NewMexiKen watched the 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives this evening and recommends it, especially if you’ve never seen it or haven’t seen it in decades. (I had never seen it.) The film won seven Oscars* in all — best picture, best actor, best supporting actor, writing, directing, best film editing and best music.
The story is set at the end of World War II with the return to the same hometown of three veterans — one a middle-aged sergeant (Oscar winner Frederic March), one an air officer (Dana Andrews), and one a sailor who has lost both hands (supporting Oscar winner Harold Russell, who actually did lose both his hands in the service). The film depicts the anxieties, tensions and dissapointments each faces. Myrna Loy, Virginia Mayo, Teresa Wright and Cathy O’Donnell play the women in their lives. Famed songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (“Stardust”) is delightful to see in a minor role.
It’s a long film (2:48) and, I suppose, somewhat coventional and dated — no car chases or explosions — but a superbly rendered drama great for the DVD player. As Brosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times 59 years ago next week, “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.” Indeed.
[* Eight actually. Actor Harold Russell was presented with a special Oscar “for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in ‘The Best Years of Our Lives.'” He is the only actor ever to win two Oscars for the same role.]