What happened after the war

Rating: 8/10 (8 November 2016)

This was one of the first films to explore what happened to those soldiers after the war, mainly because it was made the year after WWII was over. Plus it is one of the best of those films. Here we first meet three soldiers returning home, to the same hometown actually, and there their mutual history begins and ends. But even that trip back forms a kind of camaraderie where they want to keep in touch. There is banker Al Stephenson (Fredric March), a middle aged officer, sailor Homer Parrish (Harold Russell, a real amputee) who was the all American boy who excelled at sports and is engaged to the girl next door but now is missing both hands, and Dana Andrews as Fred Derry, a pilot who was just working in a drugstore before the war made him a temporary hero. This role for sure allowed Andrews to turn his stoic tight lipped image on its ear to a degree, as he was allowed to show the emotional wounds that can lie beneath the surface of a "war hero" returning home.
Their stories all intertwine, especially the story of Fred and Al. The thing that they have in common? Al's daughter, Peggy (Theresa Wright), who falls for Fred. The problem is Fred is married. A bigger problem is Fred was married during the war when he was a pilot with all of the glamour that comes with it to Marie (Virginia Mayo), who doesn't really know Fred at all, and for sure doesn't know him as the pre-war soda jerk who doesn't make enough post-War for her to enjoy the nightlife that she loves so much. As Marie holds Fred more and more in open contempt, Fred finds him turning more to Peggy.
Meanwhile, Homer is trying to face facts. He cannot survive without the help of others. He cannot even get dressed and undressed without somebody's help. How can he marry the girl next door or anybody else without being a terrible burden? It doesn't help that the girl next door doesn't care about any of this, but Homer thinks she'll care later.
March's character is probably the most fortunate and the least explained of the three returning soldiers. He was a banker when he left, and he goes back to that job, however, this time he is evaluating the loans of returning soldiers as the bank thinks he has their perspective given his time at war himself. Al seems to have a drinking problem which his wife (Myrna Loy) tries to hide, and it is never really said where that drinking is coming from, or if it was there before the war. When Al and his wife see each other, for the first time in years, you can see they don't know quite how to act around one another. Loy and March do a great job - without any dialogue - of acting like they feel like honeymooners, which they probably both feel is ridiculous since they have been married for twenty years and have a grown daughter.
There is one scene that I found as quite a surprise, seeing I was born 13 years after the war. A guy at a drugstore diner counter basically says the war was all trumped up for corporate profits, and that it's a shame a guy like Homer paid the price. His remark is met by a punch by Fred. Although that attitude was more common during and after WWI, apparently it was held by a few people in regards to WWII in spite of the overwhelming evidence that our nation was at stake.
I'd highly recommend this one. Even though some of the social attitudes have long passed on, it gives you some things to think about that are relevant to today. A spouse can change their attitude towards the other spouse due to a job loss, you never know if a marriage is really a bad one and on the rocks unless you are in that marriage or if it is over, and people are still judged by "what have you done for me lately".