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Mrs. Miniver or The Best Years of Our Lives?


Both Wyler classics about ordinary people dealing with the extraordinary effects of war. Which do you prefer? I'm going with The Best Years of Our Lives. I loved Mrs. Miniver, and I think both films are excellent, but I just prefer the latter. What about you?

No, not the bore worms! http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=8093247

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Both excellent but got to go with Mrs. Mininver. So underrated it makes me sick.

2007
1) Juno 2) Into the Wild 3) Atonement 4) There will be blood 5) Once

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I want to say Miniver because it's so underrated but I'm completely torn. The characters in Best Years just has a certain quality they don't in Miniver. But I don't know. Conundrum!

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I might not be giving BYOOL a fair shake as I've seen MM maybe 10/1, times viewed.
I look at MM as a call to war and BY' as a realization that post-war problems would exist for a generation and shouldn't be forgotten.

I'd say both were important films with BY' the less entertaining but more socially significant work.

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Nicely put; I think I would agree.

(MM had Greer Garson, but BY had Myrna Loy.)

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@ladylavende

I'm with you on this, The Best Years of Our Lives [current IMDb rating 8.2] is indeed a superior movie to Mrs. Miniver [current IMDb rating 7.7] - in every cinematic way. The ratings say it all.



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They are both great movies, but my vote goes to The Best Years Of Our Lives. One reason in addition to it being the better drama, was that BYOOL dealt with the war from the perspective of Americans. Mrs. Miniver dealing with people in England being bombed had less chance for ambivalence among the characters.

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Best Years by leaps and bounds. It's in a totally different class than Miniver.

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I have to say that I believe "The Best Years of Our Lives" has just so many unusual, and "just right," set pieces and characters in it that it strikes a special place in me. I can watch it over and over (in part or in whole) whenever it's on TCM just to admire the quality put into every aspect of it. In that respect, it is more like a view into real life, with all of its attendant ups and downs, that just happens to have been recorded as a movie.

On the other hand, "Mrs. Miniver" is more a melodramatic movie-movie. As good as it is, you never lose sight of the fact that it is a "story-movie."

On the plus side, "The Best Years" and "Mrs. Miniver" both feature two of what I consider the most attractive actresses of their time - Myrna Loy and Greer Garson. In fact, if you look closely, they even seem to have some of the same facial expressions with their characteristically wide-eyed look. (Their arching eyebrows and eyeshadow certainly accentuated that beautiful feature of theirs.)

And then as an added bonus, you also get that fresh-faced, yet beguiling, child-woman Teresa Wright in both movies!

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Mrs Miniver by far for me. I'm a war baby and "The Best Years of Our Lives" doesn't do it for me. I'm not even sure why. It had great acting but just lacked something for me. On the other hand "Mrs. Miniver" was supurb and delightful. Maybe it was Greer and Walter.

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You must have just watched in on TCM to be posting here now. ;->

(I, too, have to admit I watched most of it also. Just can't seem to miss anything with Greer Garson in it!)

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'The Best Years of Our Lives', hands down. Even Bette Davis said it was the best movie ever made in Hollywood, according to TCM's Robert Osborne.

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While both films are excellent in their own way, I would give the nod to BYOOL. It develops a storyline following 3 completely different, flawed, typical American families. Miniver, by contrast, is very much a single storyline. BYOOL meshes the 3 storylines, sometimes purposely bruisingly, and results in something that is rare from Hollywood; a film about average (and even white trash) that is compelling and entertaining. Miniver was far more a typical vehicle of the time. Again, both are indeed excellent.

Remember When Movies Didn't Have To Be Politically Correct?

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I agree--while Mrs. Miniver is an excellent film, The Best Years of Our Lives is an even better one. Frederic March's performance (among many other great ones in the latter) is one for the ages. Unforgettable.

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Agreed!

I love both movies (William Wyler is one of my favorite directors), but my vote goes to The Best Years of Our Lives. It's my second favorite movie, after It's a Wonderful Life.

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I prefer The Best Years of Our Lives. It was more interesting and felt more realistic. I didn't mind Mrs. Miniver, but I didn't care about the characters at all.

I just blue myself.

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Best Years of Our Lives, hands down. A much more touching and inspirational story. Mrs. Miniver's ending is contrived and rushed.

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