By 1946, Americans were trying to find normalcy after their involvement in the Second World War. Millions of servicemen were trying to find a job in the post-war economic slump, competing with men who had been deferred from military service for one reason or another. Many of these servicemen were dealing with injuries, both mental and physical, and would struggle to find peace from what they had seen for decades afterward. Enter The Best Years of Our Lives.
Al Stephenson (Fredric March), Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), and Homer Parish (Harold Russell) are combat veterans returning to their hometown as they are mustered out. Russell had lost both his hands while in the Army during the war, and as a genuine amputee, added a level of depth to the film, even as Dana Andrew's character suffers from nightmares from his many missions as a bombardier over Europe. None of these men are the same after experiencing the horrors of war, with Derry's marriage on the rocks as his wife looks down on him for taking up and eventually losing his old job at a soda fountain. Only Al's family is truly supporting, and even then, he struggles to see eye to eye with his supervisor's at the bank for his willingness to provide loans to impoverished veterans.
Director William Wyler's hard work to accurately portray the stress of combat veterans as they returned home paid off. He spared no expense to create the best film possible and The Best Years of Our Lives won seven academy awards in 1947, including a best supporting actor going to the non-actor Harold Russell for a well recognized performance. Despite the gravity of the subject, the film, as typical of the era is neither crude or explicit, but artfully and realistically tells a believable story. The central themes of the film would just as readily apply to the veterans of even the most recent wars, making it a timeless classic that deserves a place on everyone's list of must see movies.
Director William Wyler's hard work to accurately portray the stress of combat veterans as they returned home paid off. He spared no expense to create the best film possible and The Best Years of Our Lives won seven academy awards in 1947, including a best supporting actor going to the non-actor Harold Russell for a well recognized performance. Despite the gravity of the subject, the film, as typical of the era is neither crude or explicit, but artfully and realistically tells a believable story. The central themes of the film would just as readily apply to the veterans of even the most recent wars, making it a timeless classic that deserves a place on everyone's list of must see movies.