The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Touches You

Best movie ever!

Absolutely Fantastic

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Three World War II veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed. I don't get what's so special about this movie and it's definitely not a War film or even a Drama it's mostly about a bunch of people who eat and sleep under the same room and they talk to each other for almost 3 hours long and basically nothing happens from start to finish. For it's time it might have been some Oscar Masterpiece but now it's just generic, old and quite boring to even sit threw and just skip it in general.

I watched "The Best Years of Our Lives" for the very first time this morning prepared to loathe every minute of its almost three hour running time. Why ? I have an aversion to "prestige films". Movies that are made it seems just to win Oscars ("Gandhi", "Titanic"). I know that my prejudice is unreasonable and I risk missing some very good movies because of it but what can I do-I like quirky flicks, also ran's and B-movies the hell with the Miss America's I want the bearded lady in the side show. I was a bit disappointed I kinda liked this movie. I liked Myrna Loy and Dana Andrews, both great screen actors. I love Teresa Wright-she can do no wrong in my book. Fredric March was the weakest of the leads despite winning the Oscar for best actor (too much fat on this ham) but Virginia Mayo's performance holds up (and talk about va-voom! What a knock out. I wish they had gone with an actor for the role of the disabled vet. Harold Russell was admirable to tackle the part but his inexperience as a performer was off putting (think Sofia Coppola in "The Godfather 3"). Thank god we have William Wyler helming the picture-he is a great director and keeps this cumbersome vehicle humming along. Best scene: March's homecoming when Loy realizes it is her husband who has rang the doorbell. Almost wordlessly executed it is an exquisite piece of filmmaking. Too bad there are not enough of them to make this a great movie-only a pretty good one

Given that this is a movie very much of its time - the end of World War II and the problems of adjusting to civilian life faced by ex- servicemen - it holds up remarkably well and boasts many positive notices on this site. It would have little or no meaning for anyone born after say 1960 yet viewed this week I found it both moving and entertaining. It's clear that screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood intended the three returning vets - Fredric March, Dana Andrews and Harold Russell - to represent vets from all walks of life returning to homes in the four corners of the USA (or, for that matter, anywhere in Europe) and the actors are exceptional as are their wives, sweethearts and families. Personally I could have done with more of Hoagy Carmichael but this is a minor caveat about a minor masterpiece.

The Best Years of Our Lives is an overlong melodrama focusing on the servicemen who return home after the war.The film was released in 1946, soon after the war ended and was brave to show a world that was not going to be all bread and roses for these returning heroes.Three different servicemen fly home to their Midwest town get back into civilian life but encounter difficulties.Harold Russell lost his hands in battle and with his replacement metallic hands he has difficulty adjusting and feels his girlfriend is only hanging about because she feels sorry for him.Fredric March plays the veteran soldier with older kids who returns to his job at the bank but gets chastised for giving loans to ex servicemen trying to make something of their lives.Dana Andrews returns as a war hero only to wind up as a soda jerk behind the counter and earning far less than he used to. His wife wants a better, glamorous life, probably cheats on him and he finds solace with March's daughter who seems to understand him more. Here was an interesting triangle that gets lost.The film is uneven and too long where the soap like drama just loses its bubble. I cannot fathom how Frederic March won the Best Actor Oscar, although non actor Harold Russell gives a genuine naturalistic performance of someone trying to make it through with his injuries and who only feels comfortable with his old soldier buddies.