My All-Time Favorite Movie and that says a lot!

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2019)

The Best Years of Our Lives is my all-time favorite film for many reasons. It is as relevant today as it was in 1946; our veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan face the same problems as Dana Andrews, Fredrick March, and Harold Russell did after WWII. The plot is wonderful, the pace of the film - although almost three hours long - is great, and the acting is brilliant. Fredrick March and Harold Russell both won Oscars for the film, but Dana Andrews is really the star and gives his usual understated performance, as opposed to March, who almost always overacts.
And my two favorite scenes are the ones already mentioned: Fred Derring (Dana Andrews)' father reviewing his son's war record, which almost drives him to tears, and the climatic scene where Andrews is in the cockpit of the airplane which is being junked to build pre-fab homes as he relives his experiences during the war.
Truly a masterpiece on every level!