Mrs. Miniver or The Best Years of Our Lives?

I liked Mrs. Miniver better.

I'll go with Best Years Of Our Lives, too, because i can relate more to it. It's just so heartbreaking, this story about the boy who has lost his arm (a litle bit like The Men, first movie of Marlon Brando, in 1950...). I think the characters are more interesting and it's really powerful to see them do what they used to do... But it's not the same. And they try to hide it. Mrs. Miniver too is really great, but i prefer the second one.
More subtle.

"Well, I think if people loved eachother more, they'd shoot eachother less!"

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They're both great old wartime classics but I much prefer The Best Years of Our Lives myself, found the characters a little more believable and some of the scenes very touching.

I love them both equally, but if I had to choose between the two I would have to say Mrs. Miniver. The main reason being that when they filmed it the war was still going on. And that scene with Mrs. Miniver and the German soldier is so frightening when you think about it. Looking at it today, you know the German's lost and you are hearing the conversation between the two and you are like "well, you lose so stop with your 'I'm so much better than you' talk". When the movie came out in 1941, the audience had a totally different view. It was more frightening and you honestly did not know how the war was going to turn out, but you had hope.

Man, that is a tough one! I also love both films, and are probably in my top 10 list of all-time favorites. Also, Teresa Wright is in both, and I just thought she played the down-to-earth, girl-next-door roles so well.

If I had to choose, Best Years of Our Lives would barely edge out Mrs. Miniver, for me. The story with Homer is touching for me every time that I watch it, and I liked the romantic storyline between Fred and Peggy.

You really can't go wrong at all with either one. The Vicar's speech at the end of Mrs. Miniver is one of the best speeches in cinematic history, in my opinion.

They are both superb films, but I would give the edge to The Best Years of our Lives. For obvious reasons, Mrs. Miniver had a very clear element of propoganda (which Wyler openly acknowledged) and in my view that element does not wear so well over time (but clearly was viewed as very important in its day). Also, I think part of what Mrs. Miniver was trying to do was to shock people into the reality of war by juxtaposing rather mundane things with the harsh reality (flower show or the extravagence of new hats vs. German soldiers threatening to destroy your city or air raids killing the elderly, women and children). Unfortunately, I found the portrayal of some of these everyday things to be both too melodramatic and sacharine. Certainly it doesn't ruin the film, but it is a flaw. The Best Years of Our LIves, on the other hand, was nearly flawless. It is unstintingly realistic, dealing with the issues without sentiment. The script, sets, cinematography, acting, and direction were all uniformly great - even if only by a certain degree, I think they were all better than in Mrs. Miniver. The speech ending Mrs. Miniver was fantastic, packing lots of emotional impact, but I think Best Years was uniformly better throughout the whole of the film.

Easy.

TBYoOL has definitely held up better over time. It has more sincerity and streaightforwardness, whereas MM went heavy on the propaganda, which MGM felt was necessary at the time to counteract people who were against the U.S. getting involved in WWII. (Lillian Gish held that opinion, but then she was known for her prejudice and anti-Semitism.)

Last year TCM aired a documentary about Wyler, and his friend playwright Lillian Hellman told him upfront she thought MM was his weakest effort as a filmmaker!




"Well, for once the rich white man is in control!" C. M. Burns