Review of The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) by Rachel G — 21 Aug 2007

Mere words cannot describe how good this movie is. This movie is a landmark in drama, especially for a film made in the mid '40s. The horrors of war don't stop after the war ends. Three main characters, a B-17 bombardier that served in the European theater, a soldier that served in the Pacific theater, and a sailor that got his hands burned off on duty aboard an aircraft carrier (a real soldier that really did get his hands burned off, how real can you get?) .

All of them returning home for the first time in years to try and fit back into civilization. The movie was made in 1946, so that's as real as it can get, being right after V-J day. The 3 soldiers fly home together aboard a b-17 and they fly over an aircraft graveyard.

THAT was the real deal, no fake props, no fake footage, that was an actual graveyard of discarded obsolete aircraft from the second World War. The first night home, the sailor Homer (the one that lost his hands) has to confront his family with an arms with hooks, and most of the towns people look down on him as a freak.

It's very sad seeing him trying to adjust with no hands. The bombardier, Fred Derry, returns home to an ungrateful, misunderstanding, money grubbing bitch, who is unsatisfied with her husband and disregards his screaming and nightmares in the middle of the night as an annoyance.

The other character, the pacific soldier returns home as a bit of an alcoholic, and hasn't seen his kids since they were little squirts. There's a scene where he gives his near adult son loot he took of "a dead Jap".

He gives him a samurai saber and the boy does not take it with much enthusiasm, knowing that his father had to kill somebody to get it. The little scenes like this combined with superb acting, an excellent music score, and an never-failing emotion engine that can have you teared up no matter how many times you watch it.

Harold Russell steals the show as Homer Parrish, a soldier who really lost his hands in a TNT accident when it exploded in his hands when he was training paratroopers. He received two Oscars, one for best supporting actor (well deserved) and an honorary Oscar that was intended to represent all veterans of the second world war.

This one of the greatest movies I've ever seen.