The Best Years of Our Lives (A or 4/4 stars)
'The Best Years of Our Lives' (helmed by the great 3-time Academy Award-winning director, William Wyler) is a powerful drama which centers on 3 WWII soldiers returning home from service. The 1st is Al Stephenson (Fredric March), a middle-aged, upper-class Army Sergeant who worked/s as a prominent banker in civilian life. The 2nd is Capt. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), an Air Force bombardier hero who used to work as a soda jerk before entering the war. And the 3rd is Homer Parrish (real-life war amputee, Harold Russell), a sailor who has lost both hands in an explosion & now uses hooks. They fly back to their (fictional) home town of Boone City (a Cleveland-like community), excited, but a little apprehensive & anxious about starting their post-war lives.
Each of these 3 men (and the families, as well) have a lot of adjusting to do, & the story follows their struggles with relationships, post-traumatic stress syndrome, self-loathing, careers, gossip, injuries, & other matters of the heart, mind, & soul. For me, the early scenes with Al are the best ones because they perfectly illustrate the vague, strange sense of disquiet experienced by returning soldiers. Al has difficulty accepting that his once-comfy surroundings aren't part of a dream and ... the reality doesn't quite live up to the idealized image he had constructed during his long 3 yr. absence. His children are grown, there's an awkward distance btwn. him & his wife, Milly (lovely Myrna Loy), he drinks heavily, & dreads going back to the bank to work for his elitist employers.
As for Homer, he distances himself from his loving family & adoring fiancee, Wilma Cameron (Cathy O'Donnell) because he senses their uncertainty about how to handle his disability. He's full of self-doubt, questions his masculinity, & even becomes bitter. And for Fred, learning that his beautiful blonde sexpot wife, Marie (Virginia Mayo), whom he married only a few days before shipping out, is a superficial harpy ... doesn't help matters. Though he was a hero pilot in the war, he is now relegated back to his drugstore soda jerk job; which makes her believe that she's wasted the 'best years of her life' waiting for her hubby to return to a non-flashy, non-lucrative job, once again. When his wife ignores him for another man, he takes up with Al's genial daughter, Peggy (Teresa Wright).
Fredric March gives a great turn as a man struggling to put his life back together & re-connect with his family. Dana Andrews' waking-from-a-nightmare scene is effective. Real-life war amputee Harold Russell (who'd never acted in a major film before) provides heartbreaking work as Homer. Myrna Loy, best known as Nora in The Thin Man movies, was one of the top female box office draws of the time. Here, she plays Milly with the right doses of sweetness, elegance, knowing & sardonic wit (reacting to her husband's drunken binges). Teresa Wright is appealing as Peggy. And Virginia Mayo impresses as selfish gold-digger, Marie. Everyone inhabits their roles so very well, here. And Gregg Toland's beautiful deep-focus black-&-white photography only helps to enhance the performances.
'The Best Years ...' is a timeless movie about adapting to post-war stresses (I'm thinking of the Middle East in recent years). Al is brusque with Milly at 1st, but over time, he falls back in the swing of things (continual drinking notwithstanding). The most interesting aspect of his 'return' is that he's willing to give loans at his bank to sympathetic blue-collar comrades more so now than before the war. Fred & Homer have difficulties believing that they deserve love because each feels inadequate.
Now, this is a Hollywood film from the 1940s; meaning, we see the trials & tribulations, but everyone ultimately bucks up, finds the love they hoped for, & attains their "happily ever after" moments. But it's still nice to see their journeys, their emotional hardships, & the courage it takes to get them where they are there by the end credits. 'The Best Years of Our Lives' runs almost 3 hours, but I was consistently engrossed & moved -- in fact, I didn't want it to end; wanting to know what would happen to these characters next. I love that this drama is able to combine both warmth & satisfying entertainment with provocative ideas that asks questions about who we are as a society. This, along with Notorious, is one of the best films of 1946 and, I can certainly see why it cleaned up at the Academy Awards.
Each of these 3 men (and the families, as well) have a lot of adjusting to do, & the story follows their struggles with relationships, post-traumatic stress syndrome, self-loathing, careers, gossip, injuries, & other matters of the heart, mind, & soul. For me, the early scenes with Al are the best ones because they perfectly illustrate the vague, strange sense of disquiet experienced by returning soldiers. Al has difficulty accepting that his once-comfy surroundings aren't part of a dream and ... the reality doesn't quite live up to the idealized image he had constructed during his long 3 yr. absence. His children are grown, there's an awkward distance btwn. him & his wife, Milly (lovely Myrna Loy), he drinks heavily, & dreads going back to the bank to work for his elitist employers.
As for Homer, he distances himself from his loving family & adoring fiancee, Wilma Cameron (Cathy O'Donnell) because he senses their uncertainty about how to handle his disability. He's full of self-doubt, questions his masculinity, & even becomes bitter. And for Fred, learning that his beautiful blonde sexpot wife, Marie (Virginia Mayo), whom he married only a few days before shipping out, is a superficial harpy ... doesn't help matters. Though he was a hero pilot in the war, he is now relegated back to his drugstore soda jerk job; which makes her believe that she's wasted the 'best years of her life' waiting for her hubby to return to a non-flashy, non-lucrative job, once again. When his wife ignores him for another man, he takes up with Al's genial daughter, Peggy (Teresa Wright).
Fredric March gives a great turn as a man struggling to put his life back together & re-connect with his family. Dana Andrews' waking-from-a-nightmare scene is effective. Real-life war amputee Harold Russell (who'd never acted in a major film before) provides heartbreaking work as Homer. Myrna Loy, best known as Nora in The Thin Man movies, was one of the top female box office draws of the time. Here, she plays Milly with the right doses of sweetness, elegance, knowing & sardonic wit (reacting to her husband's drunken binges). Teresa Wright is appealing as Peggy. And Virginia Mayo impresses as selfish gold-digger, Marie. Everyone inhabits their roles so very well, here. And Gregg Toland's beautiful deep-focus black-&-white photography only helps to enhance the performances.
'The Best Years ...' is a timeless movie about adapting to post-war stresses (I'm thinking of the Middle East in recent years). Al is brusque with Milly at 1st, but over time, he falls back in the swing of things (continual drinking notwithstanding). The most interesting aspect of his 'return' is that he's willing to give loans at his bank to sympathetic blue-collar comrades more so now than before the war. Fred & Homer have difficulties believing that they deserve love because each feels inadequate.
Now, this is a Hollywood film from the 1940s; meaning, we see the trials & tribulations, but everyone ultimately bucks up, finds the love they hoped for, & attains their "happily ever after" moments. But it's still nice to see their journeys, their emotional hardships, & the courage it takes to get them where they are there by the end credits. 'The Best Years of Our Lives' runs almost 3 hours, but I was consistently engrossed & moved -- in fact, I didn't want it to end; wanting to know what would happen to these characters next. I love that this drama is able to combine both warmth & satisfying entertainment with provocative ideas that asks questions about who we are as a society. This, along with Notorious, is one of the best films of 1946 and, I can certainly see why it cleaned up at the Academy Awards.