Just 4 years before The Best Years of Our Lives William Wyler directed Mrs. Miniver and the similarities are impossible to ignore, this is another Best Picture winning romance drama with themes of war (specifically WW2) and even though this one doesn’t have quite the grandeur and spectacle of the movie I’m comparing it to the brilliance of the story, screenplay, and direction inspired all the same awe in me and it makes for my new third favorite feature I’ve seen from Wyler. The writing team which has too many names for me to type out is most deserving of my praise to start this review off, from the first lines of dialogue I knew this was another one of those old Hollywood scripts filled to the brim with that iconic charm I’ve grown so much to love and even though this is an adaptation I’ll say I loved how they laid out this story for the audience to take in. Speaking of that story it did surprise me in a number of ways, The Best Years of Our Lives was a mostly happy story despite some truly depressing moments and this felt like the opposite as a sad story filled with happy moments, and even though, like I said earlier, I do prefer how The Best Years of Our Lives tackled this topic (i mean it’s my 10th favorite movie of all time, not really an insult to fall short of that) I really enjoyed seeing this alternate perspective and take (alternate for the time of course) on this type of heavy war-themed romance drama. As far as the cast goes I had two main standouts and it looks like the Academy got it right that year as they were the two to sweep the Actress category, Teresa Wright was one of them playing Carol who she was so charming as but my ultimate standout was definitely Greer Garson who gave one of my new favorite performances of the 40’s here. Her chemistry with Pidgeon was fantastic but on her own I’d say she flourished more, really impressive stuff from her in the lead through the whole movie. And like many other Wyler films I loved the way this was shot, he hadn’t failed once in giving me a great visual experience in the 7 films I watched of his and this watch makes that number 8 with ease, out of all the shots that final one will definitely stick with me for the longest. Herbert Stothart’s score also added a lot to this, I don’t really like repeatedly comparing a movie to another in my review but in this case I feel okay with it, it felt very similar to Hugo Friedhofer’s work on The Best Years of Our Lives and considering how much I loved his work on that movie that’s about as high a compliment I can give to an old Hollywood score. That’s where my thoughts run dry on Mrs. Miniver, I’m not sure if I’ll ever come back to it in the future as it’s not exactly a story I’m itching to relive but I can say it’s a story I’m very glad I chose to take in this afternoon, once again William Wyler achieved pure movie magic from the first frame to the last and I’m now somehow even more excited than I was after my last watch to continue exploring his filmography.
Just 4 years before The Best Years of Our Lives William Wyler directed Mrs. Miniver and the similarities are impossible to ignore, this is another Best Picture winning romance drama with themes of war (specifically WW2) and even though this one doesn’t have quite the grandeur and spectacle of the movie I’m comparing it to the brilliance of the story, screenplay, and direction inspired all the same awe in me and it makes for my new third favorite feature I’ve seen from Wyler. The writing team which has too many names for me to type out is most deserving of my praise to start this review off, from the first lines of dialogue I knew this was another one of those old Hollywood scripts filled to the brim with that iconic charm I’ve grown so much to love and even though this is an adaptation I’ll say I loved how they laid out this story for the audience to take in. Speaking of that story it did surprise me in a number of ways, The Best Years of Our Lives was a mostly happy story despite some truly depressing moments and this felt like the opposite as a sad story filled with happy moments, and even though, like I said earlier, I do prefer how The Best Years of Our Lives tackled this topic (i mean it’s my 10th favorite movie of all time, not really an insult to fall short of that) I really enjoyed seeing this alternate perspective and take (alternate for the time of course) on this type of heavy war-themed romance drama. As far as the cast goes I had two main standouts and it looks like the Academy got it right that year as they were the two to sweep the Actress category, Teresa Wright was one of them playing Carol who she was so charming as but my ultimate standout was definitely Greer Garson who gave one of my new favorite performances of the 40’s here. Her chemistry with Pidgeon was fantastic but on her own I’d say she flourished more, really impressive stuff from her in the lead through the whole movie. And like many other Wyler films I loved the way this was shot, he hadn’t failed once in giving me a great visual experience in the 7 films I watched of his and this watch makes that number 8 with ease, out of all the shots that final one will definitely stick with me for the longest. Herbert Stothart’s score also added a lot to this, I don’t really like repeatedly comparing a movie to another in my review but in this case I feel okay with it, it felt very similar to Hugo Friedhofer’s work on The Best Years of Our Lives and considering how much I loved his work on that movie that’s about as high a compliment I can give to an old Hollywood score. That’s where my thoughts run dry on Mrs. Miniver, I’m not sure if I’ll ever come back to it in the future as it’s not exactly a story I’m itching to relive but I can say it’s a story I’m very glad I chose to take in this afternoon, once again William Wyler achieved pure movie magic from the first frame to the last and I’m now somehow even more excited than I was after my last watch to continue exploring his filmography.
