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From World War I and right into World War II. Thank you zip.ca for sending all the depressing all at once...

Where All Quiet On The Western Front was about the horrors faced by the soldiers, Mrs. Miniver is about their families. Mrs. Miniver is a housewife in a village outside London, and this film is about her, her family, and how they face the realities of war.

The Miniver's are shown to be a fairly successful English family: Kay is a housewife; Clem is her architect husband; Vin, her eldest son, is a university student; and Toby and Judy are her younger children; Gladys and Ada, their household staff. As War breaks out in England, Vin joins the air force, and falls in love with Carol, the granddaughter of the aristocratic Lady Beldon.

As the war intensifies, and the Blitz begins, we are shown the family struggling with the uncertainties of war: sons out on assignment, huddling in shelters during bombardment, buildings shattered, and the death of friends. But through these moments of horror and the more mundane moments of every day life, we are also shown the indomitable British morale that helped pull them through the war.

Apparently, this film was on a series of newspaper columns, written about this (fictional) Mrs. Miniver, which apparently was quite popular, and wikipedia says is sometimes credited with hastening US involvement in the war.

The film is a product of its time, and is a little propagandistic, the intense emotional ups and downs in the second half of the film and wonderful acting still make it a great movie, but like AQOTWF, I won't hurry out to see it again.

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