“The Best Years of Our Lives”

Groundbreaking for its time, this film was released in 1946, just after WWII ended. Based on a book written by journalist/war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor and published in 1945, it deals with the trials faced by millions of American Veterans and their families, as the men returned home from “The War.”  One of the great classics in the history of American cinema, it  won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Fredric March), and Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell). Russell was also given a special Academy Award for his inspirational performance.  To this day, he remains the only person who ever won two Academy Awards for the same role in the same movie. The film was selected by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to the United States of America. It also starred some of Hollywood’s biggest stars of the day, including Myrna Loy, Virginia Mayo and Teresa Wright, along with composer Hoagy Carmichael.

The film focuses on the lives of three U.S. servicemen returning home from WWII. They are headed home to “Boone City” and meet while in transit. Fredric March plays Army Sergeant Al Stephenson, who saw combat with the 25th Infantry Division in the jungles of the South Pacific. Dana Andrews portrays the dashing and bemedaled Air Corps Bombardier Captain Fred Derry, who saw action in the skies over Europe with the 8th Air Force. Harold Russell portrays Navy Petty Officer Homer Parrish, who is a double amputee, having lost both his hands in combat. Incredibly enough, Russell was a real-life Army Sergeant and paratrooper who lost both his hands in a training accident when an explosive device prematurely detonated!

This film pulls no punches dealing with PTSD, alcohol abuse, broken relationships, estrangement from family, unemployment and the uncertainty of the future, even touching on the dawn of nuclear warfare. Particularly hard hit are Parrish and Derry. One must overcome the massive disability of going through life with prosthetic hooks instead of hands, the other goes from war hero to zero. Unable to find employment, he is forced to take back his pre-war job as a drugstore soda jerk at $32.50 a week. A paltry sum even in 1946 dollars.

What resonated with audiences was this film’s release came at a time when it mirrored the reality of many American servicemen and their families. And it highlights not only the obvious effects on the returning servicemen but the collateral effects on their families. This film is timeless in its message, as war itself is timeless. The challenges faced by returning combat Veterans trying to integrate back into civilian life in 1946, are much the same as Veterans faced when returning from Korea, Vietnam or from the deserts of Iraq and mountains of Afghanistan. The film was also a record-breaking feature in the UK.  This should be a must-watch for all.

To view the movie, click here.

For more about Russell, click here.