Critic Reviews
Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946) Rank 5 Reviews
Expert Review Summary
based on (36) reviews
Click on the numbers to the right of the graph to see reviews of that rating
Good
2
(0)
Fair
1
(0)
Poor
0
(0)
Reviews by Score:
TV Guide's Movie Guide (--)
The best coming home movie ever made. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at TV Guide's Movie Guide (--)
Ozus' World Movie Reviews (Dennis Schwartz)
One of the few films that deserved all the awards heaped on it from the Oscars. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Ozus' World Movie Reviews (Dennis Schwartz)
DVDBeaver
I can't recommend a film more. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at DVDBeaver
Three Movie Buffs (Patrick Nash)
The Best Years of Our Lives is a powerful and hypnotically nostalgic motion picture. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Three Movie Buffs (Patrick Nash)
TV Guide Entertainment Network, Movie Guide
The best coming home movie ever made. "I don't care if it doesn't make a nickel," Sam Goldwyn reportedly said of THE BEST YEARS, "I just want every man, woman, and child in America to see it." The colorful producer got the idea for the film after ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at TV Guide Entertainment Network, Movie Guide
Moviemom's review
Three men are returning home from service during WWII. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), a bombardier, Al Stephenson (Frederic March), a middle- aged footsoldier, and Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), a sailor who has lost both hands, fly back to their home town ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Moviemom's review
eFilmCritic.com (David Cornelius)
Wyler and Goldwyn have made a glorious 'intimate epic,' one worthy of every honor bestowed upon it. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at eFilmCritic.com (David Cornelius)
filmsgraded.com (Brian Koller)
There are many war movies. However, after the Vietnam war, Hollywood believed that a new film genre was born with "Coming Home" (1978): the postwar movie. This genre deals with soldiers after they have returned from the war, and sometimes find that the ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at filmsgraded.com (Brian Koller)
New York Times (Bosley Crowther)
It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment but as food for quiet and humanizing thought. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at New York Times (Bosley Crowther)
Goatdog's Movies (Michael W. Phillips, Jr.)
The final star of the film is Gregg Toland's gorgeous deep-focus cinematography. When comparing his breakthrough work in Citizen Kane to this film, the differences are subtle but ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Goatdog's Movies (Michael W. Phillips, Jr.)
Matt's Movie Reviews (Matt Easterbrook)
The Best Years Of Our Lives is a wonderful character study, and touches on points of humankind's psychiatric makeup that are so obvious they are rarely discussed in cinematic form. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Matt's Movie Reviews (Matt Easterbrook)
Goatdog's Movies (Michael W. Phillips Jr.)
The Best Years of Our Lives is one of the greatest Hollywood films ever produced. It is, by turns, a hilarious, inspiring, sobering, and tear-jerking look at the difficulties that soldiers returning from World War II, as well as their waiting families, ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Goatdog's Movies (Michael W. Phillips Jr.)
Oscar Guy (Wesley Lovell)
A biting look at the devestation caused by war on returning soldiers. ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Oscar Guy (Wesley Lovell)
At-A-Glance Film Reviews
The Best Years of Our Lives was one of the most important and timely movies ever made back in 1946, when World War II was just ending. That it's just as meaningful and resonant today is a tribute to its greatness. The film is about soldiers returning ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at At-A-Glance Film Reviews
201 Words-or-Less Film Review
For anyone who saw the 2002 Oscars and wondered about the guy with mechanical hooks for hands in the 'movie industry people who died this year' slide show, he was Harold Russell, winner of Best Supporting Actor and an honorary Oscar for this movie in 1947 ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at 201 Words-or-Less Film Review
Movie-Vault.com ("Le Apprenti")
The war is over. Army sergeant Al Stephenson (Fredric March), air force captain Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) and naval seaman Homer Parrish (double Oscar winner Harold Russell) are finally returning home to their families, which they hope have not changed ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at Movie-Vault.com ("Le Apprenti")
The Movie Mom (Nell Minow)
Three men are returning home from service during WWII. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), a bombardier, Al Stephenson (Frederic March), a middle- aged footsoldier, and Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), a sailor who has lost both hands, fly back to their home town ...read the complete Best Years of Our Lives movie review at The Movie Mom (Nell Minow)
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
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)
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)
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
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)
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 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)
from $10.99 (17 sellers)
User Reviews
User Comments
del.icio.us
Digg
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! My Web
Facebook
Google Bookmarks
ma.gnolia
Newsvine
reddit
Windows Live
