic March in The Best Years of Our Lives...in his pajamas...

The Best Years of Our Lives marked the beginning of a new trend in films.  The days of "Capricon" films were over.  Penny March, daughter of "Best Actor" winner Frederic March, was less concerned about a new breed of films and more concerned about "the embarrassing fact that her classmates saw her dad in his pajamas [on screen] and that he drank too much in the picture."  This film would go on to be one of the first films to be selected by the Library of Congress to go into their newly created National Film Registry in 1989. It was the winner of the very first BAFTA award and remains one of the top 100 highest grossing films in U.S. History, and the 6th most attended film of all time in the U.K.  Though not as popular as it once was, this is still an enjoyable and relevant film.

Harold Russell with his two Academy Awards

After the film was finished, William Wyler told Harold Russell to take his money and go back to school, as there were not many opportunities in Hollywood for a man with no hands.  Russell took the advice and got a business degree from Boston University, authored two autobiographies, acted in the occasional film, served three terms as National Commander of AMVETS, and from the 1960s to the 1980s served as the Chairman of the President's Commission on Employment of the Handicapped, an unpaid position.  In 1992 Russell made the controversial decision to sell one of his Oscars to pay for his wife's medical bills.  Since 1950, the Academy had made all recipients sign an agreement saying they won't sell their statue, and they were rather upset with his choice.  Russell didn't care about the condemnation, claiming his wife's health to be more important.  He died of a heart attack in 2002.

Harold Russel with his two Oscars.

The Verdict
This year is the year of my favorite film of all time, It's a Wonderful Life.  So I was always rather surprised that it had never won the Award, and even more surprised that it wasn't exactly popular.  What movie could possibly have bested it?  I was ready to do battle on behalf of Frank Capra.

Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life

But if there's one thing I'm learning, it's that the movie to win each award is more indicative of the current cultural trend than the actual quality of the film.  So while I may think It's a Wonderful Life is the better film, I understand why The Best Years of Our Lives won.  Not that this isn't a great film!  I've actually come to decide that this film is one of my favorites of the new films I've watched.  And very interesting.

Night out on the town at Butch's bar

I can agree with the people of 1946, there is something compelling in cinema that attempts to follow the lives of real people.  All film is a fantasy world, but the best film finds a way to connect with the lives of real people.  Now, it is still the 1940s, so of course there is the perfect ending we've been waiting for.  There are moments of melodrama that would not be allowed in a film today.  But I loved this movie all the more for it, because again--it is a movie.  What fun would it be if Fred just left Peggy, never to be seen again?  You have to have some hope!

Homer has hooks for hands.

Still, the best part of this film is that it is about what happens to the hero after his war is over.  What was life like for Odysseus once he finally returned to Penelope?  For real people--not so easy.  Al can't slide back into his comfy banking job, Fred doesn't have the perfect wife and job he thought he would, and Homer--well Homer doesn't have hands.  Which actually seems to bother him less than it does everyone else.  And while everyone's life does end happily, this film doesn't tie everything up in a neat bow the way pre-war movies would have.  Al finally stands up to his boss, but he does so while intoxicated and the boss doesn't seem too thrilled.  Fred finally gets Peggy, but both know that it will be awhile before his life is back on track.  And while Homer does end up with Wilma, well, he still doesn't have hands.  He won't have hands.  Not ever again.

Wilma and Homer marry as Fred watches Peggy

I believe the message of this film is to find your happiness where you can.  Life will never be the perfect ending you envision.  But if you can adapt, stay strong, and maybe be a little bit lucky, you can carve out a life for yourself.  It has hope even through the darkness of reality, much like the ending of The Lost Weekend. How does this fit into my idea of post-war realism?  This movie is not Going My Way.  The ending is murky, with definite dark elements scattered throughout the film.  And yet, it did phenomenally well at the box office.  And even though nothing happens to Mr. Potter, everything wraps up quite nicely at the end of It's a Wonderful Life.  Box office results?  Not so great.  What does that tell you?  We'll see what happens next as we roll towards the 1950s...

Mrs. Miniver

"This is the People's War. It is our war. We are the fighters. Fight it then. Fight it with all that is in us and may God defend the Right." -- The Vicar (Mrs. Miniver, 1942)

I'm back!  I know I've been gone a long time, and I apologize.  It's been a wild whirlwind couple of months.  Since I last wrote, I now have a new job, a new apartment, and a new lease on life! Obviously I won't make my goal of being through all my movies by March, but I don't mind so much.  This project has always been just for myself, and if I have made an impact on others, I count that as more of a bonus than anything else.  Not that I don't appreciate my readers, in fact having my friends support me on this project has been one of the best things about it.  But the best part about writing for yourself is that you never have to feel the guilt or stress of missing a deadline.  And I knew when I watched it that this movie didn't deserve a hurried, stressed entry.  This movie was one of my favorites, and an absolute must-see by anyone who happens to have an interest in film or history.  It is emotionally stirring, entertaining, and historically fascinating.  Enjoy.

Teresa Wright and Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver

The Plot
Mrs. Kay Miniver, played by Greer Garson, is the happy British housewife of an architect in an upper-middle class family.  The film opens as she returns home on the train, feeling guilty because she spent a little too much on a hat.  She greets Mr. Ballard, the station master, played by Henry Travers, on her way home, and discovers he has named his newly grown batch of roses after her, as she is the nicest woman in town.  Her husband Clem, played by Walter Pigeon, feels similarly guilty about the car he has bought, and when they finally both confess, they could be a normal sitcom couple along the lines of I Love Lucy or Leave it to Beaver.  Except they're British, and it's 1939, right as World War II is beginning to take effect.

The Minivers greet Vin at the station

Vin, their son, played by Richard Ney, returns from Oxford for the holidays filled the obnoxious pompousness affected by naive first-term students.  He delivers scathing speeches about the privileged nobility that are idealistic, though without much sense.  Much to their chagrin, he insults Carol Beldon, played by Teresa Wright, granddaughter of local village aristocrat Lady Beldon, played by Dame May Whitty, when she comes to ask if Kay might ask Mr. Ballard to withdraw from the annual flower show, as a loss would distress her elderly grandmother.  But at the local dance that night, Vin confesses his feelings for Carol and the two agree to write one another while they are apart.

Ballard shows his "Mrs. Miniver" rose to its namesake

A few weeks later at the village church, the vicar, played by Henry Wilcoxon, interrupts his sermon with the breaking news that England is now at war with Germany.  While the Minivers take their two youngest children, Toby and Judy, home to prepare for the coming air-raid, Vin accompanies Carol and her grandmother home and overides Lady Beldon's protests and insists they adequately prepare themselves.  Carol and Vin come to an "agreement" and kiss for the first time.  Some time later Vin leaves school to join the RAF and while the village is prepared, no one has really started to feel the effects of the war.  The men in the local pub trade jokes about a German pilot who may have been shot down in the area.  On leave that night, Vin proposes to Carol at dinner with his family, but must immediately return to the airbase and cut his leave short.  Clem, on the other hand, is called to the pub in the middle of the night as he is part of the Thames River patrol.  While everyone is annoyed at the early hour, they soon discover that as local boat owners, they have been asked to become part of an evacuation mission to retrieve British soliders from Dunkerque, France.

The Minivers congratulate Carol.

Five days have passed, and Kay still has no news from Clem or Vin.  Distressed, she strolls in her garden, only to find the boots and then the rest of the missing German pilot.  She tries to steal his gun as he sleeps, but he awakes and chases her back into her house.  He holds her at gunpoint while she brings him food, but finally collapses, weakened from his wounds.  Kay steals his gun and calls the police, and as he is carried away the German glares and tells her that England will fall, just as all the other countries have. Kay slaps him.  But after he leaves Clem finally arrives and then news of Vin's safe return reaches them as well.  Vin and Carol marry a short time later, after Kay convinces Lady Beldon, who has been hiding a secret marriage she also made when in her youth to a soldier going to war.  Though Lady Beldon wishes to spare Carol the same heartache, she realizes she must let her go, and the couple leave to honeymoon in Scotland.

Mrs. Miniver and the German soldier

While they are gone, the rest of the Minivers hide in their bomb shelter as the battle continues in the air.  While before they had managed to pass uneventful nights in their shelter reading and knitting, this time the bombing is so intense that the children wake crying and the entire family must huddle together fearfully.  When Carol and Vin return, they are shocked by the near complete destruction of their home, but Kay and Clem shrug off the rubble and talk of the upcoming flower show.

The Minivers see the wreckage of the house.

At the show, Lady Beldon is informed secretly that she has won the competition yet again, but realizes (with Kay's help) that the lowly Ballard really deserves it and announces instead that he has won the prize.  While everyone cheers at this heartwarming scene, the air raid sirens suddenly go off and everyone must scatter for home.  As Kay and Carol drive home they attempt to dodge the destruction around them, but Carol is suddenly hit by a stray bullet.  Though Kay is able to get her home, Carol dies before a doctor can arrive.  When Vin arrives home and discovers her dead, he finally loses his youthful optimism and innocence.  

Lady Beldon at the flower show.

They all attend church on Sunday, though the church has been badly bombed.  The vicar announces those who have died, including a young choir boy, Carol, and Ballard.  He delivers a stirring speech, and as he reads from the Ninety-First Psalm, Vin moves to Lady Beldon's pew to comfort her.  As everyone leaves, singing hymns, more planes take to the air.

The family together at church.

The History
William Wyler created this film for propaganda reasons.  Wyler choose a series of popular essays written by Jan Struther in 1939 and gave them a story line that he stretched into 1942.  He felt that America had too long followed a policy of isolationism, and desirous of influencing Americans against the Nazis, showed how middle class Brits were faring overseas.  Wyler himself had been born in Germany, and he took the German threat very seriously.  He wrote and re-wrote the vicar's speech at the end of the film, insisting on a perfect ending.  Although he later believed he was not harsh enough in his depiction of war, Mrs. Miniver would become a major factor in influencing American opinions.

Teresa Wright and Greer Garson on set.

Mrs. Miniver was the highest grossing MGM film of all time.  It was also the top film of the year in England.  Out of the 592 film critics polled by American magazine Film Daily, 555 named it the best film of 1942.  The final, rousing speech that Wyler had agonized over would be reprinted in popular magazines and dropped in pamphlet form as literal propaganda in Europe by President Roosevelt.  The speech would become known as the Wilcoxon Speech, after the actor who had so stirringly delivered it.  William Wyler left immediately after he finished filming Mrs. Miniver in order to join the US Army Signal Corps, where he continued to make documentaries about the war effort.

The Wilcoxon Speech

Mrs. Miniver was the first film to be nominated in all four acting categories.  It was nominated for twelve categories, of which it won six, including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and Cinematography.  In 2009, it was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.  It is #40 on AFI's list of "Most Inspirational Movies."  And while its most famous legacy today seems to be the fact that Greer Garson married Richard Ney (the actor who played her son) shortly after filming, Winston Churchill famously said that "Mrs. Miniver is propaganda worth a hundred battleships."

Four Oscar-winning actors on Awards night.

Bette Davis, nominated again, opened a free club for servicemen only run by celebrities.  Greer Garson, along with many other actresses, dedicated herself to selling war bonds.  And nearly all the movies lauded that year would be either patriotic or war-related (or both.)  Patriotism was continuing in full force.  The awards that year honored servicemen with a flag listing the over 27,000 members of Hollywood who had enlisted to fight the war and unrolled it during the singing of the national anthem. Both popular starlet Teresa Wright and the scandalous Greer Garson walked off their first Oscars.  James Cagney won for Best Actor in the stars and stripes studded film Yankee Doodle Dandy.  But the statuettes themselves were made of plaster, not gold, in a nod to the war effort.  Women were again asked to dress down (with some success) and most of the male winners of the evening had to have their statuettes accepted by their wives, as they were overseas.

Long-winded Oscar winner Greer Garson

After the ceremony was over, journelists complained the most about the lack of space.  W. R. Wilkerson, editor of the Hollywood Reporter, was so incensed he wrote three separate editorials about the event, deriding it as having "tiresome speakers voicing greater dullness" and "professional jerks of ever caliber."  Mary Pickford was miffed that she had had to sit in the back, and the New York Wold-Telegram voiced the continuing belief that had the 4,500 extras not been allowed to vote, results would have been different.  The Academy dropped hints that change was in the wind for the event next year.  But the most memorable moment of the awards came when Greer Garson delivered her 5 1/2 minute speech, the longest acceptance speech ever in Academy Awards history.  As it was the last delivered, and it was after 1am, the speech has become exaggerated in Academy urban legend, much to Garson's chagrin.  She would never win another.

Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in Mrs. Miniver

The Verdict?
This movie is incredible for so many reasons. And it’s not because it is a cinematic masterpiece. If this movie was made either 10 years earlier or later it would not have made such an impact on me. It is such an important movie because it is not a war movie; it is a movie about living during a war.

Mr. and Mrs. Miniver in the bomb shelter.

The scariest thing about Mrs. Miniver is how normal it is. The Minivers are loving, friendly, good-natured, flawed and modern (for 1942). They could be your next door neighbors. And by the end of the movie, we’re not entirely sure they will survive. This movie violates the American middle class’s deeply ingrained belief that nothing can ever happen to them. It is those others who are bombed, those Europeans across the water. But Mrs. Miniver claims that a psychopathic German solider can crop up in your backyard, and that a stray bullet can claim your daughter-in-law. You could be buying a too-expensive hat one day and then a few weeks later be hiding in a bomb shelter with your young children. And in 1942, less than a year after Pearl Harbor, too many Americans were sticking their heads in the sand with regards to the ongoing war.

The Minivers must tell Vin his wife has died.

The atmosphere of the film feels as if someone started bombing June Cleaver’s backyard. Imagine the impact of seeing people like yourself suffering from an invasion that is actually happening in real time. I think that today we are too likely to classify wars as "other." People in head scarves roaming deserts seem so foreign to modern-day Americans that we forget wars happening in Afghanistan or Iraq involve real people and families. And of course it is much easier to sympathize with the British rather than people with a culture so different from ours. But the message to take away from this film is that war (and the devastation that follows it) can happen to anyone, at any time.

The Minivers in the bomb shelter.

The truly chilling moment comes at the end, when the Vicar gives his famous speech and the camera pans up to the sky. The planes are flying overhead, the church is crumbling around them and no one, not even the audience, knows when the violence will end or even if it will. The looked-for ending is missing—the resolution of the war. We know the ending, but how terrifying to watch this film in a theater and not be assured of a happy ending. All this film has is hope for peace; for the Minivers, and for the world.

The family looks at their ruined home.