The Best Years of Our Lives

World War II is over and three US servicemen are returning to their hometown, Boone City (really Cincinnati, Ohio).  They meet for the first time on the military aircraft that will take them there.  Instead of feeling joy at the prospect of seeing their wives, girlfriends, and families for the first time in years, the three are filled with trepidation.  They fear that readapting to civilian life won’t be so easy.  Such is the theme of the acclaimed 1946 film, The Best Years of Our Lives, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, directed by William Wyler, and which starred Frederick March, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, and Virginia Mayo.

The film won the following seven Academy Awards:  Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (March), Best Writing (Screenplay), Best Supporting Actor (Russell), Best Film Editing, and Best Music (Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture). 

Al Stephenson (March) was an infantry platoon sergeant in the Pacific.  A banker before the war, he is returning to his wife, Milly (Loy), of twenty years, a daughter, Peggy (Wright), and a son in high school.  His boss at the bank can’t wait for him to get back to work.  Al would prefer resting and getting reacquainted with his wife and children.  However, when he does eventually return to the bank, he runs into conflicts with his boss over loans he has approved to returning servicemen like himself.

Fred Derry (Andrews) was a bombardier in the Army Air Corp in Europe.  Before the war, he worked In a drug store, including time spent as a soda jerk.  During basic training, he met and married his wife, Marie (Mayo), less than twenty days before shipping out.  Fred doesn’t want to return to the drug store, but there is not much call for a bombardier in civilian life.  He just wants a good job.  There is a powerful scene when, while looking for such a job, Fred climbs into one of the thousands of Army Air Corps bombers about to be turned into junk.  He sits in the nose of the plane where he used to work during the war.  However, he then begins to relive the horror he experienced in this position while droping bombs and being a target for anti-aircraft fire.    

Homer Parrish (Russell) was a seaman on an aircraft carrier also in the Pacific, who lost his hands in a fire when his ship was sunk.  He basically joined the Navy right out of high school.  He left behind his sweetheart, Wilma, the girl who lives next door.  The US government will provide a disability income to Homer for the rest of his life.  Wyler chose Russell, a non-actor, for the part after he had seen him in a US Army film about rehabilitating war veterans.  Russell, a US Army Instructor, lost his hands in an accident while making a training film for the Army.

After first going there separate ways upon arriving in their hometown, the three ex-GIs accidentally reunite that same evening at the bar of Homer’s Uncle Butch.  Al is with his wife, Milly, and daughter, Peggy, for a night on the town.  Fred has gotten drunk after being unable to find his wife who works at an unknown nightclub.  Homer is simply visiting his uncle.  A new factor is introduced: Fred meets Peggy, and the two eventually fall in love.

After he and his relatively unknown wife get reacquainted, Fred and Marie both realize they are not a good match.  As a matter of fact, they don’t like each other.  In the mean time, Peggy, who is falling for the married Fred, also realizes that Fred and his wife are not a happy couple.  Peggy tells her parents that she will try and break Fred and Marie up.  Al, a protective father, tells the former bombadier to stop seeing his daughter.  Fred, who is having a great deal of difficulty finding work, agrees to stop seeing Peggy. 

However, after Fred and Marie divorce, Fred and Peggy reunite.  Fred then tells Peggy his dim view of their future, “You know what it’ll be, don’t you, Peggy?  It may take us years to get anywhere.  We’ll have no money, no decent place to live.  We’ll have to work, get kicked around.”  Peggy greets this unhappy news with a big smile, for she has all that she wants, her man.

Homer suffers from being super sensitive about how his family and his girlfriend treat him.  He gets upset when they look at his hooks (hands) and when they look away from them as well.  They can’t win. 

Homer tries to frighten Wilma away as he fears she only pities him because of his disability.  He wants her to see that living with him as his wife will be too difficult for her to deal with.  However, one night after helping him prepare for bed without his hooks/hands, Wilma proves to herself and to Homer that what she feels for him is love, not pity. 

One of the many reasons I adore this movie is that it ends happily, with the marriage of Homer and Wilma and the reuniting of Fred and Peggy.  I hope you will enjoy it, too.