The Best Years of Our Lives

[jfko6]

The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, and Harold Russell. The film is about three United States servicemen readjusting to civilian life after coming home from World War II. Samuel Goldwyn was inspired to produce a film about veterans after reading an August 7, 1944, article in Time about the difficulties experienced by men returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write a screenplay. His work was first published as a novella, Glory for Me, which Kantor wrote in blank verse. Robert Sherwood then adapted the novella as a screenplay.

The Best Years of Our Lives won seven Academy Awards in 1946, including Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Fredric March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), Best Film Editing (Daniel Mandell), Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert Sherwood), and Best Original Score (Hugo Friedhofer). In addition to its critical success, the film quickly became a great commercial success upon release. It became the highest-grossing film and most attended film in both the United States and UK since the release of Gone with the Wind, selling approximately 55 million tickets in the United States which grossed $23,650,000. It remains the sixth most-attended film of all time in the UK with over 20 million tickets sold.

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The Best Years of Our Lives


Trailer

[Norton]

I thought this was one of the best treatments of returning veterans ever done in a USA film.


The scene where the former bombardier wanders through the U.S, Aircraft graveyard circa 1946 was memorable . Seeing the once powerful U.S. Aircraft minus their engines, guns lined up like so many skeletons is heart wrenching.
My opinion only here
The same scene could have been filmed with German, British Commonwealth, Italian, Soviet, Japanese, aircraft & pilot matching the aircraft
The veteran would have understood. No matter what nation he hailed from I thought it was universal.

[Norton]

Stunning

[jfko6]

A friend of mine gave me this DVD to watch. It appears to one of a few, or, only DVD he actually owned. A testament to the power of the film.

I posted this video because its something we can all appreciate the legacy of the birds.
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5693

[jfko6]

'Ghost Rider': B-52 resurrected from desert Boneyard
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/21/us/arizon ... index.html