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“The Best Years of Our Lives” is one of the most beloved movies of its time. It was directed by the acclaimed William Wyler (Mrs. Miniver, Friendly Persuasion). Wyler had earlier done the famous documentary “Memphis Belle”. Producer Samuel Goldwyn wanted to make a movie about returning veterans so it is set in the period immediately after WWII. It is based on a blank verse novel by MacKinley Kantor and was adapted into the screenplay by Robert Sherwood – two heavyweights. The movie was a box office smash in America and was actually even more popular in England. It won seven Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Frederic March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), Editing, Adapted Screenplay, and Original Score. AFI ranked it as the 37th best motion picture of all time. The movie is famous for the casting of Harold Russell as a disabled vet. Russell had lost his hands due to a faulty fuse setting off some explosives during a training session. He is the only actor ever to win two Oscars for the same performance. The Academy felt he would lose for Best Supporting Actor so they gave him an honorary Oscar. Besides Russell, Wyler insisted on the film crew being veterans.
The movie’s opening introduces us to three servicemen returning to the same city. They hitch a ride on a B-17 and we get some cool nose cone views of an American landscape not touched by war. And then there is an overhead view of an aircraft graveyard. Will they be treated the same way? Technical Sergeant Al Stephenson (Frederic March) is returning to his wife (Myrna Loy) and kids. He worked at a bank before the war. Capt. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) is returning to his wartime bride (Virginia Mayo) and his soda jerk job. Petty Officer 2nd Class Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) lost his hands in battle and has mechanical hooks for hands. He returns to his parents and the girl next door who is supposed to marry.
The trio will have trouble adjusting to post-war
America. Al has a drinking problem. Fred has nightmares from his flights as a bomber
bombardier. Homer is very proficient with
his hooks, but feels he is less of a man.
Each will have a challenge to overcome.
Al is promoted to small loans officer at the bank and he feels compassion
towards vets trying to get loans. His
empathy is at odds with the bank’s policy of not taking risks. “Last year it was kill Japs, now it’s make
money.” Fred gets his old job at the drug
store, but now he is under a jerk who avoided the war. His wife is a party girl and is much more
high maintenance than he can afford with his small salary. They had been married for only 20 days before
he left, so you can see where this is heading.
When Fred meets Al’s daughter (Teresa Wright) there is a spark. Homer does not want to burden Wilma (Cathy O’Donnell)
with a disabled husband, so he pushes her away.
ACTING: A
ACTION: N/A
ACCURACY: N/A
PLOT: A
REALISM: B
CINEMATOGRAPHY: B
SCORE: B (it won the Best Original Score Oscar)
BEST SCENE: Homer putting on his pajamas with Wilma
BEST QUOTE: Homer: I know what it is. How did I get these hooks and how do they work? That's what everybody says when they start off with 'Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?' Well, I'll tell ya. I got sick and tired of that old pair of hands I had. You know, an awful lot of trouble washing them and manicuring my nails. So I traded them in for a pair of these latest models. They work by radar.
It is easy to see why “The Best
Years of Our Lives” is so beloved. It was the perfect movie for its time. It
really struck a chord. People were making the transition from wartime to
peacetime and the adjustment was difficult. Millions of veterans were returning
to lives that were not only different from Depression-era America, but
drastically different from their military experiences. Some came home disabled
and wondering about their place in society. Some came home to stable families
and jobs, but found that boring and unfulfilling. Some came home to faulty
wartime marriages and unclear occupational futures. They had varying degrees of combat fatigue
(which is what PTSD was called back then).
The movie
is very well made. Wyler is at the top of his craft and used his experience
filming “Memphis Belle” to get a realistic veteran vibe. The movie has a
different look to it. Wyler insisted on a type of cinematography called “deep
focus”. When you watch a scene, everything in the background and foreground is
in focus. It gives the scenes incredible depth. The framing is also nicely
done. Many of the scenes feature doorways like in “The Searchers”. Wyler allows his scenes to take their time.
Although Wyler did not like the score, it matches the moods well. It’s very mood manipulative, but at least not
schmaltzy. And there is plenty of
it. This movie might have the most music
of any war movie.
The cast is all-star. The acting is top
notch. Just the facial expressions alone are amazing. Russell is the standout
because of his background. He does real well for a rookie. (Wyler insisted he
not take any acting lessons.) He deserved
his Oscar. It was not a pity trophy. The actors were given dialogue that matched
the adults they portrayed. There is a
scene where Al confronts Fred about his relationship with his daughter. Two mature friends discussing a problem.
The
movie holds up surprisingly well considering it came out right after the war.
You would expect a good bit of patriotism and sentimentality. It keeps those
elements to a minimum. The way characters in the movie behave is true to life.
The one problem is the tidy ending is not true to life. It is asking too much
of 1940s Hollywood to have a depressingly realistic ending. All three story
arcs portend positive futures. That’s 100%. It would have been nice if 100% of
actual WWII veterans had bright post-war lives.
“The Best Years of Our
Lives” is one of the best of the small subgenre of post-war home front movies.
It is an excellent companion to all the good American WWII movies. Many of
the survivors in those movies would have had experiences similar to Al, Freddy,
and Homer. It’s almost like a sequel to many of those movies. It is definitely
a must-see and it holds up well. It
takes you back to a different America where a meal at a restaurant costs less
than a dollar. An America where veterans
were expected to easily return to their pre-war lives with no help. But because of this movie, the American
public could better relate to the new civilians.
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“Thank You for Your Service” is the newest war movie to examine PTSD. It is based on the nonfiction book by journalist David Finkel. Finkel’s book was a sequel to his “The Good Soldiers” in which he wrote about the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment’s deployment in Iraq in 2007-8. The sequel deals with the readjustment of the men to life back in America. It is telling that Hollywood decided to make a movie out of that book instead of his book about combat deployment during the Surge. I suppose there is more drama in PTSD than in combat. The movie was directed and written by Jason Hall. He had written the Academy Award nominated script for “American Sniper”. This movie is his directorial debut. Bruce Springsteen wrote a song for the movie and you hear it over the closing credits.
The movie opens with the ambiguous “Inspired by a true story”. A squad gets ambushed in an Iraqi city. One of the men is shot in the head by a sniper. Staff Sergeant Adam Schumann (Miles Teller) drops the body on his way down the stairs. That’s got to have a lasting mental effect. The unit is returned home not long after the incident. Schumann’s weapon is checked in by a soldier played by the real Schumann in a cameo. He is confronted by a war widow (Amy Schumer) who wants to know the circumstances of her husband’s death. Schumann is going to be tormented by two deaths. The movie focuses on the adjustment of three soldiers. Schumann is readjusting to life with his wife Saskia (Haily Bennett) and young daughter and baby. They are financially challenged and have lost their house. His best buddies are Specialist Tausolo “Solo” Aieti (Beulah Koale) and PFC Billy Walker (Joe Cole). Solo is married without kids. Billy is expecting to get married, but his fiancé is not home when he gets there. Their arcs will intertwine.
Solo is suffering from memory loss. Schumann is suffering from the inability to communicate that he is torn up by the two incidents. They visit the Veterans Hospital in a scene that is mandatory for showing the lack of empathy of the System. Most of the extras waiting interminably in the waiting area are actual veterans. I’m sure they did not have to be instructed how to act in the situation. Solo will have to wait 6-9 months to see a psychiatrist. To add insult to injury, Schumann ex-CO basically calls him a pussy for being there. “Don’t fold like this.” This is a tipping point for Adam and Solo. Each takes a typical PTSD Hollywood path. One will have to confront his demons and the other will get in bed with demons.
ACTING: A
ACTION: B
ACCURACY: A-
PLOT: A
REALISM: A
CINEMATOGRAPHY: B
SCORE: nothing special except the Springsteen song
BEST SCENE: the mission when Emory gets shot
BEST QUOTE: Schumann: I
was a good soldier. I had purpose, and I loved it….I rode shotgun in a lead
Humvee, and I looked for bombs. You don't see the bomb unless they want you to.
You sense it. You just know.
“Thank You for Your Service” is a sincere effort to cover the effects of PTSD on veterans. It does not break new ground on this topic, but it is entertaining and I will assume not everyone has seen numerous movies on this topic. If this will be your first one, you could do worse. Like “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”. Although the scenarios depicted in the movie are not really original, some of the dots that are connected are unpredictable. The movie is not heavy-handed. There is a fairly subtle use of a wounded pit bull as symbolic of wounded veterans. We are reminded of the crass treatment of vets, but not bludgeoned by it. The movie assumes the audience already knows about the flaws in the system. This movie is not “Born on the Fourth of July” or “Coming Home”. But it does make it clear we have not improved much from the Vietnam era. In an interesting discussion, Adam and Solo debate whether it is better to be wounded physically (like Ron Kovic) or mentally (like Adam and Solo). Solo argues that an amputation at least results in medals and hero status.
The movie reminded me a little of an Afternoon Special for adults. This week’s film is on PTSD. Three besties deal with the stress of war and readjusting to their families. The movie has the pat ending of one of those specials, but it is definitely a worthy effort and just as informative. The acting is very good. Teller anchors the film as the stoically tortured Schumann. His interaction with his wife (Bennett) feels authentic, albeit deja-vuish. Koale matches him as the stereotypical vet who goes over to the dark side. You care about these comrades. You may look back at the movie and realize you had seen all of it before, but while you are watching it, you will be drawn into their story.
I strongly recommend watching “The Best Years of Our Lives” and then “Thank You For Your Service’. While the latter was not meant to be a modern answer to the post-WWII movie, it does give you a comparison of treatment of veterans back then to veterans today. The implication is that our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were more damaging mentally than WWII was. I guess part of that difference is that WWII was considered a “good war”. “Thank You For Your Service” depicts the flaws in the system, but at least Schumann and Solo get help whereas there was nothing for Al and Fred. It is more realistic because modern cinema allows for that. And it uses flashbacks to show why the three soldiers are suffering from their experiences. Modern warriors deserve modern war movies and they got it with this movie.
HISTORICAL ACCURACY: “Thank You For Your Service” does a good job bringing David Finkel’s book to the screen. He was embedded with the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment in Iraq. And then kept in touch with some of the men for his sequel. Schumann acted as a technical adviser and sung backup on Bruce Springsteen’s “Freedom Cadence”.
James Doster did die in a fire when his Humvee hit an IED. He had taken Schumann’s place for the mission. However, Aieti’s painful memory was of a different soldier’s death. Michael Emory was shot by a sniper and Schumann carried his body down the stairs, but he did not drop him. Emory became a hemiplegic who was paralyzed on the left side. Schumann did have PTSD from the death of Doster and the injury of Emory. It was his wife that convinced him to get help at Pathway House. Aeiti did turn to drugs and he did wreck his house at a low point. Aieti got help, but it was at a Veteran’s Hospital. The pit bull was creative license. The Billy Waller character is fictional and was added to depict the suicide problem for vets.
