The Best Years of Our Lives
The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, and Harold Russell. The film is about three United States servicemen re-adjusting to civilian life after coming home from World War II. Samuel Goldwyn was inspired to produce a film about veterans after reading an August 7, 1944, article in Time about the difficulties experienced by men returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write a screenplay. His work was first published as a novella, Glory for Me, which Kantor wrote in blank verse. Robert E. Sherwood then adapted the novella as a screenplay.
The Best Years of Our Lives won seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. In addition to its critical success, the film quickly became a great commercial success upon release. It became the highest-grossing film in both the United States and UK since the release of Gone with the Wind. It remains the sixth most-attended film of all time in the UK, with over 20 million tickets sold.
In 1989, The Best Years of Our Lives was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
Just after the end of World War II, three returning veterans meet while flying home to Boone City. Fred Derry was a captain and bombardier in Europe. Homer Parrish was a petty officer; he lost both hands from burns suffered when his ship was sunk, and now uses mechanical hook prostheses. Al Stephenson was an infantry platoon sergeant in the Pacific. All three have trouble readjusting to civilian life.Al is a banker with a comfortable apartment and a loving family: wife Milly, adult daughter Peggy, and high-school student son Rob. He is promoted to vice president in charge of small loans, as the president views his military experience as valuable in dealing with other returning servicemen. When Al approves an unsecured loan to a young Navy veteran, despite the man's lack of collateral, the president advises him against making a habit of it. Later, at a banquet in his honor, an inebriated Al expounds that the bank—and America—must give ex-servicemen every chance to rebuild their lives.
Fred, a soda jerk before the war, wants something better, but the tight labor market forces him to return to his old job. Fred had met and married Marie after a short acquaintance, before shipping out less than a month later. She became a nightclub waitress while Fred was overseas. Marie makes it clear she does not enjoy being married to a lowly soda jerk.
Homer, a high school football quarterback, had become engaged to his next-door neighbor, Wilma, before joining the Navy. He does not want to burden Wilma with his handicap so he eventually pushes her away. However, she still wants to marry him.
Peggy drives her parents around to various nightclubs to celebrate. The last place they stop is a small bar owned and operated by Homer's uncle. There Al is reunited with Homer and Fred. Peggy and Fred are attracted to each other.
Fred finds himself working under a young man who had been Fred's assistant before the war. Peggy drops by, and they have lunch together. Afterward, he suddenly grabs her and kisses her quickly but passionately. He immediately apologizes. Confused and somewhat upset, Peggy gets in her car and drives away. She decides to find out more about Marie in person and arranges a double date. Peggy dislikes Marie, and informs her parents later that night that she intends to end Fred's unhappy marriage. Al demands that Fred stop seeing his daughter. Fred agrees, but the friendship between the two men is strained.
At Fred's workplace, an obnoxious customer enrages Homer with his remarks about fighting the wrong enemy in the war. Fred knocks the man down and loses his job. Later, Fred encourages Homer to marry Wilma. When Wilma visits Homer at home later that same evening, Homer shows her how hard life with him would be, but she is undaunted.
Fred catches his wife with another man when he returns home unexpectedly. They argue, and Marie tells him that she is getting a divorce.
Fred decides to leave town to make a fresh start. While waiting for the next airplane out, he wanders into a vast aircraft boneyard. Inside the nose of a B-17, he has a flashback. The boss of a work crew, in charge of disassembling the planes for materials for "prefabricated houses," rouses him. Fred persuades the man to hire him.
At Homer and Wilma's wedding, Fred, now divorced, is Homer's best man. Fred and Peggy chat for the first time in months. They glance at one another throughout the ceremony. Afterward, he takes her in his arms, kisses her and asks if she understands the troubles that lie in store for them. Peggy smiles fondly at him, and then kisses him again.
Economics
An underlying theme is the changing fortunes of the three involved: in particular the reversal of Fred and Al.Fred says he was earning $400 a month in the USAF but is forced to take a job at $32.50 a week... a third of what he had been earning. Meanwhile we are not told what Al was earning. Basic pay as an infantryman was $50 a month, but as a sergeant he might expect $100. But returning to the bank he is offered $12000 per year... over ten times his pay in the army.
Comparing relative earnings during the war and after the war: Fred earns four times what Al earns in the war : Fred's $130 a month in the drug-store seems pitiful in relation to Al's $1000... but when they go out Fred is insistent that he buys the drinks.
Cast
Casting brought together established stars as well as character actors and relative unknowns. The jazz drummer Gene Krupa was seen in archival footage, while Tennessee Ernie Ford, later a television star, appeared as an uncredited "hillbilly singer". Blake Edwards, later a film producer and director, appeared fleetingly as an uncredited "Corporal". Wyler's daughters, Catherine and Judy, were cast as uncredited customers seen in the drug store where Fred Derry works. Sean Penn's father, Leo, played the uncredited part of the soldier working as the scheduling clerk in the A.T.C. Office at the beginning of the film.Teresa Wright was only thirteen years younger than her on-screen mother, played by Myrna Loy. Michael Hall, with his role as Fredric March's on-screen son, is absent after the first one-third of the film.
Production
Director Wyler had flown combat missions over Europe in filming , and worked hard to get accurate depictions of the combat veterans he had encountered. Wyler changed the original casting that had featured a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and sought out Harold Russell, a non-actor, to take on the exacting role of Homer Parrish.For The Best Years of Our Lives, he asked the principal actors to purchase their own clothes, in order to connect with daily life and produce an authentic feeling. Other Wyler touches included constructing life-size sets, which went against the standard larger sets that were more suited to camera positions. The impact for the audience was immediate, as each scene played out in a realistic, natural way.
Recounting the interrelated story of three veterans right after the end of World War II, The Best Years of Our Lives began filming just over seven months after the war's end, starting on April 15, 1946 at a variety of locations, including the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California, Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, and the Samuel Goldwyn/Warner Hollywood Studios. In The Best Years of Our Lives cinematographer Gregg Toland used deep focus photography, in which objects both close to and distant from the camera are in sharp focus. For the passage of Fred Derry's reliving a combat mission while sitting in the remains of a former bomber, Wyler used "zoom" effects to simulate Derry's subjective state.
The fictional Boone City was patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio. The "Jackson High" football stadium seen early in aerial footage of the bomber flying over the Boone City, is Corcoran Stadium located at Xavier University in Cincinnati. A few seconds later Walnut Hills High School with its dome and football field can be seen along with the downtown Cincinnati skyline in the background.
After the war, the combat aircraft featured in the film were being destroyed and disassembled for reuse as scrap material. The scene of Derry's walking among aircraft ruins was filmed at the Ontario Army Air Field in Ontario, California. The former training facility had been converted into a scrap yard, housing nearly 2,000 former combat aircraft in various states of disassembly and reclamation.
Reception
Critical response
Upon its release, The Best Years of Our Lives received extremely positive reviews from critics. Shortly after its premiere at the Astor Theater, New York, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, hailed the film as a masterpiece. He wrote,Several decades later, film critic David Thomson offered tempered praise: "I would concede that Best Years is decent and humane... acutely observed, despite being so meticulous a package. It would have taken uncommon genius and daring at that time to sneak a view of an untidy or unresolved America past Goldwyn or the public."
The Best Years of Our Lives has a 96% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 56 reviews. Chicago Sun Times film critic Roger Ebert put the film on his "Great Movies" list in 2007, calling it "... modern, lean, and honest".
Popular response
The Best Years of Our Lives was a massive commercial success, earning an estimated $11.5 million at the US and Canadian box office during its initial theatrical run however, it benefited from much larger admission prices than the majority of films released that year which accounted for almost 70% of its earnings. When box office figures are adjusted for inflation, it remains one of the top 100 grossing films in U.S. history.Among films released before 1950, only Gone With the Wind, The Bells of St. Mary's, The Big Parade and four Disney titles have done more total business, in part due to later re-releases.
However, because of the distribution arrangement RKO had with Goldwyn, RKO recorded a loss of $660,000 on the film.
Awards and honors
Despite his Oscar-nominated performance, Harold Russell was not a professional actor. As the Academy Board of Governors considered him a long shot to win, they gave him an Academy Honorary Award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance". When Russell in fact won Best Supporting Actor, there was an enthusiastic response. He is the only actor to have received two Academy Awards for the same performance. In 1992, Russell sold his Best Supporting Actor statuette at auction for $60,500, to pay his wife's medical bills.| Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
| Academy Awards | Best Motion Picture | Samuel Goldwyn | |
| Academy Awards | Best Director | William Wyler | |
| Academy Awards | Best Actor | Fredric March | |
| Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Harold Russell | |
| Academy Awards | Best Screenplay | Robert E. Sherwood | |
| Academy Awards | Best Film Editing | Daniel Mandell | |
| Academy Awards | Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture | Hugo Friedhofer | |
| Academy Awards | Best Sound Recording | Gordon E. Sawyer | |
| Academy Awards | Academy Honorary Award | Harold Russell | |
| Academy Awards | Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award | Samuel Goldwyn | |
| Bodil Awards | Best American Film | William Wyler | |
| British Academy Film Awards | Best Film from any Source | The Best Years of Our Lives | |
| Brussels World Film Festival | Best Actress | Myrna Loy | |
| Cinema Writers Circle Awards | Best Foreign Film | The Best Years of Our Lives | |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Picture | The Best Years of Our Lives | |
| Golden Globe Awards | Special Achievement Award | Harold Russell | |
| Karlovy Vary International Film Festival | Crystal Globe | William Wyler | |
| Karlovy Vary International Film Festival | Best Director | William Wyler | |
| Karlovy Vary International Film Festival | Best Screenplay | Robert E. Sherwood | |
| National Board of Review Awards | The Best Years of Our Lives | ||
| National Board of Review Awards | Best Director | William Wyler | |
| National Film Preservation Board | National Film Registry | The Best Years of Our Lives | |
| New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Film | The Best Years of Our Lives | |
| New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Director | William Wyler | |
| New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actor | Fredric March | |
| Online Film & Television Association | Hall of Fame – Motion Picture | The Best Years of Our Lives |
In 1989, the National Film Registry selected it for preservation in the United States Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
American Film Institute included the film as #37 in its 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies, as #11 in its 2006 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers, and as #37 in its 2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies.