Not at all what I expected

Rating: 9/10 (24 October 2004)

Wow.
I've sort of been trying to go back and watch a lot of the so-called 'great' movies of the past that I've missed for one reason or another. Sometimes I look forward to seeing them. Others I find myself sort of dreading --- feeling like I'm doing them more as an assignment than a pleasure. "Best Years of Our Lives" was one of the latter. I assumed it was going to be painfully schmaltzy and didactic.
Boy was I wrong. It's really an excellently constructed film. Sure it's still a "Hollywood" version of reality, but far more than most films (even today) this one is willing to deal sort of honestly with post-war conditions. Things aren't hunky-dory just because the war is over, heroes aren't perfect and don't become so. Adults clearly want to have sex and do. And even the bad guys (or girls) aren't completely demonized.
It's pictures like this one that remind me why I'm going back to look at the great films of the past. They aren't all great, but it's a real pleasure to happen across the ones that are.