Critic Reviews
Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946) Rank 3 Reviews
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based on (36) reviews
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The Flick Filosopher's take
In postwar 1946, three soldiers are coming home to their small midwestern city. Air Force Captain Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), a soda jerk before the war, returns to the railyard slums of his parents; Army Sergeant Al Stephenson (Frederic March), VP of a ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at The Flick Filosopher's take
Movie Mirror (Sanderson Beck)
Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) and Al Stephenson (Fredric March) see that Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) has hooks instead of hands, and the three take a plane to Boone City. Fred and Al are "nervous out of the service." Homer is welcomed home by his family ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Movie Mirror (Sanderson Beck)
Chicago Reader (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
I'd call this the best American movie about returning soldiers I've ever seen -- the most moving and the most deeply felt. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Chicago Reader (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
EmanuelLevy.com (Emanuel Levy)
The film captured the mood of post-WWII America so well that even harsher critics like James Agee failed to see the film's dramatic flaws, instead stressing its realism and black-and-white deep focus photography by Gregg Toland. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at EmanuelLevy.com (Emanuel Levy)
DVD Times
Three soldiers return home to small-town civilian life after the war to find a very different world from the one they left behind. Fred (Dana Andrews) was an airforce captain, but back home he has to accept work back as a lowly clerk on the soda-fountain ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at DVD Times
moviediva
Three returning veterans--a bombardier, a sergeant and a sailor--meet on their way home after the end of WWII. They are eager to return home, but know it will be difficult to resume their former lives. Unlike the treacly flag-waving that characterized so ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at moviediva
Box Office Magazine
DVD MovieGuide
As someone who wasn't even a glimmer in my parents' eyes when World War II ended - geez, my Dad was only ten in 1945 - I've had to rely on media depictions of the War to communicate what it was like at that time. I've always found that war to be very ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at DVD MovieGuide
MediaScreen.com
"The Best Years of Our Lives" is a sobering depiction of lives forever changed by WWII. When returning soldiers, Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Al Stephenson (Frederic March) and Homer Parrish (real life amputee, Harold Russell) return from the battlefield, ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at MediaScreen.com
Cinema Laser (Derek M. Germano)
While the story would seem pure soap opera, under the Academy Award winning direction of William Wyler THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES is anything but. The plot chronicles the very human experiences of three servicemen returning from World War II, along with ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Cinema Laser (Derek M. Germano)
Classic Film Guide
This Best Picture Oscar winning film about veterans returning home from World War II includes disabled Army veteran Harold Russell (in his screen debut), who received two Oscars (Best Supporting Actor and Honorary for bringing hope & courage to his ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Classic Film Guide
DVD Savant (Glenn Erickson)
The collective Hollywood wisdom in 1945 was to forget about making more movies with wartime themes. The public had just gone through a steady three-year diet of them - escapist combat movies, realistic thrillers, and melodramas about conditions on the ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at DVD Savant (Glenn Erickson)
Film Commentary by CGK
Three soldiers returning from World War II attempt to readjust to life back in the States. Middle-aged Al Stephenson goes back to his loving family and successful career in the banking industry. Fred Derry was an Air-Force bombardier who returns with ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Film Commentary by CGK
Doug Pratt's Laserdisc Review
The art direction is worth studying as an example of how to subvert the ordinary. The famous 1946 film is about three typical servicemen adjusting to civilian life at the end of World War II. The story balances between tedium and mawkishness and is ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Doug Pratt's Laserdisc Review
The Village Voice (Elliott Stein)
William Wyler is a prime example of the Hollywood craftsman who thrived under the studio system from the 1930s to the 1950s. For many years he was everyone's idea of a great and bankable director, a master of box office wonders (Mrs. Miniver [1942], ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at The Village Voice (Elliott Stein)
The Greatest Films (Tim Dirks)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is producer Samuel Goldwyn's classic, significant American film about the difficult, traumatic adjustments (unemployment, adultery, alcoholism, and ostracism) that three returning veteran servicemen experienced in the ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at The Greatest Films (Tim Dirks)
CineScene.com (Chris Dashiell)
There was a moment in the studio era when a true naturalism broke through the constraints of genre and dramatic convention, resulting in a work of beauty that was different than anything done in Hollywood before, and seldom achieved since. That moment ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at CineScene.com (Chris Dashiell)
Time Out (Geoff Andrew)
Overlong, perhaps, but this tender and occasionally tough look at the plight of returning war veterans is one of Wyler's best films. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Time Out (Geoff Andrew)
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