I saw "Mrs Miniver" recently.
Mrs. Miniver was originally a fictional character created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns for The Times; it was later adapted into a movie of the same name. The Times columns were short reflections on everyday life, based in part on Struther's own family and experiences and gradually expanded to weightier subjects as WWII developed.
The movie itself is sentimental and dramatic. Because it has a religious element to it, it is not retrospectively well loved by modern critics but continues to be popular among real people.
The final scene is a remembrance service for several people killed in a bombing raid on the local small town. The director and the actor who plays the Episcopal priest re-wrote the scene the night before it was shot. The priest is a strong presence standing as he does in the church pulpit before a back wall shattered by the bombs. His speech meanders into the senselessness of the deaths of the civilians, one a child, one an old man and one a new bride. Just when you think the direction is to question how God can allow this, the priest challenges the audience. He says that this war is so important, everyone is involved, everyone is a combatant. The camera climbs his form to the hole in the roof above him as the congregation sings "Onward Christian Soldiers."
You can imagine how modern critics rise above it.
It is said--confirmed by Roosevelt and Churchill--that the movie strengthened America's interest in entering the war.
This is a revealing comment from Goebbels: ...[Mrs.Miniver]... “shows the destiny of a family during the current war, and its refined powerful propagandistic tendency has up to now only been dreamed of. There is not a single angry word spoken against Germany; nevertheless the anti-German tendency is perfectly accomplished.”
Mrs. Miniver was originally a fictional character created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns for The Times; it was later adapted into a movie of the same name. The Times columns were short reflections on everyday life, based in part on Struther's own family and experiences and gradually expanded to weightier subjects as WWII developed.
The movie itself is sentimental and dramatic. Because it has a religious element to it, it is not retrospectively well loved by modern critics but continues to be popular among real people.
The final scene is a remembrance service for several people killed in a bombing raid on the local small town. The director and the actor who plays the Episcopal priest re-wrote the scene the night before it was shot. The priest is a strong presence standing as he does in the church pulpit before a back wall shattered by the bombs. His speech meanders into the senselessness of the deaths of the civilians, one a child, one an old man and one a new bride. Just when you think the direction is to question how God can allow this, the priest challenges the audience. He says that this war is so important, everyone is involved, everyone is a combatant. The camera climbs his form to the hole in the roof above him as the congregation sings "Onward Christian Soldiers."
You can imagine how modern critics rise above it.
It is said--confirmed by Roosevelt and Churchill--that the movie strengthened America's interest in entering the war.
This is a revealing comment from Goebbels: ...[Mrs.Miniver]... “shows the destiny of a family during the current war, and its refined powerful propagandistic tendency has up to now only been dreamed of. There is not a single angry word spoken against Germany; nevertheless the anti-German tendency is perfectly accomplished.”
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