The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Written by Robert E. Sherwood

Directed by William Wyler

After a short period of not focusing on World War 2, we’re back at it again here with The Best Years of Our Lives. While not a great film, it’s place on the list is pretty noteworthy, nonetheless.

The three leads of the film

By necessity, this film is long, clocking in at nearly three hours. The reason for the length is the in-depth explorations of three soldiers returning home from the war. The film jumps between the three semi-intersecting storylines, showcasing each soldiers’ unique challenges and methods of coping. The pace feels slow in many places, but it does allow for the stories to really breathe naturally.

I think there’s something to be mentioned about the effects of WW2 on cinema. This is now the second film in a row to tackle a major psychological issue, in this case, PTSD. This is the first film produced after the end of WW2, and the horrors of that war have begun to seep into the American consciousness. 10 years prior, it would have been unthinkable to depict alcoholism or PTSD in a film, but now, we’re seeing these types of stories emerge. The war inflicted a loss of innocence onto the world, and these films clearly show that no medium or way of life is safe from that.

Harold Russell reveals his arms to his fiancé

The film handles its depiction of PTSD as well as it can, for the time. By far the most moving is the sailor who lost both of his hands, replaced by hooks. It’s a shocking reveal, and his story is the most heart-wrenching. Many, if not most, soldiers who returned home suffered in silence, inside their own heads. Here is a soldier who can’t hide what the war inflicted on him. There’s a moving scene in which he takes off his hooks for his fiancé, and it’s incredibly powerful to watch him try to accomplish tasks the rest of us take for granted.

Other aspects of PTSD are shown: one soldier finds comfort in drinking than in engaging with his family; they’ll never understand what he experienced, and the liquor doesn’t ask for explanations. The other finds himself falling out of love with his wife, and falling in love with another woman, all while finding comfort in his memories of the war. 72 years after this film was released, we as a general public still struggle with how to properly help veterans suffering from PTSD, so there’s probably quite a bit this film gets wrong or over-simplifies, but it does at least try to have the conversation.

Myrna Loy and Fredric March

Other aspects of the film are merely average; the acting is fine (Harold Russell as the double amputee is the clear standout), the cinematography is standard, the music not very memorable. Perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps this is all to get the viewer to think. I don’t honestly believe that that’s the case, but it’s hard to write about something when it’s elements each fall on the middle of the good/bad spectrum.

There’s a maturity blooming within the films on this list, a maturity that is sure to continue growing and evolving. This film even includes, to my memory, the first clear depiction of adultery, with characters even exclaiming that they will actively break up another’s marriage. The Best Years of Our Lives may not be great from a technical standpoint, but it allows for a different echelon of topics to be discussed, and there’s some value in that.

FINAL GRADE: C-