The Best Years of Our Lives Pics

The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film about three servicemen trying to piece their lives back together after coming home from World War II. It won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Picture. It had one of the highest viewing figures of all time, with ticket sales exceeding $20.4 million.

After World War II, Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Fredric March) meet while flying home to Boone City (a fictional city patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio.^[2]). Fred was a decorated Army Air Forces captain and bombardier with the Eighth Air Force in Europe who still suffers from nightmares of combat. Homer lost both hands from burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk, and now uses mechanical hook prostheses. Al served as an infantry platoon sergeant in the 25th Infantry Division in the Pacific.

Before the war, Al was a bank loan officer. He is a mature man with a comfortable home and a loving family: wife Milly (Myrna Loy), adult daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright), and college freshman son Rob. Al has trouble readjusting to civilian life, as do his two new acquaintances, and is showing signs of alcoholism. Shortly after returning home, Al is pursuaded to return to the bank (with a promotion and raise). The bank president views Al's military experience as valuable in dealing with other vets who are returning to civilian life, and may seek loans from the bank. Al soon realizes the narrow tightrope that he's walking, when he approves a loan (without collateral) to a young Navy vet who wishes to purchase land for a farm, and is soon forced to explain to the bank president why he made the approval. Later, at a banquet held by the bank officers in his honor, a slightly inebriated Al manages to eloquently articulate, with some rambling, his belief that the bank (and America) must stand with the vets who risked everything to defend the country, and give them every chance possible to rebuild their lives back home.

Before the war, Fred had been an unskilled drugstore soda jerk. He wants something better, but the tight postwar job market forces him to reluctantly return to his old job. Fred had met Marie (Virginia Mayo) while in flight training and married her shortly afterward, before shipping out less than a month later. Marie became a nightclub waitress while Fred was overseas. Marie seems to have been largely enamored of Fred when he was an aviator, and now does not enjoy being married to a soda jerk.

Homer was a football quarterback and became engaged to Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell) before joining the Navy. Both Homer and his parents now have trouble dealing with his disability. He does not want to burden Wilma with a handicapped man and so pushes her away, although she adjusts best to his changed life, and still wants to marry him.

Peggy meets Fred while bringing her father home from a bar where the three men meet once again. They are attracted to each other, and Peggy dislikes Marie, finding her shallow. Peggy tells her parents she intends to end Fred and Marie's marriage, but they tell her that their own marriage overcame similar problems. In order to protect Peggy, Al demands that Fred to stop seeing his daughter. Fred agrees, but the friendship between the two men becomes strained.

At Fred's drugstore an obnoxious customer, who says that the war was fought against the wrong enemies, gets into a fight with Homer. Fred intervenes to