The Best Years Of Our Lives

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Runtime: 172 minutes

Directed by: William Wyler

Starring: Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell (no relation), Virginia Mayo, Myrna Loy

From: MGM

To show that I don't always watch wacky B-movies (whether they be comedies, sci-fi, horror, or whatever else) and sometimes I do watch more serious cinema and even classic cinema from in the past, I figured it was about time to check out this movie, which I've known of for years and it's on TCM relatively frequently but last night was finally the time where I watched this classic piece of American cinema. As typical for me as of late, after I give the plot description the rest of it is borrowed from my Letterboxd review.

From the IMDb: "The story concentrates on the social re-adjustment of three World War II servicemen, each from a different station of society. Al Stephenson returns to an influential banking position, but finds it hard to reconcile his loyalties to ex-servicemen with new commercial realities. Fred Derry is an ordinary working man who finds it difficult to hold down a job or pick up the threads of his marriage. Having had both hands burnt off during the war, Homer Parrish is unsure that his fiancée's feelings are still those of love and not those of pity. Each of the veterans faces a crisis upon his arrival, and each crisis is a microcosm of the experiences of many American warriors who found an alien world awaiting them when they came marching home." 

 It's a tale that's evergreen as it's all about all the troubles men in uniform face after they return home from active duty and have to deal with such things as:

* Nightmares of combat past
* Readjusting to life after years out in the field
* Getting used to being around their families again, including significant others
* Trying to find a job, which often is notably less than what they earned while serving our country
* People who are against war taking down to them
* If someone was maimed, worrying over how people will treat them & having guilt over needing assistance

While I have never served (not by a longshot), I can safely presume those who have been in the armed forces recently can understand at least most of those feelings and situations if they haven't dealt with it themselves.

This is a near 3 hour tale that never seems so long, as it's always interesting seeing those three separate stories take place (and often intersecting with each other) and watching how those serious stories play out. 
It's a greatly-filmed and told story and it's brought to life by a cast filled with veterans of the Golden Age of Hollywood, from Fredric March and Virginia Mayo to Hoagy Carmichael and Myrna Loy, but it is the performance of real life World War II soldier and actual double amputee Harold Russell as Homer that stands out. It comes off as being so real as I presume a lot of his acting is true to real life and he did experience similar feelings of regret and humiliation for needing other people to sometimes assist him in his regular everyday life. I haven't seen the other roles that he was nominated with but I will still presume the Oscar was well-deserved.

Admittedly as of late I've been watching a lot of B cinema and goofy films. I figured it was about time to watch something more serious and mature, and even better would be to watch a Hollywood classic from the days of old; when Bette Davis says that this film was “the best she ever saw”, I figured that would be the perfect thing to watch and fulfill my desire to see an incredible movie, and that indeed was the case.

I'll return Thursday night.