Saturday, July 23, 2022

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Directed by William Wyler

Screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood

Based on the novella, "Glory for Me" by MacKinlay Kantor 

Stars: Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Harold Russell, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael, Gladys George, and Roman Bohnen

This movie was on my 'Watch List' on IMDb for a couple of months. I was taken aback by the runtime of almost three hours. It is a solid movie with great moments.

After World War II, American servicemen; Fred Derry (Andrews), Al Stephenson (March), and Homer Parrish (Russell) become fast friends as they come to their hometown of Boone City. Each man realizes that life went on without them, and that the scars of war are with them.

This movie came around at a good time when the world was getting back to 'normal' after what happened after WWII. I was thinking that the movie was going to have lofty praise with not much payoff. It's not true. I was impressed with the film making. I had a feeling that Dana Andrews was the lead actor is the movie, but Fredric March won Best Actor. The best parts of the movie were Homer and his fiance, Wilma (O'Donnell) and the standoff at the Butch's.

I had some problems with the movie. Mainly it was the pacing of the movie. There was some empty space in the movie. There was also the problem of Michael Hall as Al's son, Rob was terrible. It was solved when he disappears from the movie. A blessing in disguise.

Rating: 9/10

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