The return of the soldiers

Rating: 4/10 (24 October 2016)

The Best Years of Our Lives is an overlong melodrama focusing on the servicemen who return home after the war.
The film was released in 1946, soon after the war ended and was brave to show a world that was not going to be all bread and roses for these returning heroes.
Three different servicemen fly home to their Midwest town get back into civilian life but encounter difficulties.
Harold Russell lost his hands in battle and with his replacement metallic hands he has difficulty adjusting and feels his girlfriend is only hanging about because she feels sorry for him.
Fredric March plays the veteran soldier with older kids who returns to his job at the bank but gets chastised for giving loans to ex servicemen trying to make something of their lives.
Dana Andrews returns as a war hero only to wind up as a soda jerk behind the counter and earning far less than he used to. His wife wants a better, glamorous life, probably cheats on him and he finds solace with March's daughter who seems to understand him more. Here was an interesting triangle that gets lost.
The film is uneven and too long where the soap like drama just loses its bubble. I cannot fathom how Frederic March won the Best Actor Oscar, although non actor Harold Russell gives a genuine naturalistic performance of someone trying to make it through with his injuries and who only feels comfortable with his old soldier buddies.