It may be corny, but you'd have to be a real cynic not to be drawn in.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
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Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:34
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.6/10
Consensus: An engrossing look at the triumphs and travails of war veterans, The Best Years of Our Lives is concerned specifically with the aftermath of World War II, but its messages speak to the overall American experience.
Runtime: 2 hrs 52 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Perhaps the most memorable film about the aftermath of World War II, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES unfolds with the homecoming of three veterans to the same small town. The leads all touch emotional... Perhaps the most memorable film about the aftermath of World War II, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES unfolds with the homecoming of three veterans to the same small town. The leads all touch emotional truths: Myrna Loy seems able to express longing, joy, fear and surprise--mostly with her back turned--in a particularly poignant welcome home. The movie never glosses over the reality of altered lives and the inability to communicate the experience of war on the front lines or the home front. A landmark achievement. WWII vet Harold Russell, who lost his hands in the war, is the only person to win two Oscars for the same role, Best Supporting Actor and a special Oscar "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance." [More]
Starring: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright
Starring: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Hoagy Carmichael, Virginia Mayo, Harold Russell, Cathy O'Donnell, Gladys George, Roman Bohnen, Charles Halton, Ray Collins
Director: William Wyler
Director: William Wyler
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn
Composer: Hugo Friedhofer
Reviews for The Best Years of Our Lives
This is intelligent, admirably unsentimental and utterly involving for its full three-hour running time.
Overlong, perhaps, but this tender and occasionally tough look at the plight of returning war veterans is one of Wyler's best films.
It's priceless -- one of those pictures every producer hopes to make.
Like most good mass entertainments, this picture has occasional moments of knowing hokum; but unlike most sure-fire movies, it was put together with good taste, honesty, wit -- and even a strong suggestion of guts.
It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment but as food for quiet and humanizing thought.
The film is very proud of itself, exuding a stifling piety at times, but it works as well as this sort of thing can, thanks to accomplished performances by Fredric March, Myrna Loy, and Dana Andrews, who keep the human element afloat.
Wyler and Goldwyn have made a glorious 'intimate epic,' one worthy of every honor bestowed upon it.
One of the few films that deserved all the awards heaped on it from the Oscars.
Although it contains moving passages, Best Years is not much more than a conventional drama on the problems of servicemen attempting to adjust to life in postwar America, well served by an all-star cast and Toland's ingenious deep-focus setups.
The film captured the mood of post-WWII America so well that even harsher critics like James Agee failed to see the film's dramatic flaws, instead stressing its realism and black-and-white deep focus photography by Gregg Toland.
The feeling of warmth and satisfaction that accompanies the conclusion is the hallmark of a great drama.
Latest News for The Best Years of Our Lives
June 22, 2007:
AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...
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