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The Best Years of Our Lives

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The Best Years of Our Lives
Theatrical poster
Directed byWilliam Wyler
Written byScreenplay:
Robert E. Sherwood
Story:
MacKinlay Kantor
Produced bySamuel Goldwyn
StarringFredric March
Myrna Loy
Dana Andrews
Teresa Wright
Virginia Mayo
CinematographyGregg Toland
Edited byDaniel Mandell
Music byHugo Friedhofer
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release dates
21 November 1946
(U.S.A.)
Running time
172 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,100,000 USD (estimated)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is a American drama film about three servicemen trying to piece their lives back together after coming back home from World War II.

Samuel Goldwyn was motivated to produce the film after his wife Frances read an 7 August 1944 article in Time magazine about the difficulties experienced by war veterans returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write the story, which was first published as a book, Glory for Me.[1] Robert Sherwood then wrote the screenplay.[2] It was directed by William Wyler, with cinematography by Gregg Toland. The film won seven Academy Awards.

The ensemble cast includes Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Hoagy Carmichael. It also features Harold Russell, an U.S. Army instructor who had lost both his hands in a training accident.

Plot

After World War II, demobilized servicemen Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Frederic March) meet while hitching a ride home in a bomber to Boone City, a fictional Midwestern city, patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio. [3] Fred was an Army Air Force captain and bombardier in Europe, awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism during a mission. Homer had been in the navy, losing both of his hands because of burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk. He has become skilled in the use of his mechanical prosthesis replacements. Al served as an infantry sergeant in the Pacific.

Al had been a loan officer for the Corn Belt Savings and Loan bank in Boone City. Though a mature man with a loving family, his patient wife Milly (Myrna Loy), adult daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright) and son Rob, he has trouble readjusting to civilian life, just like his two chance acquaintances.

The bank, anticipating an increase in loans to returning war veterans, promotes Al to Vice President in charge of the small loan department because of his war experience. However, after he approves a chancy loan to a veteran, Al's boss Mr. Milton (Ray Collins) advises him not to gamble on further loans without collateral. At his welcome-home dinner, a slightly-drunk Al gives a stirring speech, acknowledging that people will think that the bank is gambling with the shareholders' money if he has his way, "And they'll be right; we'll be gambling on the future of this country!" Mr. Milton applauds his sentiments, but Al remarks later, "He'll back me up wholeheartedly until the next time I help some little guy, then I'll have to fight it out again."

Homer playing piano. Note the in-focus figure of Fred in the phone booth in the background, while maintaining clear focus on Homer, Butch and Al.

Before the war, Fred had been a lowly drugstore soda jerk, having been raised in a shanty. He doesn't want to return to his old job, but has no choice, given the stiff competition from the rest of the returning veterans and his lack of qualifications. He had met Marie (Virginia Mayo) while in training and married her shortly afterward, before shipping out less than a month later. She took a job as a night club waitress and set up her own apartment while Fred was overseas. She clearly does not relish being married to a soda jerk instead of an officer.

Peggy meets and falls in love with Fred, and holds Marie in contempt after discovering how shallow and selfish she is. Peggy tells her parents she intends to break up Fred and Marie's marriage, only to be told that their own marriage overcome similar problems. In an attempt to protect Peggy, Al pressures Fred to break off all contact with his daughter. Fred does so, but the friendship between the two men ends.

Homer was a football quarterback before the war. Before leaving to fight, he had become engaged to Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell). When he returns, he doesn't want to burden her with a handicapped man, so he pushes her away. His uncle Butch (Hoagy Carmichael) owns a bar where the three men meet from time to time. Butch counsels Homer, but is careful not to tell his nephew what to do.

When an obnoxious soda fountain customer gets into an altercation with Homer over the political aspects of the war, Fred punches the troublemaker and loses his job. More woes follow. After Fred discovers his wife with another man, she demands a divorce. Fred decides to leave town. While waiting for a plane, Fred walks around the airport to kill time and wanders into a vast aircraft "boneyard". Climbing into the nose of a B-17 Flying Fortress, he begins to relive intense memories of combat. He is brought out of his reverie by the boss of a work crew salvaging the aluminum from the airplanes to build pre-fabricated housing. Fred talks the man into giving him a job.

Wilma tells Homer that her family wants her to go away, since it seems that he won't marry her. He bluntly demonstrates how hard life with him would be, but she is unfazed. When she makes it clear that she loves him regardless, he gives in.

A now-divorced Fred meets Peggy at Homer and Wilma's wedding. After the ceremony, Fred approaches Peggy and holds her, matter-of-factly telling her that their life together will be a hard struggle. She looks at him with love.

Cast

Principal credited cast members (in order of on-screen credits) and roles: [4]

Casting brought together established stars as well as character actors and relative unknowns. Famed drummer Gene Krupa is seen in archival footage, while Tennessee Ernie Ford, later a famous television star, appears as an uncredited "hillbilly singer" (in the first of his only three film appearances). Notable film producer and director Blake Edwards appears fleetingly as an uncredited "Corporal". Actress Judy Wyler was also cast in her first role in her father's production. [4]

Production

Director William Wyler had actually flown combat missions over Europe in filming Memphis Belle (1944) and worked hard to get realistic depictions of the combat veterans he had encountered. One of the innovative elements he introduced was in asking all the principal actors to purchase their own clothes to maintain an affinity for the period and provide a more genuine "feel." Other Wyler touches included constructing life-size sets which went against the standard larger sets that were more suited to camera positions. The impact to the audience was immediate as each scene played out in a realistic, natural way. [5]

The movie began filming on 15 April 1946 at a variety of locations including the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Ontario International Airport, Ontario, California, Raleigh Studios, Hollywood and the Samuel Goldwyn/Warner Hollywood Studios.[6]

The Best Years of Our Lives is notable for cinematographer Gregg Toland's use of deep focus photography, in which objects both close to and distant from the camera are in sharp focus.[7]His evocative sequence of Fred Derry reliving a combat mission while sitting in the remains of a former bomber, utilized imaginative "zoom" affects to simulate an aircraft taking off. [8]

The wartime combat aircraft that feature prominently in the film were being destroyed in large numbers at the end of hostilities. When former air force bombardier Derry walks among the aircraft ruins, the sequence was filmed at the Ontario Army Air Field in Chino, California where the former training facility had been converted into a scrap yard housing nearly 2,000 former combat aircraft in various states of disassembly.[5]

Reception

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, and wrote, "It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment but as food for quiet and humanizing thought... In working out their solutions Mr. Sherwood and Mr. Wyler have achieved some of the most beautiful and inspiring demonstrations of human fortitude that we have had in films."[9] He also said the ensemble casting gave the "'best' performance in this best film this year from Hollywood."

A more recent critic, Dave Kehr, is more reluctant to praise the film, but he makes the case for why the film is important today. He wrote, "The film is very proud of itself, exuding a stifling piety at times, but it works as well as this sort of thing can, thanks to accomplished performances by Fredric March, Myrna Loy, and Dana Andrews, who keep the human element afloat. Gregg Toland's deep-focus photography, though, remains the primary source of interest for today's audiences."[7] David Thomson offers 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."[10]

Not everyone was as complimentary. Iconoclastic critic Manny Farber called it "a horse-drawn truckload of liberal schmaltz."[11][12]

Currently, the film has a 96% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 26 reviews.[13]

In 1949, characters in the Steve Canyon comic strip by Milton Caniff had to decide on one movie to show Snow Flower, the daughter of an Indian potentate, that would show her how life was in the United States. Notices in the strip asked readers to send suggestions to Caniff. The film chosen by characters in the strip was The Best Years of Our Lives. (However, due to the aircraft carrying the film being shot down, Snow Flower ends up seeing a home movies of the USA, while incredulous Communist rebels watch Best Years.[citation needed]

Awards

1947 Academy Awards
The film received seven Academy Awards. Despite his touching Oscar-nominated performance, Harold Russell was not a professional actor and the Board of Governors considered him a long shot to win, so he was given an honorary award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance". However, he was named Best Supporting Actor to a tumultuous reception, making him the only actor to receive two Academy Awards for the same performance.

1947 Golden Globe Awards

  • Won: Best Dramatic Motion Picture
  • Won: Special Award for Best Non-Professional Acting - Harold Russell

1948 BAFTA Awards

Other wins

The American Film Institute ranked the film #37 at the 100 Years... 100 Movies list and #11 at the 100 Years... 100 Cheers list.

In 1989, the National Film Registry selected it for preservation in the United States Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

References

Notes

  1. ^ Orriss 1984, p. 119.
  2. ^ Levy, Emanuelle. Film review
  3. ^ Orriss 1984, p. 119.
  4. ^ a b The Best Years of Our Lives Full credits
  5. ^ a b Orriss 1984, p. 121.
  6. ^ Filming locations for The Best Years of Our Lives. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved: 26 April 2007.
  7. ^ a b Kehr, Dave. The Best Years of Our Lives. The Chicago Reader. Retrieved: 26 April 2007.
  8. ^ Orriss 1984, p. 121-122.
  9. ^ Crowther, Bosley. The Best Years of our Lives. The New York Times, 22 November 1946. Retrieved: 26 April 2007.
  10. ^ Thomson, David. A Biographical Dictionary of Film
  11. ^ Flood 1998, p. 15.
  12. ^ OCLC 90715570 Manny Farber Retrieved: 26 April 2007.
  13. ^ The Best Years of Our Lives. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved: 18 March 2007.

Bibliography

  • Dolan Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
  • Flood, Richard. "Reel crank - critic Manny Farber." Artforum, Volume 37, Issue 1, September 1998. ISSN 0004-3532.
  • Hardwick, Jack and Schnepf, Ed. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
  • Orriss, Bruce. When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II. Hawthorn, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-9613088-0-X.
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