A must see movie

Rating: Null/10 (21 November 2011)

This movie does an exceptional job of creating an emotional response, one of compassion for what the veterans and other characters are going through. But it takes a certain amount of effort and imagination from the viewer to understand the larger context of what people at that time felt.
The soldiers didn't know whether they would ever see their home and family again, and wives didn't know if they would see their husbands again. So when the vets returned, it was not just the emotion of a long time away that they felt.
The vets of World War II saved the world for freedom, literally. Their sacrifices and the sacrifices they witnessed around them were what preserved the communities they returned to. This they must have felt, yet those who had stayed behind didn't. We see no gratitude from the civilians.
To understand what these WWII vets went through, you need to learn about the history of the war. The audience in 1946 would have lived through that history, through newspapers and newsreels. For the rest of us, there are lots of documentaries covering the war from many angles. It takes time to really dig into the subject, but once you do, The Best Years of Our Lives has much deeper meaning.
This is an important movie, one you should see, yet it is not pretentious. It strives for a naturalistic, slice of life approach, though, as some have noted, with a strong romantic twist. But it is more than a romance; it is about the inner turmoil of adjustment, as well as the outer, social and economic challenges. This movie could have been very dark and depressing without the romantic element, which provides a positive resolution to the story.
The various plot elements are plausible, such as the right-winger at the lunch counter. Journalist Eric Sevareid wrote about observing meetings of Americans in the Midwest before the war who could only be described as Nazi sympathizers. And the fact that veterans did not get much credit for what they had done when applying for jobs seems accurate; just look at what happened to the heroes who were in the photo of raising the flat at Iwo Jima. We know now there eventually was an economic boom, but right after the war, some figured we would return to a Depression economy. A lot of people were out of work.
While the movie stands on its own, it helps to have a sense of the historical period. The Ken Burns oral history, The War, is a good place to start. The BBC also made a multi-part documentary series.
Footnotes:
Near the end, The Dana Andrews character mentions as a job qualification that he learned to operate the Norden bombsight. I was a little surprised to hear it mentioned in 1946, since it was supposedly secret, even many years later, though not a well kept secret. The Norden bombsight was an extremely complex analog computer that for the last few minutes actually flew the plane to the target. So Andrews did have an extremely complex and important job.
The Andrews character was a "soda jerk," who worked behind the counter at a soda fountain, traditionally found at a drug store because of the technical and chemistry background needed to produce carbonated water and keep ice cream frozen in the early days. We see an old fashioned soda fountain, apparently a standard Liquid Carbonic Company model. They were still around in the Sixties, but have largely vanished.
The online "Drugstore Museum" has some info on soda fountains. The American Heritage magazine ran a fascinating article by Joseph L. Morrison on their history in the Aug. 1962 issue, available online.
While Harold Russell's performance was not so polished, it carried great power that lifted this film above the ordinary. He didn't have to act. I liked the quote in Russell's IMDb bio, from his letter supporting President Truman for firing Gen. MacArthur:
"The issue is whether the ultimate civil authority of the United States can tolerate actions in contempt of constitutional lines of authority. Any lessening of civil power over military power must inevitably lead away from democracy."