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MOVIES / ON DVD / THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
The Best Years of Our Lives

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The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

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Reviews Counted: 32 Fresh: 31  Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8.6/10
 
Consensus: An engrossing look at the triumphs and travails of war veterans. An engrossing look at the triumphs and travails of war veterans, The Best Years of Our Lives is concerned specifically with the aftermath of World War II, but its messages speak to the overall American experience. more
 
Runtime: 2 hrs 52 mins
Synopsis:
Perhaps the most memorable film about the aftermath of World War II, it unfolds with the homecoming of three veterans to the same small town. The leads all touch emotional truths: Myrna Loy seems able to express longing, joy, fear and surprise--mostly with her back turned--in a particularly... [More]
Perhaps the most memorable film about the aftermath of World War II, it unfolds with the homecoming of three veterans to the same small town. The leads all touch emotional truths: Myrna Loy seems able to express longing, joy, fear and surprise--mostly with her back turned--in a particularly poignant welcome home. The movie never glosses over the reality of altered lives and the inability to communicate the experience of war on the front lines or the home front. A landmark achievement. WWII vet Harold Russell, who lost his hands in the war, is the only person to win two Oscars for the same role, Best Supporting Actor and a special Oscar "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance." [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Hoagy Carmichael

Director: William Wyler
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn
Composer: Hugo Friedhofer

DVD Info

Release:

Jan 22, 2008

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case

Audio:

  • (unspecified) - English

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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No review available.

| Comment
03/08/08 05:44 PM
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
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Although it contains moving passages, Best Years is not much more than a conventional drama on the problems of servicemen attempting to adjust to life in postwar America, well served by an all-star cast and Toland's ingenious deep-focus setups.

Full Review | Comment
02/19/08 05:33 PM
Elliott Stein
Village Voice
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It may be corny, but you'd have to be a real cynic not to be drawn in.

Full Review | Comment
02/19/08 05:31 PM
Channel 4 Film
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One of the best pictures of our lives.

Full Review | Comment
02/19/08 05:31 PM
Abel Green
Variety
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Surprisingly modern: lean, direct, honest about issues that Hollywood then studiously avoided.

Full Review | Comment
01/04/08 11:10 AM
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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One of the few films that deserved all the awards heaped on it from the Oscars.

Full Review | Comment
03/17/07 12:56 PM
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
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No review available.

| Comment
02/18/07 07:03 AM
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)
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I'd call this the best American movie about returning soldiers I've ever seen -- the most moving and the most deeply felt.

Full Review | Comment
12/12/06 09:50 PM
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
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The film is very proud of itself, exuding a stifling piety at times, but it works as well as this sort of thing can, thanks to accomplished performances by Fredric March, Myrna Loy, and Dana Andrews, who keep the human element afloat.

Full Review | Comment
12/12/06 09:50 PM
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
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A biting look at the devestation caused by war on returning soldiers.

Full Review | Comment
10/24/06 02:33 PM
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy
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Overlong, perhaps, but this tender and occasionally tough look at the plight of returning war veterans is one of Wyler's best films.

Full Review | Comment
06/24/06 03:37 AM
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
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Post-war Hollywood drama at its heartfelt best.

| Comment
02/03/06 03:41 PM
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal
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No review available.

| Comment
10/06/05 12:29 PM
Chuck O'Leary
Fantastica Daily
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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.

Full Review | Comment
07/22/05 12:28 PM
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
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Wyler and Goldwyn have made a glorious 'intimate epic,' one worthy of every honor bestowed upon it.

Full Review | Comment
02/10/05 01:40 PM
David Cornelius
eFilmCritic.com
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This is intelligent, admirably unsentimental and utterly involving for its full three-hour running time.

Full Review | Comment
07/07/04 08:17 AM
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine
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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.

Full Review | Comment
10/01/03 10:52 AM
Matt Easterbrook
Matt's Movie Reviews
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No review available.

| Comment
07/29/03 12:48 PM
Josh Gilchrist
Billings Outpost (Montana)
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One of the greatest Hollywood films ever produced.

Full Review | Comment
06/14/03 08:13 AM
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Goatdog's Movies
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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.

Full Review | Comment
05/20/03 05:16 PM
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
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