Evan D. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. The Best Years of Our Lives is the ninteenth film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. At the depths of his misfortunes Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) wanders into an aircraft graveyard and climbs aboard the a gutted B-17 like the ones he used to command in the war. The plane, like Fred is highly decorated. Both covered in commendations for the bombs they dropped over the pacific yet there they both sit, discarded, no longer needed by the country they fought for. It’s a tidy bit of symmetry that punctuates The Best Years of Our Lives, William Wyler’s second Best Picture winner about the effects of World War II on the home front.
Where Mrs. Miniver focused on domestic struggles during the course of the war, The Best Years of Our Lives grapples with what faced the soldiers returning home. Japan has surrendered and theres a mad dash of US service members trying to get back home. With all the commercial flights booked three soldiers — Airman Fred, Seaman Homer (Harold Russell) and Infantry man Al (Fredric March) — fly back home to Boone City together. Each man faces a different challenge in returning from the war. Fred was a captain in the Air Force but must trade in that high rank for a return to working the counter at a drugstore without the qualifications for a better job. Al may not have had the same military decoration as his new friend, but he does come back to his wife, kids and a high paying bank job he left behind. He’s picked up a bit of a drinking habit in the army, something only worsened by the cold, calculated work he is now tasked with. Still, neither of them is confronted with the altered reality that Homer must contend with having lost both of his hands in the war. Each man’s readjustment is further complicated by their familial and romantic entanglements. Al’s kids have grown, his wife (Myrna Loy) has learned to manage the household alone. Fred had only just married his wife (Virginia Mayo) and returns to find that she is interested in living the type of life her husband can’t afford on his civilian salary. Homer’s girlfriend Wilma (Cathy O’Donnell) cares deeply for him but his loss of limbs has turned Homer skeptical and reluctant to re-engage. Wyler’s intimate look at the reintegration of returning veterans is as entertaining at points as it is devastating in others. From a modern perspective it is an eye opening look at troubles faced by the so called “Greatest Generation” that get papered over today. We often hear about the lackluster support for veterans from Vietnam or Korea but little of what the World War veterans endured. Seeing Al pressured to deny VA loans or Fred’s service record disregarded is certainly eye opening. The Best Years of Our Lives is a wonderful showcase for all its actors, none more so than Russell, a non-professional actor and real life veteran double amputee. To say that his Homer is the heart and soul of the film would be an understatement. A good ensemble piece, Wyler’s film doesn’t often feel like a superb one because of the way each competing plot line is unevenly stitched together. Homer disappears from the story for a long stretch in the middle of the film and Al’s arc is wrapped up a full 45 minutes before “The End” flashes across the screen. Still, The Best Years of Our Lives is a sharp examination of how war lingers over a country and the soldiers who fought it. Wyler again depicts the burden of combat without ever showing gunfire on the front lines. Again he directs one of the great Best Picture winners. 8/10
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