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The Best Years of Our Lives

"Three wonderful loves in the best picture of the year!"

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Top Cast

  • Dana Andrews

    Dana Andrews

    Fred Derry

  • Fredric March

    Fredric March

    Al Stephenson

  • Harold Russell

    Harold Russell

    Homer Parrish

  • Teresa Wright

    Teresa Wright

    Peggy Stephenson

  • Myrna Loy

    Myrna Loy

    Milly Stephenson

  • Cathy O'Donnell

    Cathy O'Donnell

    Wilma Cameron

  • Virginia Mayo

    Virginia Mayo

    Marie Derry

  • Hoagy Carmichael

    Hoagy Carmichael

    Butch Engle

  • Gladys George

    Gladys George

    Hortense Derry

Overview

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Rating

7.8 / 10
740 Reviews
2 Popular

2 Reviews

  • Andres Gomez
    Andres Gomez
    8 Apr 16, 2015

    Another great Willy Wyler movie. The story, with time, is quite expectable but the characters are well defined and developed by the cast. Also, it is a good (and probably, too positive) review of the after WWII war lives of the US veterans. A must to be seen.

  • CinemaSerf
    CinemaSerf
    7 Jul 7, 2022

    This is really quite a touching story, recounting the experiences of three American veterans of WWII who return home and have to adapt to their new, not always welcoming, circumstances. Frederic March is "Al" who returns to a senior position in a bank - responsible for helping other returning soldiers with loans to start to get their lives back together; "Fred" (Dana Andrews) returns to a far less optimistic outlook, ending up working for peanuts selling perfume in a drug store, and finally the outwardly cheery "Homer" - who lost both his hands and who cannot decide whether his long term fiancée actually loves him anymore, or just feels pity. William Wyler and Robert Sherwood manage to interweave the inter-connected tales poignantly, illustrating the frustrations, bordering on despair, not only of the three men - in completely different ways; but also of their respective partners who must also adjust to their return, and to their new circumstances once the war is has been won. There are some strong performances from their ladies too - Myrna Loy and Teresa Wright, less so the always rather wooden Virginia Mayo and by the end you do have some, slight, semblance of an idea of just how tough it was for these men to lose the security and discipline of their army lives and to cope with a life that has, in many cases, just moved on without them.

Trailers & Clips

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