Everything about The Best Years Of Our Lives totally explained
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is a
American drama film about three servicemen trying to piece their lives back together after coming home from
World War II.
Samuel Goldwyn was motivated to produce the film after his wife Frances read an
7 August 1944 article in
Time magazine about the difficulties experienced by war veterans returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former war correspondent
MacKinlay Kantor to write the story, which was first published as a book,
Glory for Me.
Robert Sherwood then wrote the screenplay. It was directed by
William Wyler, with cinematography by
Gregg Toland. The film won seven
Academy Awards.
The
ensemble cast includes
Fredric March,
Myrna Loy,
Dana Andrews,
Teresa Wright,
Virginia Mayo and
Hoagy Carmichael. It also features
Harold Russell, an U.S. Army instructor who had lost both his hands in a training accident.
Plot
After World War II, demobilized servicemen Fred Derry (
Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (
Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (
Frederic March) meet while hitching a ride home in a bomber to Boone City, a fictional Midwestern city, patterned after
Cincinnati,
Ohio. Fred was an Army Air Forces captain and bombardier with the
Eighth Air Force in
Europe, awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism during a mission. Homer had been in the Navy, and although not in a combat job, lost both of his hands from burns suffered when his
aircraft carrier was sunk. He has become skilled in the use of his mechanical hook
prostheses and around his peers seems adjusted to his situation. Al served as an infantry sergeant in the
25th Infantry Division, fighting in the Pacific.
Prior to the war, Al had worked as a loan officer for the Corn Belt Savings and Loan bank in Boone City. Though a mature man with a loving family, his patient wife Milly (
Myrna Loy), adult daughter Peggy (
Teresa Wright) and son Rob, he's trouble readjusting to civilian attitudes, as do his two chance acquaintances.
The bank, anticipating an increase in loans to returning war veterans, promotes Al to Vice President in charge of the small loan department because of his war experience. However, after he approves a chancy loan to a veteran, Al's boss Mr. Milton (
Ray Collins) advises him not to gamble on further loans without collateral. At his welcome-home dinner, a slightly-drunk Al gives a stirring speech, acknowledging that people will think that the bank is gambling with the shareholders' money if he's his way, "And they'll be right; we'll be gambling on the future of this country!" Mr. Milton applauds his sentiments, but Al remarks later, "He'll back me up wholeheartedly until the next time I help some little guy, then I'll have to fight it out again."
Before the war, Fred had been an unskilled drugstore
soda jerk, having been raised in a poor neighborhood. He doesn't want to return to his old job, but has no choice, given the stiff competition from the rest of the returning veterans and his lack of qualifications. His coworkers, none of whom served in the military, resent his return (and subtly, his heroism) and constantly remind him that "the war is over". He had met Marie (
Virginia Mayo) while in training and married her shortly afterward, before shipping out less than a month later. She took a job as a night club waitress and set up her own apartment while Fred was overseas. She clearly doesn't relish being married to a soda jerk instead of an officer.
Peggy meets and falls in love with Fred, and holds Marie in contempt after discovering how shallow and selfish she is. Peggy tells her parents she intends to break up Fred and Marie's marriage, only to be told that their own marriage overcame similar problems. In an attempt to protect Peggy, Al pressures Fred to break off all contact with his daughter. Fred does so, but the friendship between the two men ends.
Homer was a football
quarterback before the war. Before leaving to fight, he'd become engaged to Wilma (
Cathy O'Donnell). When he returns, both Homer and his parents have trouble dealing with the reality of his injuries within the family. He doesn't want to burden Wilma with a handicapped man, so he pushes her away, although Wilma is the one person who has adjusted to the situation. His uncle Butch (
Hoagy Carmichael) owns a bar where the three men meet from time to time. Butch counsels Homer, but is careful not to tell his nephew what to do.
When an obnoxious soda fountain customer gets into an altercation with Homer over the political aspects of the war, Fred punches the troublemaker and loses his job. More woes follow. After Fred discovers his wife with another man, she demands a divorce. Fred decides to leave town. While waiting for a plane, Fred walks around the airport to kill time and wanders into a vast
aircraft "boneyard". Climbing into the nose of a
B-17 Flying Fortress, he begins to relive intense memories of combat. He is brought out of his reverie by the boss of a work crew salvaging the aluminum from the airplanes to build
pre-fabricated housing. Fred talks the man into giving him a job.
Wilma tells Homer that her family wants her to go away, since it seems that he won't marry her. He bluntly demonstrates how hard life with him would be, but she's unfazed. When she makes it clear that she loves him regardless, he gives in.
A now-divorced Fred meets Peggy at Homer and Wilma's wedding. After the ceremony, Fred approaches Peggy and holds her, matter-of-factly telling her that their life together will be a hard struggle. She looks at him with love.
Cast
Principal credited cast members (in order of on-screen credits) and roles:
Casting brought together established stars as well as character actors and relative unknowns. Famed drummer
Gene Krupa is seen in archival footage, while
Tennessee Ernie Ford, later a famous television star, appears as an uncredited "hillbilly singer" (in the first of his only three film appearances). Notable film producer and director
Blake Edwards appears fleetingly as an uncredited "Corporal". Actress Judy Wyler was also cast in her first role in her father's production.
The movie began filming on
15 April 1946 at a variety of locations including the
Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden,
Ontario International Airport,
Ontario, California, Raleigh Studios,
Hollywood and the Samuel Goldwyn/Warner Hollywood Studios.
The Best Years of Our Lives is notable for
cinematographer Gregg Toland's use of
deep focus photography, in which objects both close to and distant from the camera are in sharp
focus.His evocative sequence of Fred Derry reliving a combat mission while sitting in the remains of a former bomber, utilized imaginative "zoom" affects to simulate an aircraft taking off.
The wartime combat aircraft that feature prominently in the film were being destroyed in large numbers at the end of hostilities. When former air force bombardier Derry walks among the aircraft ruins, the sequence was filmed at the Ontario Army Air Field in Chino, California where the former training facility had been converted into a scrap yard housing nearly 2,000 former combat aircraft in various states of disassembly. He also said the
ensemble casting gave the "'best' performance in this best film this year from Hollywood."
A more recent critic,
Dave Kehr, is more reluctant to praise the film, but he makes the case for why the film is important today. He wrote, "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. Gregg Toland's deep-focus photography, though, remains the primary source of interest for today's audiences."
Not everyone was as complimentary. Iconoclastic critic
Manny Farber called it "a horse-drawn truckload of liberal schmaltz."
Currently, the film has a 96% "Fresh" rating at
Rotten Tomatoes, based on 26 reviews.
Popular culture
In 1949, characters in the
Steve Canyon comic strip by
Milton Caniff had to decide on one movie to show Snow Flower, the daughter of an Indian potentate, that would show her how life was in the United States. Notices in the strip asked readers to send suggestions to Caniff. The film chosen by characters in the strip was
The Best Years of Our Lives. (However, due to the aircraft carrying the film being shot down, Snow Flower ends up seeing a home movies of the USA, while incredulous Communist rebels watch
Best Years.
Awards
1947 Academy Awards
The film received seven Academy Awards. Despite his touching Oscar-nominated performance, Harold Russell wasn't a professional actor and the Board of Governors considered him a long shot to win, so he was given an honorary award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance". However, he was named Best Supporting Actor to a tumultuous reception, making him the only actor to receive two Academy Awards for the same performance.
Won: Best Picture - Samuel Goldwyn Productions (Samuel Goldwyn, producer)
Won: Best Leading Actor - Fredric March
Won: Best Supporting Actor - Harold Russell
Won: Best Director - William Wyler
Won: Best Editing - Daniel Mandell
Won: Best Original Music Score - Hugo Friedhofer
Won: Best Adapted Screenplay - Robert E. Sherwood
Won: Academy Honorary Award - Harold Russell
Nomination: Best Sound Mixing - Gordon Sawyer
1947 Golden Globe Awards
Won: Best Dramatic Motion Picture
Won: Special Award for Best Non-Professional Acting - Harold Russell
1948 BAFTA Awards
Won: BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source
Other wins
National Board of Review: NBR Award Best Director, William Wyler; 1946.
New York Film Critics Circle Awards: NYFCC Award Best Director, William Wyler; Best Film; 1946.
Bodil Awards: Bodil; Best American Film, William Wyler; 1948.
Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain: CEC Award; Best Foreign Film, USA; 1948.
The American Film Institute ranked the film #37 at the 100 Years... 100 Movies list and #11 at the 100 Years... 100 Cheers list.
In 1989, the National Film Registry selected it for preservation in the United States Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Best Years Of Our Lives'.
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