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THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
Review by Michael Jacobson
Stars: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa
Wright, Virginia Mayo, Harold Russell
Director: William Wyler
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono 2.0
Video: Standard 1.33:1
Studio: MGM/UA
Features: Theatrical Trailer
Length: 168 Minutes
Release Date: July 18, 2000
Film ****
The Best Years of Our Lives is
a truly wonderful film, modest but powerful, made classic by coming along at exactly the
right point in history to capture and reflect the mood of post World War II America. It was also the first major film to deal solely
with the subject of war’s homecoming, rather than just being another movie about the
fighting itself, where the return to civilization was merely a dénouement. This picture was about the battles fought from
within after war ends.
The film is long…almost three hours, to be exact…but it
plays on the screen like a delicious novel. When
a good book seems daunting at 1500 pages, you just start with the first chapter. If the characters are immediately interesting and
winning, you’ll be hooked for the long haul. Then,
when it’s over, you feel a bit sad to have to let them go. That’s the best analogy I can give for this
movie.
Out of a sea of returning war heroes comes our three protagonists, an
Air Force bombardier, Fred Derry (Andrews), an Army sergeant, Al Stephenson (March, in an
Oscar winning performance), and a young sailor, Homer Parish (Russell, a double Oscar
winner for this film), a man who’s lost both his hands in the fighting. Being from the same small town, they end up
sharing a flight back together, where their journey home begins both literally and
figuratively.
In a few nicely crafted shots, we see home through these men’s
eyes: first, from the window of the plane,
where everything looks small and unreal. Secondly,
from the back seat of a cab, where the world is bigger, but moving by too quickly. And finally, the inevitable one-on-one returns to
their families. Having never been in a war
myself, I would have thought that to be the best part of all, but each of these men is
hesitant and a little afraid of their reunions.
Al finds his loving wife Milly (Loy) anxiously awaiting his return. He also finds that the two children he left behind
are no longer children. Going from war to
peace is a radical and uneasy adjustment for him, and he soon finds comfort and solace in
the bottle and in the company of his friends. Soon,
he takes a position at a prominent local bank, in charge of issuing G. I.
loans…ironic, because though it puts him in a position to help his fellow veterans,
his hands are somewhat tied because most of those who came back from the war came back
with nothing…no collateral to satisfy the bank.
Homer also finds a family of loving arms waiting to hold him…but
he can’t return their embraces. Though
his longtime sweetheart is ready to pick up with him where they left off before the war,
Homer’s is going to be the most difficult period of adjustment. He finds everyone around him either stares at the
hooks that replaced his hands…or they don’t look at all, in a way that’s
far too obvious. He has a particular habit of
adamantly lighting his own cigarettes, and the ones of those around him, in an effort to
prove that everything is normal…but he knows in his heart that change is something he
and his loved ones are going to have to deal with one way or another. The final moment of truth between he and his
fiancée is one I’ll leave for you to discover yourself, other than to say it’s
a beautiful, unforgettable moment.
As for Fred, he has a hard time finding his wife Marie (Mayo), who
has moved and taken a job in a night club. His
first night home he spends getting drunk and having a blast with his war buddies, where he
meets Al’s daughter, Peggy (Wright). As
an obvious but nicely done touch, we get to witness the genuine chemistry between them
before we ever meet Marie, who turns out to be a sweet but rather vain and shallow
showgirl.
Fred’s problem of readjustment?
He was, for lack of a better word, a nobody before the war, and he seems to be
going back to being that again. When everyone
looks at him, they don’t see the man, they see the uniform, which becomes both a
blessing and a curse.
If I’ve made the film sound serious, it is…but it’s a
well rounded look at these characters’ lives. It
has moments of humor and joy mixed in with the sadness, and overall, a winning, triumphant
spirit as these men face their obstacles with dignity and courage…and you believe in
your heart that they’ll overcome.
The casting is first rate, but particular mention must go to Harold
Russell, a real veteran of the war who actually did lose his hands in the conflict. That aspect of his life lends a certain realism to
his character, naturally, but his job as an actor in conveying those feelings of pain,
isolation and fear is really something extraordinary…so much so that the Academy not
only honored him with a Best Supporting Actor statuette (the first Oscar won by a
handicapped actor), they awarded him a special trophy for bringing courage and hope to
veterans everywhere…the first occasion when an actor won two prizes for the same
role.
The movie is directed with a sure hand by William Wyler, and became
the central film in his critical and box office hot streak between Mrs. Miniver and Ben-Hur. Also
worth noting is the exquisite photography by master D. P. Gregg Toland, the man behind
some of cinema’s most influential shots in Citizen
Kane.
The two work together to create one memorable image after another,
each one enhancing the potency of the message. Note,
for example, how some speaking characters are purposely left out of frame in order to
focus on the reaction of one of the three protagonists…there may be romance, family
life, and humor in the air, but this picture never forgets that the entire point is these
men, and their experiences that were representative of returning veterans all across the
country.
Video ***1/2
I’m very happy to announce that this film represents the best
looking DVD transfer I’ve yet seen for a film from the 1940’s (and I’ve
seen a lot of them, believe me!). Though
MGM’s failure to commit wholeheartedly to anamorphically enhanced transfers for their
widescreen films has made the studio a center of controversy amongst digital enthusiasts,
one thing I will say in their defense: when
it comes to their older, pre-widescreen era titles, no studio has a better track record. They took care of their films, so their films
continue to take care of them in return. Singin’ in the Rain, Gone With the Wind, Night of
the Hunter and others are all indicative of how well an older film can (and should) look on disc.
All films of that age are going to show occasional bits of scratches,
dirt and debris here and there…it’s pretty much unavoidable. But here, such artifacts of aging are very few and
far between. The black and white photography
is simply gorgeous throughout: sharp, crisp,
and finely detailed from the foreground to the background.
The image exhibits a full range of grayscale, along with deep blacks and clean
whites, without a hint of problems. No grain,
no compression (save for one single shot of some clouds that shimmered a little around the
edges), no images blurred or hazy, and by and large, no complaints. For me, the biggest joy of DVD has been the
ability to see classic pictures look better than ever before, and this title is a good
representation of that aspect of the format.
Audio ***
Though only a 2 channel mono mix, the soundtrack is very well
rendered, with dialogue and other sound effects mixed nicely and cleanly, with no clarity
problems save for one or two very brief dropouts. The
music comes across especially good, from Hugo Friedhofer’s Oscar winning score to the
delightful piano work of Hoagy Carmichael. Overall,
the soundtrack is also free from hiss, static, and pops usually associated with older
pictures. This film was nicely preserved and
nicely transferred all around.
Features *
Only a trailer…unless you really count the DVD booklet as a feature!
Summary:
The Best Years of Our Lives is an important, classic American film that gets treated as such with this remarkable DVD release. It doesn’t get much better than this.