The Casualties of War-At Home

Rating: 10/10 (16 February 2011)

The Best Years of My Life is one my favorite movies. It is a classic romantic drama in the true sense of the word, and to say that they don't make them like this anymore would be an understatement. It has a solid cast, that includes; Myrna Loy, Fredrick March, Dana Andrews (one of my favorites), Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Russell.
The story begins with three returning WWII veterans (March, Andrews, Russell) who meet on the flight back to their hometown, and centers around there difficulty returning back to their former lives. March's character returns to find his children have grown, and he and his wife must get reacquainted with each other all over again. Andrews returns to an unhappy and failing marriage and finds himself no longer in love with his wife. Perhaps the most heartbreaking role in the movie belongs to Harold Russell's character, who returns home from the war with out his hands, made all the more tragic because this paralleled Russells own experience in the war.
The Best Years of our Lives won nine Oscars in 1947, including; Best Picture, Best Actor (Fredrick March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), and also Directing, Film Editing, Musical Score, Sound Recording, Writing, and a special award to Harold Russell "for Bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in The Best Years of Our Lives", which, indecently was the only time in the Academys history that two awards were given to any actor for the same role. See the movie and you'll see that he deserved it.