The Best Years Of Our Lives

Rating: 10/10 (5 September 2008)

This is my favourite ever film. There are others I will choose to watch if I'm spending a night in, but this film is very special to me. Has there ever been a more moving homecoming scene than Homer's....if you don't cry when his mum bursts into tears, get help. The little cameo in the bank where the guy wants the loan to start his farm....what a perfect scene when he thanks Al so gratefully and sincerely. The scene when Fred comes home and sees his wife has been ''entertaining'' another man. How Fred has to swallow his pride and take the humiliation from the other ex-serviceman who's obviously doing well for himself, while HE is struggling to cope. The scene towards the end when Fred's dad is reading the citations for his medals....at that point you're probably thinking Fred's a bit of a waste of space, despite his war record. But this scene really stamps it in your mind that this guy is a HERO, just a real hero who has his weaknesses. My wife and I once seriously fell out when she had the temerity to describe TBYOOL as ''a Saturday afternoon film''. It is a beautiful, beautiful film which, of its day, was also quite a boundary-pusher in terms of the themes it tackled....adultery, an uncaring population greeting returning war heroes, alcoholism, disability. Everyone needs to watch it. Andrew Rigby