Film Review: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

When it comes to films portraying the post-war veteran experience in America, this film sets the gold standard.  Following the lives of three very different veterans returning home after World War II, it looks at the complexity of veterans' family lives and relationships, their struggles to find work, coping with serious injury and disability, and more.  One is a family man with nearly grown children; another is a newlywed who married his bride right before going off to war; and the third is a young man who is engaged to his childhood sweetheart.  They each face different challenges and different family and relationship dynamics upon their return, and because of this, we get to see a range of post-war veteran experiences rather than just one single experience.  This enhances the quality of this film rather than detracting from it, and it really draws us in to all of their lives.

The storytelling in this film is wonderfully rich and complex, and it tells a story that remains relevant to this day, with struggles our own recent veterans are now facing in readjusting to civilian life, finding work, and reconnecting with their loved ones as changed men and women who are not the same as they were before they went to war.  It has the added bonus of actually using a disabled veteran actor, Harold Russell, to play the disabled veteran character, Homer Parrish, a double arm amputee who uses prosthetic hooks.  Using disabled actors to play disabled characters is unfortunately quite rare in films even today.  My one criticism is that Harold Russell, who was an unknown newcomer when he was cast in this role, does not share top billing with the other leads, despite being a lead character himself, and I understand that this is a result of Hollywood star power buying top billing, but it is important to note that Harold Russell won two Oscars for his role as Homer Parrish in this film and did a superb job portraying the depth and complexity of this character.

For me, Homer was the most compelling character of the film.  He returns home having already been through rehab and occupational therapy and having learned how to use his prosthetic hooks to the best of his ability.  The film highlights many of the things he has learned how to do, as well as those things which he cannot do, with or without his hooks, such as buttoning his own shirt.  But the film also looks at his relationship with his high-school sweetheart turned fiancee, Wilma, and his fears and insecurities about facing her with his new reality.  My favorite scene in the film comes toward the end where Homer and Wilma finally address these fears.

If you are interested in stories that really explore the issues faced by returning veterans, I've seen none better than this one; and if you liked the post-Vietnam War film "Coming Home", you will love this film.  It has romance, drama, and above all, realism.  It is a true and seemingly timeless classic and I highly recommend it.  You won't be disappointed.