History Film / TheBestYearsOfOurLives

'''''The Best Years of Our Lives''''' is a 1946 post-war drama directed by Creator/WilliamWyler and starring Frederic March, Dana Andrews, and Harold Russell. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Year.

* TheCastShowoff: Homer's uncle Butch is played by musician and songwriter Hoagy Carmichael, who gets several opportunities to display his piano-playing chops. There's even a bit where Butch is asked to play "Lazy River"... a song which [[ActorAllusion was composed by Carmichael]].

* TheAlcoholic: Al turns to the bottle after his return home.

* TheCastShowoff: Homer's uncle Butch is played by musician and songwriter Hoagy Carmichael, who gets several opportunities to display his piano-playing chops.

* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: Peggy's younger brother, Rob, is seen in a couple of early scenes and then disappears from the rest of the film.

Just after the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, servicemen Fred Derry (Andrews), Homer Parrish (Russell), and Al Stephenson (March) return home to Boone City to their loved ones. Their adjustment to post-war life is met with varying levels of success. Al, a banker, finds it difficult to reconnect with his family and even more difficult to be as stern as he was before. Homer, who lost both hands in a fire, can't stand the pity that he detects from others, including his fiancee. Meanwhile, Fred is infuriated that the only real job he can hold is a soda jerk, and discovers the woman he married before heading off to war wasn't worth it. Somehow, they are going to have to go on with their lives...

* TitleDrop:
-->'''Marie''': These are the best years of our lives, and we're wasting them!

''The Best Years of Our Lives'' is a 1946 post-war drama directed by Creator/WilliamWyler and starring Frederic March and Harold Russell. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Year.

Just after the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, servicemen Fred Derry, Homer Parrish, and Al Stephenson return home to Boone City to their loved ones. Their adjustment to post-war life is met with varying levels of success. Al, a banker, finds it difficult to reconnect with his family and even more difficult to be as stern as he was before. Homer, who lost both hands in a fire, can't stand the pity that he detects from others, including his fiancee. Meanwhile, Fred is infuriated that the only real job he can hold is a soda jerk, and discovers the woman he married before heading off to war wasn't worth it. Somehow, they are going to have to go on with their lives...

* RelationshipSabotage: Peggy intends to break up Fred's marriage to Marie.

** Al can no longer relate to his wife or his children who grew up without him, and is turning into an alcoholic;
** Fred dismisses the war medals he's earned, and finds himself climbing into the remains of a bomber plane that are getting taken apart now that the war's over;
** Homer is ashamed of his artificial hooks and can't keep himself around his family or his girl-next-door sweetheart.

* CobwebOfDisuse: Inside the B-17 Fred is checking out at the airplane graveyard.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The three war veterans are slowly returning to normal lives, with Homer marrying Wilma, and Fred getting divorced from his unloving wife freeing him to court Peggy. But all three acknowledge they still have tough roads ahead of them.]]

* NoRomanticResolution: The romance between Fred and Peggy brews and brews, only coming to a resolution with 45 SECONDS LEFT and the credits rolling.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Between Fred and Peggy through parts of the movie.

->After that, I had it easy... That's what I said. They took care of me fine. They trained me to use these things. I can dial telephones, I can drive a car, I can even put nickels in the jukebox. I'm all right, but... well, you see, I've got a girl.
-->-- '''Homer Parrish'''

* HookHand: Homer Parrish -- played by real-life double amputee Harold Russell.* LohengrinAndMendelssohn: The standard wedding song sung by the kids.

[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Screen_shot_2011-01-17_at_7_43_40_PM_3003.jpg]]

''The Best Years of Our Lives'' was a 1946 film directed by Creator/WilliamWyler and starring Frederic March and Harold Russell. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Year.

!!This work features examples of:

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:the three war veterans are slowly returning to normal lives, with Homer marrying Wilma, and Fred getting divorced from his unloving wife freeing him to court Peggy. But all three acknowledge they still have tough roads ahead of them.]]

* HookHand: Homer Parrish -- played by real-life double amputee Harold Russell.

''The Best Years Of Our Lives'' was a 1946 film directed by Creator/WilliamWyler and starring Frederic March and Harold Russell. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Year.

Just after the end of WorldWarII, servicemen Fred Derry, Homer Parrish, and Al Stephenson return home to Boone City to their loved ones. Their adjustment to post-war life is met with varying levels of success. Al, a banker, finds it difficult to reconnect with his family and even more difficult to be as stern as he was before. Homer, who lost both hands in a fire, can't stand the pity that he detects from others, including his fiancee. Meanwhile, Fred is infuriated that the only real job he can hold is a soda jerk, and discovers the woman he married before heading off to war wasn't worth it. Somehow, they are going to have to go on with their lives...

* WorldWarII: Or, at least, the psychological effects of it.

-->-'''Homer Parrish'''

->These are [[TitleDrop the best years of our lives]], and we're wasting them!
-->-'''Marie Derry'''

* CastTheExpert: Harold Russell, a man who had lost both hands in WorldWarII, was cast as a man who had lost both hands in WorldWarII. He did such a good job he won an Oscar (plus a second honorary Oscar), despite never having acted before.
* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: Harold Russell, a drill sergeant during the war, lost his hands in a training accident involving a defective bomb.

* RealitySubtext: The man Fred punches out at the drugstore is based on a man Wyler had an argument with when he came home from the war.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Though they all have traits of this, one of the original plans before they found the man who played Homer was to have a full-on Shell Shock victim who constantly had panic attacks.

* ThrowItIn: Harold Russell, a real life veteran who never acted before, flubbed his lines during his character's wedding scene. Creator/WilliamWyler left it in, considering it natural.

* WrittenInInfirmity: Homer was supposed to be merely shell-shocked, but when real-life amputee Harold Russell was cast, [[DisabledCharacterDisabledActor his disability was written in]].

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''The Best Years Of Our Lives'' was a 1946 film directed by WilliamWyler and starring Frederic March and Harold Russell. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Year.

* ThrowItIn: Harold Russell, a real life veteran who never acted before, flubbed his lines during his character's wedding scene. William Wyler left it in, considering it natural.

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* OscarBait: Arguably one of the first films to qualify for this
** CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: Homer is hugged by his girlfriend Wilma. And he hugs her back.

* WrittenInInfirmity: Homer was supposed to be merely shell-shocked, but when real-life amputee Harold Russell was cast, his disability was written in.