Best Years

Rating: Null/10 (15 December 2008)

"The Best Years of Our Lives" is one of the first films to demonstrate the darker side of war. Where other films in its era documented war as just another facet of life to be expected, this film deals with the aftermath of war on the home front. The three main characters have all just returned home from the war and find their lives changed forever. Each experience a mix of feelings; the joy of being home but the loss of meaning in life. Without a war to fight, they must try to survive in a world that has moved on since they've been away.
The title, "The Best Years of Our Lives" suggests the years after the war, but as the film progresses it is evident that the best years may have in fact been the actual years of the war, when life was dictated and nothing except the day of death was left to chance. Al Stephenson (Fredric March), a sergeant, returns home at the end of World War II to a wife and two teenaged children, a well established life as a bank executive, and an altogether perfect image of the American dream. But his years away have left gaps in his family relationships that cannot be regained as quickly as he hopes. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) returns as a former air force gunner to impoverished parents and an adulterous wife with little hope in his job at the pharmacy. Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) has lost both his forearms in the war and is perhaps the saddest case of all, fresh out of high school when drafted and in love with his life-long next-door neighbor Wilma Cameron (Cathy O'Donnell). These three cases of post-traumatic stress all meet on the plane back to their hometown, and are reluctant to leave the taxi and go back to their lives in American suburbia.
The film, black and white, may at first bring a euphoric sensation for the old days of cinema, but its content can be thrust on any screen today. The characters drown their sorrows in alcohol, symbolic of any other form of dealing with the aftermath of war. The citizens of the town are skeptical of the reasons for going to war, and one man questions the legitimacy of Homer's sacrifice.
The film is typical of the era in its appearance, but its content is serious and realistic. "The Best Years of Our Lives" was relevant yesterday, and even more so today.