Review of The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) by Mark S — 18 Oct 2011

Some films transcend time. 100 years from now, this will still be brought up as one of the best. When I was 18, I found the AFI's 100 greatest films of all time. Some were great. Some weren't. To be honest, this was one of the last ones on the list that I saw. To be honest, I wasn't excited to see it. It seemed as if it was going to be one of the relics of a time that I never lived in. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The Best Years of Our Lives was an emotionally gripping story that brings up issues that are relevant today. The acting was superb and the story was emotional and compelling. To the uninitiated, The Best Years of Our Lives is the story of three soldiers that come back from WWII. It chronicles their various struggles with life back in the states now that the war has passed. It shows that war is something that we view as impersonal. We thank our veterans with ticker tape parades once or twice a year, but we never really sacrifice anything when those veterans come back and ask us for help. This movie shows how much we owe to our veterans for their honorable sacrifices.