Average Rating: 8.6/10
Reviews Counted: 36
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 1
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.
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 0
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.
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Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 9,041
The postwar classic The Best Years of Our Lives, based on a novel in verse by MacKinlay Kantor about the difficult readjustments of returning World War II veterans, tells the intertwined homecoming stories of ex-sergeant Al Stephenson (Fredric March), former bombadier Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), and sailor Homer Parrish (Harold Russell). Having rubbed shoulders with blue-collar Joes for the first time in his life, Al finds it difficult to return to a banker's high-finance mindset, and he shocks
Nov 21, 1946 Wide
Oct 30, 1997
RKO Radio Pictures
All Critics (36) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (35) | Rotten (1) | DVD (7)
Like most good mass entertainments, this picture has occasional moments of knowing hokum; but unlike most sure-fire movies, it was put together with good taste, honesty, wit -- and even a strong suggestion of guts.
Top CriticAlthough 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.
One of the best pictures of our lives.
Surprisingly modern: lean, direct, honest about issues that Hollywood then studiously avoided.
I'd call this the best American movie about returning soldiers I've ever seen -- the most moving and the most deeply felt.
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.
Fine movie for families with older kids.
Este belíssimo estudo sobre as seqüelas sociais e psicológicas da guerra (para não mencionar as físicas) permanece atual mais de 60 anos depois de seu lançamento, impressionando não só pelas atuações, mas também pelo virtuosismo estético.
I found it notable mainly because its massive 172 minutes are exclusively devoted to exploring characters, rather than showing any giant-sized, dazzling "epic" scenes.
It may be corny, but you'd have to be a real cynic not to be drawn in.
One of the few films that deserved all the awards heaped on it from the Oscars.
A biting look at the devestation caused by war on returning soldiers.
Overlong, perhaps, but this tender and occasionally tough look at the plight of returning war veterans is one of Wyler's best films.
Post-war Hollywood drama at its heartfelt best.
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.
Wyler and Goldwyn have made a glorious 'intimate epic,' one worthy of every honor bestowed upon it.
Before films like The Deer Hunter (among others) provided commentary on the readjustment of soldiers after the Vietnam War, this film tackled the way in which soliders dealt with coming home after World War II. This is a long story that looks at the lives of three men from the same town who all come home together and
July 6, 2010Super Reviewer
An interesting, but long, drama about life after returning from WWII.
September 5, 2010Super Reviewer
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