The Best Years of Our Lives

The 1946 Oscar went to William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives, which was a stately melodrama about veterans readjusting to life after the end of World War II. Though couched in the form of a lumbering soap opera, there are moments that are starkly modernistic and make it worthwhile viewing today.

The story begins with three servicemen from the same hometown, who had never met before, get acquainted as they bum a ride home on a B-17. The first half hour of the film is like the ending of some other movie, as each character is reunited with his family. Frederic March is an older man who is long married with two children and a job waiting for him in a bank. At first he is uncomfortable being back home, not sure who his children are and unsure of himself back at the bank. Dana Andrews is a captain in the air corps who was a soda jerk before the war and hopes for something better. He married a girl, Virginia Mayo, after a whirlwind courtship during training, but it soons become apparent that they don't know each other very well. He doesn't want to wear his uniform anymore, but when he wears it she says he "looks like himself." Finally there is Harold Russell, a sailor who has lost his hands in combat, which have been replaced by hooks. He has a girlfriend who is still in love with him, but he pushes her away because he is convinced she wouldn't want to be involved with a cripple.

At times the film veers a little wildly into social message. Russell and Andrews mix it up with a man who represents the anti-communist isolationist view, thinking that the war was a complete waste. And Andrews strikes up a relationship with March's daughter, Teresa Wright, that has too much suds to it. But then there are some magnificently directed scenes. Wyler frequently shows how brilliant he is with the framing of characters, particularly in the reunion scene between March and his wife, Myrna Loy. The cinematographer is Gregg Toland, well known for his deep focus, which is on display often, as is the use of mirrors.

I think the best scene is toward the end, when Andrews, keen to leave town, heads to a local airfield to catch the next flight out. He wanders around a graveyard of military planes, and crawls into the nose of a B-17, where he spent the war as a bombardier. The music and photography work well together in this dialogue-free scene, as Andrews remembers the war and manages to exorcise the demons that have stuck with him.

Wyler, March and Russell won Oscars. Russell, who was a non-professional, was spotted by Wyler in a documentary concerning wounded veterans. He wouldn't act in another movie for another thirty-five years. Since the Academy didn't think he would win the Oscar, they gave him a special award, so he ended up taking home two statuettes for the same performance.

Even for its faults, The Best Years of Our Lives is useful as a reminder that post-traumatic disorders, so often in the news today, are nothing new, and were all too common even after popular wars.