Just before legendary director William Wyler died, equally legendary director Billy Wilder was interviewed about his feelings about Wyler’s films, from “Best Years of Our Lives” to “Roman Holiday” to “Ben Hur” to “Comical Girl.”

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Wilder, a tough cookie who hates schmaltz and sentiment, the director of such classics as “Some Like it Hot,” “The Apartment,” “The Seven Year Itch” and “Sunset Boulevard,” suddenly got emotional, expressing expansive affection for “The Best Years of Our Lives,” noting that it was one of the best films he had ever seen.

He reacted the design I reacted. He said that it was the only film that he could remember (of course, this was well before “Saving Private Ryan” was released in 1998), where he and the entire audience were drenched in tears within the first 10 minutes. It was an unforgettable experience for him, and he recognized immediately that “The Best Years of Our Lives” was obviously a deeply personal work for Wyler, where every scene, every frame, every label of music and word of dialogue, rang legal with authenticity and emotion. This was Wyler’s territory. He knew the material. And many of the scenes that were shot mirrored his maintain experiences when he returned home from war.

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This is why, after so many viewings, I level-headed can’t obtain over the fact that no matter how many times I say to myself, “I’m not going to be moved by this or that scene,” I fail miserably. I objective can’t attend it. To say that this is a sizable film is an understatement of the highest order. And yet I can only count on one hand the number of friends I know who have seen this film from begin to achieve. I contemplate the running length has something to do with it. You never study it on commercial television at all and unless you’re lucky enough to have cable, you’ll miss it entirely. And it’s not a film that people are banging down the doors to rent.

The fantastic thing about “The Best Years of Our Lives” is that it peaceful holds up beautifully, unlike a lot of films that seem awkward or stilted. Fredric March, as the patriarch of the family (in an Oscar winning role), is stupendous. His acting and delivery of lines seems effortless and spontaneous, not the product of a script recited from memory. And to have Myrna Loy as his partner and the unbelievable Teresa Wright playing his daughter (the latter an Oscar winner a few years earlier in “Mrs. Miniver”), how can you lose?

Like all substantial films, time has no meaning. The epic sweeps you along like a ample wave — a flow — that you never want to waste. The eminent “long hallway homecoming shot” that appears in the first 10 minutes of the film — I don’t care that it’s the scene that most people remember and is usually the ONLY scene that turns up in any highlight reel of greatest films ever made — it gets me every time.

And the ending, the last line from the movie, the one uttered by Dana Andrews — despite the sentimental setting — is so fabulously understated and cynical and yet filled with such hope, that you can’t attend but be — what I relate as being — “happily devastated.” It’s a astonishing ending that purposely leaves you guessing about what will become of the characters played by Teresa Wright and Dana Andrews, but you can’t benefit but feel that their future looks intellectual in spite of their apparent set of destitution.

I honest wish more people would gape this film. There’s a love chest of broad movies from the past that people overlook every day. This is one of them. I pity people who composed steal or rent movies based on slick packaging alone.

I would rather pay $10 to peer this film on the astronomical mask or less than $20 to bear this film so I can examine it on a miniature conceal — than pay about $4 to rent junk that has a marvelous looking box — and a few spacious essential reviews from people you’ve never heard of.

Some films are trustworthy enough to rent, but only a few films are excellent enough to select. “The Best Years of Our Lives” is a film to Grasp.

“The Best Years of Our Lives” is a compelling dramatic masterpiece, and certainly one of the best films ever made. It’s not as well known today as other pieces from the period, such as “Casablanca” or “Citizen Kane”, but it is nevertheless a classic that deserves ranking with those same films.

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This film paints a narrate of the struggles of World War II servicemen that they faced AFTER the war was over. It was a more personal struggle of men returning home after being away for many years, and after experiencing horrors that their loved ones could never fully understand. They return home as changed people, and reach home to changed lives.

The sage of such a homecoming experienced by thousands of men after World War II is told from the perspective of three fictional characters: Captain Fred Derry, a bombadier in the Army Air Corps (Dana Andrews), Sergeant Al Stevenson, an Army infantryman (Frederich March), and Seamen Homer Parrish(Harold Russell) . They happen to meet on the plane to their hometown, having never met before, and immediately compose a bond built upon mutual notion of the experiences of war and the anxieties of returning home again.

Captain Derry came from a terrible background before the war, and married a blond bombshell (Virgnia Mayo) while in the Air Corps. He hopes to return home to a better life, a nice home with his wife, and a better job. This was not to be, as Derry struggles to try and deal with poor job prospects (no one in the civilian world needs a bombadier) and a cheating wife. In a poignant moment in the film, Derry (at his lowest) tells his Father to throw away the citations for his medals, because “they don’t mean anything”. His Father reads the one for the Well-known Flying Sinister, signed by General Jimmy Doolittle, and a observe of pride comes over the extinct man’s face for his son’s heroism that makes you want to weep and cheer all at the same time. It also makes the viewer examine how criminal it was for such a man to be made to feel worthless.

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Sergeant Stevenson comes home to better circumstances, being a banker in the civilian world with a wife, two grown children, and a nice apartment. But he too must confront troubles, as Stevenson must regain to know a family that progressed without him, and balance his job with his desire to help servicemen seeking G.I. Bill loans. He battles with his bank’s bosses over the loan enlighten, and also struggles with alcoholism.

Seamen Parrish’s problems are the most certain. He lost his hands during the war, and now must arrive home to his family and fiancee with hooks for hands. The actor who potrayed Parrish, Harold Russell, was a valid disable traditional, and lends credibility to the role that no one else could have due to valid life experience.

This may seem like a depressing film, but it is actually uplifting in its entirety because it does point to that hope doesn’t die, and that you really can arrive home again after all. It is also a film of historical importance due to the insights it provides into post-World War II America, and the struggles of veterans in the post-war years. Captain Derry, Sergeant Stevenson, and Seamen Parrish, and their individual struggles to reclaim their lives can provide the student of history an distinguished perspective on the many proper life veterans who returned home, and the country of the time they returned home to.

The film has certainly earned accolades over the years. It won the Oscar for Best Recount of 1946. It was named by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 Best Movies ever made, and was also named as one of the most principal films of all time by the National Archives for the National Film Registry.

“The Best Years of Our Lives” is not to be missed for both its dramatic poignancy and its insight into an essential period of American History. And its a dazzling study to gaze in DVD quality.
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