Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

JohnHowardReid An article in Time (7 August 1944) about the return of injured veterans, provided Goldwyn and his wife with the idea for the film. Accordingly, Goldwyn asked Mackinlay Kantor, a former Air Force correspondent who had been stationed in England, to write an original story based on his experiences. Kantor delivered the result, a 434-page novel entitled "Glory For Me", written in blank verse, in January 1945. Goldwyn then handed it to Robert E. Sherwood to use as the basis of a screenplay.After shooting for more than 100 days at a cost of over $2,000,000, Wyler edited his 400 reels to 16 - 2 hours and 52 minutes worth. Even though he was frustrated in his wish to cut it down by a further half-hour, Wyler considered it the best film he had yet made. His technique is faultless: His use of the mirror stratagem re-appears, this time in duet for the comic purpose of doubling the image of Fredric March in the megrims of the morning-after; the window enclosing remote (and now relevant) action can be found in the drugstore sequence where it brackets the managerial office with the busy salesroom below; the sparingly-used close-up has a poignant effect when it rests upon the wistful countenance of Harold Russell or details Teresa Wright's shattered face, caught in a moment of anguish.A particularly impressive episode is Derry's visit to the bomber graveyard - Wyler composes a symphony for this scene out of visual and orchestral effects. The music is excellent, Friedhofer's musical motifs frequently growing out of the scene itself, be it Hoagy Carmichael's piano jingles, Marie's strident radio, or the jungle rhythms of a nightclub band.

lucyrfisher This is a gripping story about three men returning from WWII. They meet up as they are desperately trying to get a lift home from the air force. "Do you have an order?" asks the desk clerk of air man Fred (Burt Lancaster), expecting a chit. He quietly points at the medals on his chest. He quickly joins up with two others going to Boone, a little town in the midwest: army sergeant Al (Fredric March), and disabled navy man Homer, who gets by with hooks for hands (veteran Harold Russell).They sit in the nose of the plane looking at the landscape - they're flying low. Homer is thrilled by his first plane ride. He's just worried about how his girl will react. The others assure him he'll be fine. Back on the ground, they get a taxi and drop Homer off - he's nervous, but the others order him to get going. Al is dropped off at a fancy apartment block and is reunited with his son, daughter Peggy and too-understanding wife Milly (Myrna Loy). Fred, the officer, goes to his parents' house - a shack near a railroad, and sets out to look for his wife.They all reunite in the evening at Butch's bar (Hoagy Carmichael), drink too much and get a bit riotous (I fast-forwarded, I don't like drunk scenes). The trio have trouble settling in: Fred's wife turns out to have a taste for the good life he can't afford, he gets his old job back but loses it, he falls in love with Al's daughter Peggy...Homer just wants people to treat him as an ordinary person, and won't set a wedding date. He is a naturally happy soul, and if he loses his temper he quickly apologises, but he is suffering.Al goes back to work at the bank but his status is precarious - his jovial employer drops heavy warnings about lending to ex-servicemen without collateral. But of course it all ends happily. Al gives the bank board a drink-fuelled boot up the rear about lending to the right people (couldn't watch this bit either). Best bits: Fred trying to fit in back at the drug store. He's fine at serving chocolate sundaes, especially to his old mate Homer. But then Homer gets a lecture from some busybody who thinks you guys were on the wrong side in the war, and Fred decks him.Homer's scenes at home with his dad (who is a lovely man) and Wilma.Fred's scenes with his wife, excellently played by Virginia Mayo.Frederic March is good, but he's the Big Star, and the camera lingers on him too long. As I said, I didn't like his drunk scenes. Milly does her best, but she should send him to AA. Their scenes, and their heartfelt talks with their daughter Peggy, take too long.I once knew someone who stole his dialogue from this film...

Takethispunch After World War II, Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Fredric March) meet while flying home to Boone City (a fictional city patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio. Fred was a decorated Army Air Forces captain and bombardier in Europe. Homer lost both hands from burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk, and now uses mechanical hook prostheses. Al served as an infantry platoon sergeant in the Pacific. All three have trouble adjusting to civilian life.Al has a comfortable home and a loving family: wife Milly (Myrna Loy), adult daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright, who was only thirteen years Loy's junior), and college freshman son Rob (Michael Hall, who is absent after the first one-third of the film). He returns to his old job as a bank loan officer. The bank president views his military experience as valuable in dealing with other returning servicemen. When Al approves a loan (without collateral) to a young Navy veteran, however, the president advises him against making a habit of it. Later, at a banquet held in his honor, a slightly inebriated Al expounds his belief that the bank (and America) must stand with the vets who risked everything to defend the country and give them every chance to rebuild their lives.

Prismark10 The Best Years of Our Lives is an overlong melodrama focusing on the servicemen who return home after the war.The film was released in 1946, soon after the war ended and was brave to show a world that was not going to be all bread and roses for these returning heroes.Three different servicemen fly home to their Midwest town get back into civilian life but encounter difficulties.Harold Russell lost his hands in battle and with his replacement metallic hands he has difficulty adjusting and feels his girlfriend is only hanging about because she feels sorry for him.Fredric March plays the veteran soldier with older kids who returns to his job at the bank but gets chastised for giving loans to ex servicemen trying to make something of their lives.Dana Andrews returns as a war hero only to wind up as a soda jerk behind the counter and earning far less than he used to. His wife wants a better, glamorous life, probably cheats on him and he finds solace with March's daughter who seems to understand him more. Here was an interesting triangle that gets lost.The film is uneven and too long where the soap like drama just loses its bubble. I cannot fathom how Frederic March won the Best Actor Oscar, although non actor Harold Russell gives a genuine naturalistic performance of someone trying to make it through with his injuries and who only feels comfortable with his old soldier buddies.