Touching, if a bit rose-coloured

Rating: Null/10 (16 December 2018)

World War Two is over and three men meet on a plane on their way back home in the good old US of A. They're each from the same town, but otherwise they couldn't be more different in their war careers, origins, current occupations and future prospects. This movie is their story as their lives intermix and they all have to learn how to deal with normal life after the ravages of war.
The filming for this movie began only seven months after the war and the movie actually contains an actual war veteran as one of its main characters. Harold Russell lost both of his hands in a training accident during the last years of the war, and likewise his character, Homer Parrish, has to deal with the loss. Truth be told, it took me a while to realize they had actually gotten an amputee for the role. I kept praising the special effects, especially for such an old movie...
Details like that certainly give the film an authentic vibe, but then again, not a lot of time had passed since the war, and the long-term horrors and symptoms these men would have to fave had yet to surface. As such it's a bit of an idyllic version of what would happen, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't pleasant to watch.
Especially because the film is written and acted so well. I liked all of these characters, with special mention going to Peggy Stephenson (Teresa Wright). I liked how they could, despite their engulfing differences, look each other in the eye, find something that echoes and treat each other as equals. That's an important message, which we quite often forget.
What more to say? It's a pleasant movie to watch, especially if you're looking for a drama after which you won't feel the weight of the world on your shoulders.