So this best picture winner is the film that came a year after the end of WWII and is also the film that actually beat It's A Wonderful Life for the best picture slot ( I know right?) So here's my review for The Best Years of Our Lives.
Plot: Three veterans named Fred, Homer and Al all return home in Boone City after the end of WWII. Fred is a decorated Air Force captain, Homer is a sailor who lost both of his hands when his carrier sunk, and Al is a platoon sergeant. All three of them have trouble getting back into civilization after the war. Fred has been given his old job as a soda jerk much to his wife's displeasure. Al has been given back his job as a bank loan officer because of his experience, but when he gives a fellow veteran a loan, his boss tell him not to make a habit of it. And Homer and his parents have trouble adapting to his disability and pushes his fiancee away to avoid being a burden for her despite her claims that she feels otherwise.
I actually ended up particularly enjoying this movie. It didn't start out too strong at first, but after a while I did come to really care about these characters and what they went through. It shows how rough it was for veterans during the aftermath of the war with trying to find jobs, seeing their families again, and just all around trying to get back into civilization. It's well acted, it's touching... it may leave out some characters that I kind of wanted to see more or and go on a couple of directions that I figured they were going to go, but I found those issues to be minor issues personally. Now as I said in the intro paragraph, this was the film that defeated It's A Wonderful Life for best picture during this year. Now is this another issue where the winner had no right to defeat the loser? You better believe it. Don't get me wrong, I understand why the academy did it. It's a film that has all to do what's happened to our troops after only one year of being home from the biggest war at that time. So it makes sense to have this film pulls the strings for the academy and have a good portion of the audience to feel the same way with that decision. But there's no way around it, It's A Wonderful Life is better. It just had so much more power and heartstring-pulling that makes it VERY little wonder that it's much more popular and memorable then this film. (hmm...personal note: make sure to finally review It's A Wonderful Life this christmas even though I keep failing to do that every year.) But just because that one is so much grander as a film, that doesn't automatically mean The Best Years of our Lives is a bad movie. Because it's still has it's moments of being emotional through the experience of these characters. So while The Best Years of Our Lives has little to no right to win against a classic like It's A Wonderful Life, it's still a good enough movie to be a somewhat respectful opponent for It's A Wonderful Life to lost to.
And that's my review for The Best Years of Our Lives. It's well acted, it's touching, it goes very deep (but not completely deep) into what veterans and their families go through after WWII and while shouldn't have won, it's still enjoyable and it makes sense why it won best picture during its year.
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