Solid film-making

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2006)

In 1946, after the War had ended, there was one movie that got the kind of buzz necessary to dominate the awards world in the United States. This film was that movie. I rented it because I saw the stacks of Oscars it received and it's placement on the AFI's list. And I had never heard of the movie until it popped up on my recommendations radar at Netflix.
It's a surprisingly long film, clocking in at almost three hours, but I have to credit the filmmakers, as it really didn't seem that long as I was watching it. All in all, this film really just has classic Hollywood all over it, complete with classic Hollywood direction, acting, etc. From beginning it end, it's smoothly directed, capably acted and has a developed enough script that I didn't lose patience with it much.
Having seen plenty of movies from this era, the one shocker to me (and probably to the audiences of the time) was the implication of divorce and marriagebreaking. Outside of that, the story is just a human drama about men returning from the war and the problems some of them encounter in readjusting. It's not a terribly complicated film and spends a lot of time with the three principle characters and following their lives, which intersect at many points. This allows the viewer to get connected.
Still, in the end, I can't love the film and that's really no fault of the film. It's just a specific film made for a specific audience, which I don't fall under. While I understand the drama, it isn't as relevant to me. It's still solid enough throughout that I can recommend it, if you have the nearly three hours necessary to watch it. 8/10.