Line #23 Awesome/TheBestYearsOfOurLives


1	!As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/awesome_bestyears.png]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:[[RageBreakingPoint "Oh, if I only had my hands!"]]]]
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8	->'''Homer:''' Look here, mister. What are you selling, anyway?
9	->'''Customer:''' I'm not selling anything but plain old-fashioned Americanism.
10	->'''Homer:''' Some Americanism. So we're all a bunch of suckers, eh? So we should have been on the side of the Japs and the Nazis, eh?
11	->'''Customer:''' Again I say, just look at the facts. (''points to a newspaper'')
12	->'''Homer:''' I've seen a couple of facts. I've seen a ship go down and over four hundred of my shipmates went with it. Were those guys suckers?
13	-->-- Homer standing up to a Nazi-supporting soda fountain customer
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15	* Released just after WWII, the film chronicles the difficulties of three returning veterans adjusting to home life. Frederic March's character returns to his position as a bank loan officer, and is frustrated at the bank's foot-dragging at giving other vets a chance with loans. He's got a tendency to drink to excess, and at a bank function he has to give a speech. He's had more than a few, and looks like he's going to totally blow it, but he rallies and makes an impassioned case for investing in the men who gave so much for their country. His speech is received enthusiastically, but it's up in the air whether the higher-ups will actually change their ways.
16	* Peggy Stephenson is shown to be pretty useful and helpful to the veterans and those around her.
17	** When Fred ends up getting a war nightmare, she comes to Fred's aid, and puts her hospital skills to good use. This also counts as a moment of Heartwarming.
18	** Fred was working in a drugstore, and the son of one of his customers had released a toy plane in the store, she ends up catching that plane.
19	* Homer and Butch's piano performance of "Chopsticks".
20	* Fred sacrificing his job at the soda fountain to deck a Nazi-sympathizing customer who's tangling with Homer.
21	-->'''Fred:''' (''when the store manager arrives'') Don't say it, chum. The customer's always right, so I'm fired. But ''this''... customer wasn't right. (''to Homer'') Meet you outside in a minute, kid.
22	** Before that there was a a scene where Homer stood up to the man who ignored what the Americans did in the war, called then weak and blamed them for everything that happened in the war including Homer losing his hands. Homer called him out for ignoring everything the Americans had lost and claiming they brought the damage upon themselves. Homer nearly lost it and tried to beat him up right before Fred showed up and did it himself. Homer may be a nice guy, but he's no pushover.
23	* Homer managing to keep is optimism through the majority of the film. The man had lost both of his hands, he managed to control his new hooks he got in their place, and he isolated himself because he felt insecure about how his parents and girlfriend would react to his hands, but he still made it through without getting bitter about any of it. ([[BewareTheNiceOnes except for one time, which involved a group of kids spying on Homer's hooks]]).
24	** On a related note, Homer stated that he managed to accomplish several things with his hooks, that anyone with real hands would be able to do very easily, he's able to dial a telephone, drive, and put nickels in a jukebox, to name a couple for examples. He's pretty talented with those hooks.
25	** A special mention goes to him writing a check. Given that this involves him removing his checkbook from his pocket, getting a pen, opening the checkbook and writing it, all with the claws of his artificial arms, it's enough to shame Al into granting another veteran with questionable finances a loan.
26	* Homer finally getting the courage to have a proper conversation with his girlfriend Wilma who confirmed she was in love with him all that time.
27	* Marie gets a good one, delivering a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Fred - which is quite deserved, considering he made her stop working a job she enjoyed all for the sake of tradition (even when they became too broke to go out). She announces that she'll divorce him, which actually sets up a happy ending for everyone. And she'll probably get to hook up with the man she did have a thing for, so she earns her happy ending too.

Context Awesome / TheBestYearsOfOurLives