182. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Running Time: 172 minutes
Directed By: William Wyler
Written By: Robert E. Sherwood, from the novel Glory for Me by MacKinlay Kantor
Main Cast: Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright
Click here to view the trailer

YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN

Another epic picture slayed, as I use my day off to take in the nearly three hour film that is "The Best Years of Our Lives" - Best Picture of 1946.

The film tells the story of three soldiers returning home from World War II. When the film starts, it's Captain Fred Derry (Andrews) trying to get a ride home to Boone City. He eventually hitches a ride home on a military aircraft and along the way meets some Boone Citians: Sgt. Al Stephenson (March) and Officer Homer Parrish (Russell), the latter of which lost his hands in the war and now dons hooks in their place. After a long flight the trio arrive back in their native city and share a taxi to their respective homes. Homer is hesitant to return home, fearing how his family will react to his deformity. He doesn't want to be looked at any different and certainly doesn't want pity. Later the trio reunite at Butch's Place, a local bar, where Fred and Al drink to excess and wake up the next morning with foggy memories of the previous night. Fred wakes up at Al's place where he meets Peggy Stephenson (Wright), Al's daughter and a romance is hinted at between the two. Ultimately the three try their best to return to normal life; Al returns to his job at the bank with a promotion to boot. Fred returns to his job as a soda jerk, making $32.50 per week, which isn't enough to spoil his wife (Virginia Mayo), who yearns to be spoiled. Meanwhile, Howard struggles to accept his family's adaptation of his deformity, most notably his fiancee.

SPOILER ALERT!

I actually have fond memories of this film, as the only other time I saw it was at my wife and I's first apartment, during a stretch when we had a broken down car and had to spend a matter of four days holed up in the house. It sounds awful, but it was actually perfect. Anyway, I can remember lying on the bed and watching this movie for the first time and I remember both of us liking it quite a lot. Well, as I've noted many times previous, my tastes have drastically changed since starting this journey and this film just didn't hold up. My first reaction is that it's just WAY too long. The story that is told just doesn't warrant a running time of three hours. Let's take a look at the goings on of this three hour epic, shall we? First you have Al, who returns home from the war, spends his first night getting drunk off his ass, returns to work at the bank and eventually turns into a bit of an alcoholic. Then you have Fred, who also gets drunk off his ass the first night, finds his wife the next day, deals with the embarrassment of having to return to work making $32.50/week and falls in love with Peggy Stephenson. Lastly you have Homer, who really does nothing the entire film but try to deal with the way his family is dealing with his deformity. That's really all that happens. I mean, that's at least the high points of the picture. Just writing it out, it sounds ridiculous to think that so little plot took so much time to tell. This could have easily been wrapped up in a couple of hours. Within the first five minutes of the film, the three men are in the air and headed home and an hour and fifteen minutes later all that's happened to them is they've returned home, left home again, went to a bar and woke up - that's it!

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to shit all over this picture, because it's really not as bad as all that. In fact, I got amusement out of watching Fredric March awake from his slumber, examine his grizzled face and compare his reflection to a dashing photo of himself, followed by jumping into the shower with his pajamas still on. And speaking of March, I really want to see "Inherit the Wind" again now, because I just cannot believe that Al Stephenson and Matthew Harrison Brady are being played by the same person (with more credit going to the Brady role that to this one - he was GREAT in that!). The cast was hit and miss with me actually, as I enjoyed March and thought Virginia Mayo was excellent (and even sexier here than she was in "White Heat"). On the other hand, Teresa Wright was just annoying as Peggy Stephenson and Dana Andrews was average at best. I had to look up and find out that Harold Russell was actually a deformed veteran and a non-established actor, and to his credit, he did a really great job. Apparently there's also a lot of political argument that surrounds this film and I won't get into all that. The movie itself does bring up a fascinating train of thought though, about soldiers returning home from the war and how well they can adapt to a once familiar life, but one that is now very strange.

RATING: 6.5/10 Not terrible, by any means and I almost went with a '7', but I just couldn't be THAT generous. It's worth at least one look, but be warned...it is long!

MOVIES WATCHED: 426
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 575

April 16, 2012 11:34pm