Eighty years ago, Allied troops were coming home after the long, bloody but decisive war against fascism. Moved by an article in Time magazine about the difficulties they faced in readjusting to civilian life, producer Sam Goldwyn commissioned a screenplay from playwright Sherwood Anderson.
Directed by William Wyler, the most acclaimed director of the day (he had experienced combat himself making propaganda films during the war), The Best Years of Our Lives is remarkable for its candor and sensitivity around issues like PTSD, disabilities, isolationism, and the nuclear age. The film went on to win seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Frederic March), and Supporting Actor (Harold Russell)… In fact, it also won an 8th statuette, because Russell, who lost his hands in the war, was presented with a special award “for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans.” The cinematography, by Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane) should also have been recognized. It remains one of the crowning achievements of the golden age of the studio era.
Surprisingly modern… lean, direct, honest about issues that Hollywood then studiously avoided […] As long as we have wars and returning veterans, some of them wounded, The Best Years of Our Lives will not be dated.
Roger Ebert
William Wyler’s intimate epic, from 1946 profoundly and sensitively balances the private demons of scarred veterans and the press of public policies that leave their mark on daily life. Wyler, working with a script by Robert E. Sherwood, captures the sense of history being written on the fly, of momentous shifts in mind-sets and expectations. In the movie’s nearly three-hour span, the chrysalis of an old world seems to crack open and a fragile new one begins to emerge; a deep and tender romanticism arises from the exposed vulnerabilities.
Richard Brody, New Yorker
The best American movie about returning soldiers I’ve ever seen—the most moving and the most deeply felt. It bears witness to its times and contemporaries like few other Hollywood features, and Gregg Toland’s deep-focus cinematography is one of the best things he ever did.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
William Wyler
Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo
USA
1946
English
7 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Editing, Adapted Screenplay, Score) + Special Award for Harold Russell
Book Tickets
Wednesday November 11
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Screenwriter
Robert E. Sherwood
Cinematography
Gregg Toland
Editor
Daniel Mandell
Original Music
Hugo Friedhofer
Also Playing
La Bola Negra
A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
The Mad Dog of Europe
The story of an unmade screenplay from the writer of Citizen Kane. In 1932, Herman Mankiewicz wrote a film that foretold the persecution of the Jews and the war in Europe. But Hollywood wouldn't take the risk and The Mad Dog of Europe was never made.
The Mortal Storm
In this explicitly anti-Nazi melodrama directed by Frank Borzage (Three Comrades) a year before the US entered the war, Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart fall in love as their friends and family fall prey to the rise of Hitler's Nazi party in Germany.