The Best Years of Our Lives

Watch: The Best Years of Our Lives

6/6/20142h 51m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ Three wonderful loves in the best picture of the year! ~

Overview:

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Director:

William Wyler

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$2,100,000.00

Revenue:

$23,650,000.00

Key words:

post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)
war veteran
bodily disabled person
rehabilitation
black and white
romantic
return from war
ww2 veteran

Cast

Dana Andrews

~ as ~

Fred Derry

Fredric March

~ as ~

Al Stephenson

Harold Russell

~ as ~

Homer Parrish

Teresa Wright

~ as ~

Peggy Stephenson

Myrna Loy

~ as ~

Milly Stephenson

Cathy O'Donnell

~ as ~

Wilma Cameron

Virginia Mayo

~ as ~

Marie Derry

Hoagy Carmichael

~ as ~

Butch Engle

Gladys George

~ as ~

Hortense Derry

Roman Bohnen

~ as ~

Pat Derry

View full cast & crew

Reviews (2)

AG
Andres Gomez
Written 10 year(s) ago
8
Another great Willy Wyler movie.

The story, with time, is quite expectable but the characters are well defined and developed by the cast.

Also, it is a good (and probably, too positive) review of the after WWII war lives of the US veterans.

A must to be seen.
CinemaSerf
Written 3 year(s) ago
7
This is really quite a touching story, recounting the experiences of three American veterans of WWII who return home and have to adapt to their new, not always welcoming, circumstances. Frederic March is "Al" who returns to a senior position in a bank - responsible for helping other returning soldiers with loans to start to get their lives back together; "Fred" (Dana Andrews) returns to a far less optimistic outlook, ending up working for peanuts selling perfume in a drug store, and finally the outwardly cheery "Homer" - who lost both his hands and who cannot decide whether his long term fiancée actually loves him anymore, or just feels pity. William Wyler and Robert Sherwood manage to interweave the inter-connected tales poignantly, illustrating the frustrations, bordering on despair, not only of the three men - in completely different ways; but also of their respective partners who must also adjust to their return, and to their new circumstances once the war is has been won. There are some strong performances from their ladies too - Myrna Loy and Teresa Wright, less so the always rather wooden Virginia Mayo and by the end you do have some, slight, semblance of an idea of just how tough it was for these men to lose the security and discipline of their army lives and to cope with a life that has, in many cases, just moved on without them.