The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

• Review: **** (out of ****)
• Starring: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Russell, Gladys George, Roman Bohnen
• Director: William Wyler
• Screenplay: Robert E. Sherwood (Novel: Glory for Me by MacKinlay Kantor)
• Length: 172 min.
• MPAA Rating: Approved (PCA #11972)

Soldiers returning home from the war face difficult changeswithin themselves and within the people around them. The Best Years of Our Lives follows three such men as they attemptto settle back into the lives they once knew.

Fredric March, long removed from his Oscar for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde makes the mostof a trying character. Al Stephenson was a loan officer at a local bank beforeleaving for World War II. Myrna Loy as Al’s wife Milly puts on a brave face forher husband. Though it’s clear she has missed him terribly, she fears life forhim may never be as it was. She serves him breakfast in bed, coddles him everystep of the way trying to help cushion the blow of an altered post-war United States.

Unable to take up residence with his wife the first night ofhis return, Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) seeks shelter with the Stephensons untilhe can find Marie (Virginia Mayo). Andrews, whose work in various popcornflicks carries little weight in such a hefty vehicle, performs admirablyherein. Mayo fits herself well into the guise of a caring wife at her wits end.Having been married only a short time before Fred went off to war, Marie hastaken to living off his military salary and upon his return, comes to therealization that the money won’t support them both and pressures him to returnto work before he’s emotional ready and into a position that is far below thecapabilities given him by his military training.

Nevertheless, as the money fails to come in by the handfulswith so many men returning from the front, Marie becomes bitter, having an affairthat will give her the style of life she feels she deserves. Feeling betrayedby her actions, Fred begins rationalizes his feelings for the woman he thoughthe loved and begins to consider the love he has for the Stephenson’s daughterPeggy (Teresa Wright).

Meanwhile, the third soldier, played by real life amputeeHarold Russell, tries to reconcile his varied emotions. Filled with selfloathing and anger at his condition, both arms amputated above the elbow, HomerParrish realizes what he will never be able to do with them and spirals towardsa dangerous depression that tears him away from the girl he loves and thefamily that loves him. Having already come to terms with his condition, Russellfails on many occasions to convey the depth and sympathy the film demands. Webelieve him only because he is an actual victim of the horrors of war. Hishooks for hands act as a symbol of both his loss and his courage to perseverewithout help.

Director William Wyler paints a vivid picture of thedecimation of war far from the bloody battlefield. With The Best Years of Our Lives, Wyler appropriately parallels war andits reconstruction. Lives permanently changed by a dreaded but sometimesjustified conflict. Though the flaws are readily apparent, Robert E. Sherwood’sadaptation of MacKinlay Kantor’s novel Gloryfor Me is a gripping look at the blood and sweat shed by the men and womenof the armed forces even after the last rifle is fired.

The Best Years of OurLives shows us the side of war that is often commingled with actual footageof war. We’ve seen movies that glimpse the lives of the soldiers of war bothbefore and after but traditionally during. Wyler doesn’t need the audience toknow what war looks like because those who have never seen it up close can’t beginto fathom the realism of what they are watching. We must use only theperformances and the situations the characters face to understand. It isthrough their struggles we comprehend the sacrifices they made when they becamesoldiers.

-Wesley Lovell (October 23, 2006)