12 Movies Challenge: 'The Best Years of Our Lives'

by Julian Spivey

Photo: RKO Radio Pictures

Director William Wyler’s “The Best Years of Our Lives,” the Academy Award-winner for Best Picture of 1946, is a drama about three soldiers, an Air Force captain, an Army sergeant and a Navy petty officer, coming back to their shared hometown after World War II and struggling to re-adjust to life as civilians.

I knew that men who fought in the Vietnam War had come home to a country that had, at least partially, turned its back on them, as that war had grown less popular with Americans as it dragged on. However, it never occurred to me that World War II heroes might have faced similar issues upon their return. You don’t often see this portrayed in pop culture, so “The Best Years of Our Lives,” inspired by an article in Time magazine and read by producer Samuel Goldwyn, was eye-opening.

The film opens with Capt. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Petty Officer Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) and Sgt. Al Stephenson (Fredric March) all trying to find a plane ride back home to Boone City, somewhere in the Midwest, and meeting each other on the way. They quickly form a kinship and are excited to see their hometown and loved ones they hadn’t seen in years. However, that excitement wanes once they reach their town and get closer to their respective homes.

Each has their struggle. Homer lost both of his hands when his ship caught fire in the war. He’s worried about how people will see him now, especially his girlfriend Wilma (Cathy O’Donnell). Fred was somebody in the war, with a significant role in the U.S. victory, but back home, he was just a soda jerk from the wrong side of the tracks. He struggles to find a job that suits him and winds up back where he was before the war. Al was a banking executive before the war, living in a posh apartment, but the war had him become “one of the guys,” and his struggle is returning to a life of luxury, while the men he fought side by side with don’t have it so easy.

The performances are all terrific. Russell wasn’t an actor before the film. He had lost both of his hands in a training accident in the States during the war and was picked for the realism he brought to the movie. His performance was so moving that he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

March also won an Oscar, the second of his career for Best Actor, for his portrayal of Al, which, while he certainly has his moments, was more of a head-scratcher to me, mainly because it was Andrews’s non-nominated performance as Fred that appealed to me more. It seemed to be more naturalistic, and I admit I fell for the romantic plot between him and Teresa Wright’s Peggy Stephenson, Al’s daughter.

“The Best Years of Our Lives” was ranked No. 37 on both lists of the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest American Films, making it one of the few films that didn’t move up or down on the list. It was one of the first 25 films inducted into the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”