"Last year it was killing Japs and this year it's... make money."

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2007)

Some months ago, a co-worker and I were discussing our favorite movies, and his happened to be "The Best Years of Our Lives". I had certainly heard of it before, and knew it ranked highly on the IMDb and AFI lists of all time top movies. Up till now though, it had remained low on my radar, but I requested it through my local library system and got a chance to see it today. The film has to be one of the best ever in dealing with the return of military soldiers to civilian life, certainly the best regarding servicemen from World War II. It wisely stays away from battle scene flash backs to concentrate on the human drama of three ordinary men thrust back into a world they have to familiarize themselves with all over again. Their experiences range from the happiness of friends and family to have them back home, to the wrenching adjustments they must make individually as befits their respective situations. Perhaps the most heart wrenching is the personal ordeal of sailor Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), a real life veteran who lost his hands in an accident while training paratroopers at Camp MacKall, North Carolina. You would never know Russell wasn't an accomplished actor of his own accord, and for his effort in the film, was recognized as the only actor in history to win two Oscars for the same role in a picture (Best Supporting Actor and an Honorary Award for bringing hope and courage to fellow veterans).
All of the performances by the principals are uniformly believable and consistent, with Fredric March and Dana Andrews rounding out the wartime trio who hook up by chance for a flight home to Boone City, a fictional city set in the Midwest. Young viewers probably won't believe the visibility offered by the nose of a B-15 bomber, just like I couldn't get over it when I saw the real thing at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center. There, the cockpit and nose section of the Enola Gay (actually a B-29 bomber) is on display, and seeing it, I earned an even greater appreciation and respect for the combat fliers who went to war for their country.
Watching the film today, it's surprising how daring director William Wyler was in executing the story. The first example of course was using Harold Russell in a lead role, but you also have themes that were downright shocking in the 1940's. When Peggy Stephenson (Teresa Wright) declares that she's going to cause the divorce of Fred Derry (Andrews) and his wife Marie (Virginia Mayo), you can almost hear the gasps of movie patrons back in the day. And even though it's played for laughs, I had to wonder about the scene when Fred and Al Stephenson (March) were bundled up in the back seat of the family car in a drunken stupor. Speaking of which, stay attentive to the scene at Butch's tavern; Al introduces Fred and Homer to his family using each other's names. Of course by that time he was already a bit pie-eyed, so if it was a mistake, at least it was a credible one.
If you never saw the credits for the movie, I think you'd be hard pressed to rank the actors in the story, so good are the performances and the screen time shared by the leads. To my mind, Harold Russell and his story are the standouts, but one could make as good a case for Dana Andrews and his conflicted relationship with wife Marie and the love he finds with Peggy. I'd have to surmise that Myrna Loy and Fredric March are top billed because they were the biggest names at the time, but that takes nothing away from their roles either, ones in which they attempt to rekindle a marriage following the strain of war and separation. You know, there were times that Myrna Loy seemed to have a devilish look in her eye like she was itching to go into a Nora Charles characterization, but had to restrain herself for the more sedate role she had. She probably should have had a scene where she could cut loose, but that wasn't the mission so to speak. You've also got Hoagy Carmichael aboard for a few musical numbers, which leads into the wedding march that helps close the story.
It's hard today to try to imagine the kind of things returning servicemen had to endure returning to civilian life. The story helps set that tone with the men attempting to get back into the work force. I found it to be quite a disparity for Fred to be employed as a soda fountain clerk at $32.50 a week, while Al goes back to his bank with a promotion and a raise to twelve thousand a year, roughly two hundred fifty dollars a week. When Al took sympathy and a chance on a loan for a deserving veteran, it leads to some wonderful dialog about the kind of collateral a man brings to the table, the kind that can't be measured in money and property, but the kind that comes from the hands, the heart and the guts. That's what the true spirit of America was once, and is still if you can find it underneath all the garish headlines and muck that passes for news today. "The Best Years of Our Lives" works because it portrays everyday heroes doing courageous things off the battlefield, where for most of us, that's where it really counts.