Classic post-war epic.

Rating: 9/10 (10 April 2011)

A huge commercial success of Wyler's film upon its release right after the war and a spectacular critical reception (9 Oscars including Best Picture) are surprisingly conflicting (and somewhat symptomatic of the film's value) when one determines his expectations towards a picture that suggests post-war revisionism encapsulated within the spirit of the Classical Hollywood melodrama. The Best Years of Our Lives is a complex film in a sense that it is intricately honest about its political restraints and yet applies the same careful consideration to both the entertaining dramatic facade and underlying it social context.
Running time of over 170 minutes turns The Best Years of Our Lives into a 'domestic epic'- film of subtle pleasures and intervening relationships focused on the mundane but extended into the proportions usually reserved for stories of much more grandiose scale. Yet initially balanced perspectives shift dangerously and for lengthy periods of time character of Homer is pushed into the background. Played by an actual disabled veteran, Homer adds a level of harsh realism that is unexpected for a Hollywood film of that period. All three veterans, levelled only briefly by a shared anxiety of returning to their families are constantly challenged by their different economical positioning, but strangely disproportionated by the narrative's momentum.
Wyler's film reveals itself to be a melodrama, in most natural way evolving from the struggle for readjustment into a love affair and it thrives on sentimentality. This notion dominates the tone of the whole with a pleasurable alas predictable manner, leading to an ending that seems to be entirely satisfied with its shmalzy quality. Film is simply most comfortable in this familiar territory, once the obstacle of the controversy- Al's contradictory intentions at work, Fred's unemployment and Homer's disability become merely a set up.
At one point Homer's sacrifice comes under blunt questioning but the villainous gentleman who dares to display his doubt is brutally dispatched- questionable necessity of war dismissed in favour of the future prosperity; an optimism of blindfolded conformity. This suspension of criticism is film's dominant mode.
Staged and executed with precision, film utilizes, infamously, deep focus to achieve a level of undeniable verity. It is hard to dismiss it as only a technical nuisance and although one should be extremely careful to seek Bazinian inclinations of dominance in this particular form, The Best Years of Our Lives is a thoroughly impressive achievement. Depth of every shot provokes a curiosity that is often rewarded through reoccurring use of reflections and significant details that would otherwise require editing, disturbing film's considerate pace.
Verdict: It's a classic that is as enjoyable a movie now as it might have been in 1946 but even more interesting as a story of a significant compromise. One between the urge for reassessment in a mass medium not quite ready for this kind of impact and a story that could support the interest of a broad audience- disillusionment and patriotism. More a mark of its times than perhaps any other Classical Hollywood venture, The Best Years of Our Lives is an example of a film that lost none of its excellence and purely emotional impact even if it intellectually resonates in a rather underwhelming way.