Review of The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) by Edith N — 07 Mar 2007

Why in Gods' names would a man with no hands wear pajamas that button? I understand shirts--in 1946, you couldn't get a dressy shirt that didn't button--but pajamas? Just wear a T-shirt, you know? How bizarre and . . . well, the Code probably had something to do with it somewhere, you can bet.

I'm afraid of how Graham is going to change while he's away--of how I have changed. Oh, it's different for us than it was for these people. For one, I'm hardly the type to go run out and get a job in a nightclub, as Marie Derry does in this film, but I have had and will continue to have experiences that he won't share, and he'll have even more that I won't share. It's what makes long distance relationships a strain at the best of times.

Again, the current war is different. (For one, the goals were a heck of a lot clearer.) He'll almost certainly be back long before the fighting is over. He hasn't been in the thick of it in any case, and Gods know he hasn't suffered anything like the deprivations a lot of people did during World War II. He has ready e-mail access, and even phone access, if he pays to get a phone card to talk to me on. He's never going to be living in the field, in trenches or whatever. He's safely behind lines.

But you know, if he lost his hands, he would [i]not[/i] find himself a career as an actor. That would require acting. And he already spends his time quiet and withdrawn, so I'm afraid I wouldn't notice PTSD in him.

But most of all, I'm afraid he'll have changed so that he can't love me anymore. This is the fear I share with Wilma and Milly--Marie didn't much care, because Fred was never a person to her. I don't think I've changed all that much--certainly not as much as most of the homeside characters in this movie changed--but I can't know for sure until he's back for good.

In some ways, I'm surprised Fred and Marie's relationship got past the Code. There were strong indications of adultery to it, which was forbidden. Still, Fred ends up with a good woman.

I also have to say that I am hugely impressed with the dexterity Homer--and the real-life Harold Russell, the only amputee Oscar winner--shows with those hooks!