One of the best films of the 1940's

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2006)

This is another great film by director William Wyler. It was nominated in eight categories at the Academy Awards and almost swept by winning seven, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Scoring. They gave a special honorary award for inspiration to servicemen to Harold Russell because they didn't think he would win against Charles Coburn, William Demarest, Claude Raines and Clifton Webb in the Supporting Actor category but he ended up winning that and becoming the only actor to win two Oscars for the same role. This movie can also be remembered as the one that beat out another endearing film, It's A Wonderful Life which was nominated for five awards and won none. A great ensemble cast with Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Theresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Russell and Cathy O'Donnell. This movie runs a little long at almost three hours but it's well worth the time. I'm sure I've seen this close to a dozen times on TV and would love to see it on the big screen sometime. I would recommend it and give it a 10.