Synopsis
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is William Wyler's postwar drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Three servicemen ride home to the same midsize town after World War II and find that the place has changed more than they have.
Sergeant Al Stephenson (Fredric March) comes back to a wife and kids who grew up without him and slides into a comfortable bank job, though approving loans for fellow veterans grows harder by the day. Captain Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) was a hero in the air; on the ground a cold marriage and a soda-counter job are waiting. Hardest hit is sailor Homer, who lost both hands and fears his fiancée is staying out of pity. Homer is played by Harold Russell, a real veteran and double amputee with no acting background.
The picture swept seven Academy Awards, taking Best Picture and Best Director, and Russell walked away with two statuettes of his own. Gregg Toland shot it almost like reportage, with no swelling score to do the feeling for you and several lives held inside a single deep-focus frame. A quiet, honest film about the price of coming home that has not aged in eighty years. Stream The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) online on iFILM.
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