spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Mar 28, 2017 23:36:22 GMT
A film that grows in my estimation with each viewing. So many great scenes, filled with beautiful performances and exquisite direction by William Wyler working with a great script. Three of my favorites are when Frederic March returns to the apartment for the first time after the war (only a GREAT director would dare play that scene in a wide shot!), when Dana Andrews has the nightmare, and when he relives his war experiences in the bomber graveyard (what an extraordinary cinematic construction that is!). My brother, who was a movie lover but generally of more "popular" films, was talking once about "Best Years," describing scene after scene in precise cinematic detail. He even fought back tears when he described that bomber scene. He thought the film was a masterpiece, and I agree. More and more I've come to believe that it's one of the best American films ever made.
In addition to its cinematic beauty and wonderful performances, there's a fundamental human wisdom about it, a perspective on the human condition that is enlightening, enriching, and elevating without ever being sentimental. Maybe that's a consequence of the war having been so recent that everyone involved brought a deep emotional investment to the project. In any case, there's a human truth to the film that's transcendent, that makes it greater than the sum of its parts. If that isn't real "art" -- particularly in film -- I don't know what is.
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Post by OldAussie on Mar 28, 2017 23:53:24 GMT
A film that grows in my estimation with each viewing.
Absolutely.
Many great scenes but one favourite is when March gives the loan to the veteran who has no collateral.
One of the few films which has me emotionally involved from the first frame to the last.
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Post by Sulla on Mar 29, 2017 0:30:20 GMT
It's a great film. Some of my favorite scenes have already been mentioned here. I also like it when the three are looking at their hometown from the air as they approach Boone City. And when Fred at the lunch counter punches out the man who calls Homer and others 'suckers'. Homer's story is probably the most touching. I've always had a crush on Myrna Loy and Teresa Wright, too. I also like Mrs. Miniver, but TBYOOL surpasses it.
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Post by wmcclain on Mar 29, 2017 1:09:47 GMT
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 29, 2017 1:26:25 GMT
It's a film that I have always loved from the very first time I saw it.
Very re-watchable and, for me, that's often the definition of a "classic" no matter what its release date.
For me "dad arrives home" is the first of many scenes that come to mind.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 29, 2017 1:29:49 GMT
If they ask : What part do you like best ? Everything between when they show the Title and when we see "The End" works for me. OldAussie
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Post by jervistetch on Mar 29, 2017 2:10:44 GMT
The scene where Fred's father reads the list of Fred's military accomplishments and commendations to Hortense always chokes me up.
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Post by london777 on Mar 29, 2017 2:34:25 GMT
Yes indeed. The scene where he sits in the nose of the bomber in the graveyard is almost surreal. Reminded me of Paul Nash's painting "Totes Meer".
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Post by mikef6 on Mar 29, 2017 2:40:46 GMT
You are right about this film’s wisdom about the human condition. Just a few scenes that stick in my memory regarding relationships. When Peggy (Teresa Wright) accuses her parents (Loy and March) of the crime of never having any problems between them, Loy tells her gently, while March nods in agreement, that there were many times they thought they were going to call it quits and had to learn how to fall in love all over again. After a marriage of 45 years, my wife and I both understand exactly what she means.
A second touching scene is when Homer (Harold Russell) tries to break up with Wilma (Cathy O’Donnell) because he is afraid she is only staying with him out of obligation. In his bedroom at night he shows her what problems are ahead. He wriggles out of the harness that holds the hooks on the ends of his arms then tells her that from here, he can’t turn out the light or even turn down the covers of the bed. But instead of leaving, she helps him get into bed for the night and lets him know she will continue to care for him. Beautiful.
TBYOOL also uses deep focus in key moments. At the diner, when March convinces Fred (Dana Andrews) to dump Peggy, March, in the foreground, stays in focus, as does Andrews as he walks to the phone booth in the back of the room. That gives the scene a lot more punch.
The last scene of all is Homer and Wilma’s wedding with the happy couple in mid-field on the right, Andrews on the left in the foreground, and Wright across from him in the background. You can watch the wedding ceremony and/or Fred and Peggy making eye contact and reconnecting.
This is a film that meant a lot to Americans at the very end of WWII in its sympathetic portrayal of returning soldiers and of the changes in the culture that have already started to take place. A very worthy winner of the Oscar for Best Picture.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2017 2:55:49 GMT
A film that grows in my estimation with each viewing. So many great scenes, filled with beautiful performances and exquisite direction by William Wyler working with a great script. Three of my favorites are when Frederic March returns to the apartment for the first time after the war (only a GREAT director would dare play that scene in a wide shot!), when Dana Andrews has the nightmare, and when he relives his war experiences in the bomber graveyard (what an extraordinary cinematic construction that is!). My brother, who was a movie lover but generally of more "popular" films, was talking once about "Best Years," describing scene after scene in precise cinematic detail. He even fought back tears when he described that bomber scene. He thought the film was a masterpiece, and I agree. More and more I've come to believe that it's one of the best American films ever made. In addition to its cinematic beauty and wonderful performances, there's a fundamental human wisdom about it, a perspective on the human condition that is enlightening, enriching, and elevating without ever being sentimental. Maybe that's a consequence of the war having been so recent that everyone involved brought a deep emotional investment to the project. In any case, there's a human truth to the film that's transcendent, that makes it greater than the sum of its parts. If that isn't real "art" -- particularly in film -- I don't know what is. My father's all-time favorite film. In my top 50. A great film. I haven't seen it in a long time. I remember many scenes. Outstanding ensemble cast. One of Steve Cochran's earliest roles and he was good.
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Post by gunshotwound on Mar 29, 2017 3:14:06 GMT
One of my all-time favorite movies. I love everything about it. I have seen it many times and being a sloppy sentimentalist each and every time Homer steps out the cab onto the front lawn of his home I burst into tears. It is like breathing. I can't stop it. Hugo Friedhofer's music score is magnificent. As much as I love TBYOOL I have a small problem with it. Fredric & Myrna's son just disappears.
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Post by TheOriginalPinky on Mar 29, 2017 15:11:15 GMT
Fabulous film! The scene that always stands out for me is Andrews' in the bomber graveyard. It's so chilling and poignant. An A-rated film all around. Stunning performances by an all-around great cast!
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Post by snsurone on Mar 29, 2017 20:16:39 GMT
This is undoubtedly a great film, but, to tell the truth, I'm disappointed with the final frames at Homer and Wilma's wedding celebration. IMHO, the film should have ended with our three heroes holding up their champagne glasses as Al toasts "Thr Best Years of our Lives". Slow fade to "The End". But, no--it ends with Fred and Peggy in a typical Hollywood clinch. Seems quite like an anticlimax to me.
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Post by mattgarth on Mar 29, 2017 23:03:54 GMT
Sorry, can't agree. Such an ending toast would mean they celebrate four years of death and destruction that they endured and survived while thousands of others did not.
I love the film, and watch it whenever shown on TCM as well as at least once a year on my own DVD copy.
But one scene does bother me -- in the Midway Drug Store with Homer and the guy spouting unpleasant concepts. Fred and Homer fought to preserve the right of the freedom of free speech. Yet they both attack a guy who expresses his unpopular opinion. He doesn't start the fight -- Homer attacks him as he is leaving.
Poor actor Ray Teal -- THE same thing happens to him four years later in THE MEN when wheelchair-bound Marlon Brando punches him out.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 30, 2017 0:02:14 GMT
This is undoubtedly a great film, but, to tell the truth, I'm disappointed with the final frames at Homer and Wilma's wedding celebration. IMHO, the film should have ended with our three heroes holding up their champagne glasses as Al toasts "Thr Best Years of our Lives". Slow fade to "The End". But, no--it ends with Fred and Peggy in a typical Hollywood clinch. Seems quite like an anticlimax to me. If you won't mind an alternative viewpoint, snsurone, it's the very subtlety and understatement of that "anticlimax" that are among the things rendering this film so affecting, and effective. At no point is it ever heavy-handed: there's as much rueful irony in the film's title as there was in that of the original story, "Glory For Me:" at best, they suggest hopes and aspirations; at worst, questioning and uncertainty over what's been lost and whether it can be recovered; at their most pragmatic, the acceptance of and adjustment to new realities in place of old. A t the conclusion, the three couples present the range of possibilities: for Homer and Wilma, the optimism of overcoming adversity; for Fred and Peggy, the hardship of facing it; for Al and Milly, the challenge of putting it behind them. It may look like a typical Hollywood clinch, but it takes place in the context of anything but the "happily ever after" guarantee they traditionally connote. It's not a downbeat conclusion, but one that maturely acknowledges the costs of sacrifice and the hard work that lies ahead.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2017 0:14:23 GMT
Its a good movie
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spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Mar 30, 2017 16:23:48 GMT
The scene where Fred's father reads the list of Fred's military accomplishments and commendations to Hortense always chokes me up. Oh, Jervis, I'm so glad you mentioned this one. It's one of the most touching in the film, I believe. And it's one of those scenes where I feel the immediacy of the war that had barely ended when the film was released shines through the actors - they don't have to act, because it's so real to them.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 30, 2017 18:12:06 GMT
Sorry, can't agree. Such an ending toast would mean they celebrate four years of death and destruction that they endured and survived while thousands of others did not. I love the film, and watch it whenever shown on TCM as well as at least once a year on my own DVD copy. But one scene does bother me -- in the Midway Drug Store with Homer and the guy spouting unpleasant concepts. Fred and Homer fought to preserve the right of the freedom of free speech. Yet they both attack a guy who expresses his unpopular opinion. He doesn't start the fight -- Homer attacks him as he is leaving.Poor actor Ray Teal -- THE same thing happens to him four years later in THE MEN when wheelchair-bound Marlon Brando punches him out. Have to say that that is the one scene that I've always questioned - not so much that they attacked him, which I think could have been an understandable reaction under their emotional circumstances, but that the scene was in the film at all. I don't remember the scene in THE MEN. Haven't seen that in ages. It's indeed one of the film's weaker scenes - almost seems as though it belongs in another film - but, in service to the three-way symmetry of the screenplay, it completes the "triad" of examples illustrating that homefront problems facing the returning vets aren't limited to those they brought back with them: Al's confrontation with the boss over the business loan he's approved (and subsequent tipsy shaming of him at the banquet), and Fred's being brought low by the indignity of having to accept his former job (to which he'd vowed never to return). In lieu of a similar professional context, Homer's comes by way of the loudmouth at the fountain counter. Not only does it serve to help pull Homer from his self pity, Fred's outburst of violence also provides a convenient way to get him out of that job and to the end of his rope, facilitating his decision to depart Boone City for parts unknown. Any time a scene or sequence seems questionable, I begin by considering what problem(s) a screenwriter might have been trying to solve, and/or point(s) they felt needed making. This is the best interpretation I can come up with for this one.
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Post by teleadm on Mar 30, 2017 18:49:59 GMT
What more can one say after reading what everybody here seams to have said everything that can be said about this movie, but agree with the accolades.
This was the absolute top in the career of it's producer Samuel Goldwyn who neither before had, nor after could equal this movie again. I'm not sure if he even tried, it seams more like he slowed down his outlet with a few Danny Kaye, Dana Andrews and Farley Granger movies for the rest of the forties, and in the fifties slowed down even more.
It's small town Americana (in the best sence), the kind of town Andy Hardy lived in before the war, a town that has already begun to move on after the war when our 3 heroes returnes home, everything looks the same as when they left it, yet it's not the same, almost alien.
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Post by snsurone on Mar 30, 2017 20:10:54 GMT
I guess I'm the only person in the world who is unhappy with the ending of this otherwise superb movie. Maybe part of that lies in the interpretation of the title. Does "the best years of our lives" refer to our heroes in combat, or to the hopes and dreams of their futures? Even though Al, Fred, and Homer did encounter difficulties adjusting to civilian life, I'm inclined th believe the latter interpretation. Oh, I'm glad that Fred dumped that golddigger wife of his and felt confident enough to start a new life with Peggy, and I wouldn't mind at all seeing them kiss, I still don't like that as the very final frame of the movie. I'm sorry, but I still think my suggestion would have been better, as it would have shown the men ready to face their fears and uncertainties.
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