'The Best Years of Our Lives' - Movie Review

A 1946 William Wyler movie that opens on three veterans of the Second World War returning home to Boone City in the U.S. Frederic March is the middle-aged Sergeant Al Stephenson, Dana Andrews is Captain Fred Derry, and Harold Russell is sailor Homer Parrish. All three have dreamt of returning home, but having made it back, they all have trouble resuming their old lives. Stephenson's children are now essentially adults, and he's not sure what to make of it. Derry's wife isn't where he expected to find her, and has taken a job that makes it very hard for him to catch up with her. And Parrish lost both his hands - and while he's very skilled with the hooks the military has supplied him with, his parents and fiancée have some trouble with his change of status, and he doesn't deal well with their reaction.

The movie then follows their attempts to resume their old lives, and their occasional meetings at Butch's place, a bar run by Homer's cousin (Hoagy Carmichael). It's a long movie (172m), but thought-provoking and quite good.