The Best Years Of Our Lives details

The Best Years Of Our Lives
Format: U DVD
Starring: Dana Andrews, Virginia Mayo, Fredric March, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, Myrna Loy, Harold Russell, Teresa Wright, Hoagy Carmichael
Director: William Wyler
Genre: Drama - General
Studio: MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Collections: American Film Institute's top 100, Best Picture Oscar Winners
Name Discs
The Best Years Of Our Lives
U Feature

DVD Information

Run time: 2 hours 43 minutes
Rental release: 05 Jul 2004
Main languages: English
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Most helpful review The Best Years Of Our Lives

  • Top director and star cast......but something missing, probably the storyline...

    Rated - 3.5 stars  
    By roncoach (369 reviews) from suffolk , 17 Dec 2011

    [Highly rated reviewer]

    Not as good as many reviews suggest, but a reasonably good film which tackles in a realistic way the traumas of returning GIs.

    An all-star line-up, Frederic March being the best of the bunch, but the under-rated Dana Andrews giving a solid performance, as usual, without ever setting the world on fire. The female leads are both good.

    One of the best directors in the business to ensure the film does not -----as it so easily could-----become a huge bore.

    Yes, it's worth seeing but let no-one be expecting a VERY good film. It is either 3 or 3.5 stars depending on whether the genre suits you---IMHO :))
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All reviews

(32)
  • Outstanding Film - Must Watch

    Rated - 4.5 stars  
    By ReviewerReviewer (90 reviews) , 19 Apr 2012
    This is an outstanding film that deserves all its 7 Oscars and ratings by critics as a classic! I had never heard of the film, great story, fantastic acting with a great score. Its moving regarding what happens when 3 WW2 service men return to civilian live. A must watch!
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  • The Best 1946 Film, Apparently

    Rated - 4.0 stars  
    By Cato (715 reviews) from Lydbury North , 18 Apr 2012
    A good example of post war American films. The acting's first class, the direction's spot on, and the filming's excellent. In view of the some of the subject matter, i. e. the actual deformity that war brings about, it's bound to make the story somewhat sentimental in parts, in other words have your hanky ready. At 170 minutes it's also a bit marathon like, and I'm not sure whether the best years were an ironic take on the war years or the following time of domestic bliss, which again was not a plain sailing adventure. A film that's well worth watching though, especially if you're into the history of the cinema. It certainly ticked a lot of boxes as far as oscars were concerned in 1946.
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  • Top director and star cast......but something missing, probably the storyline...

    Rated - 3.5 stars  
    By roncoach (369 reviews) from suffolk , 17 Dec 2011
    Not as good as many reviews suggest, but a reasonably good film which tackles in a realistic way the traumas of returning GIs.

    An all-star line-up, Frederic March being the best of the bunch, but the under-rated Dana Andrews giving a solid performance, as usual, without ever setting the world on fire. The female leads are both good.

    One of the best directors in the business to ensure the film does not -----as it so easily could-----become a huge bore.

    Yes, it's worth seeing but let no-one be expecting a VERY good film. It is either 3 or 3.5 stars depending on whether the genre suits you---IMHO :))
    • Was this review helpful to you?
    • (26) Yes |
    •  No (16)
  • Have you ever considered which was the best year of your life?

    Rated - 5.0 stars  
    By Homecoming (1 review) , 11 Aug 2011
    I first came across mention of this film in Paul Auster's book entitled Sunset Park. Intrigued by the film's effects on the book's characters, I resolved to watch it. And it is worth the many accolades it has attracted; a moving and absorbing tale of war veterans trying to adjust to peacetime life, it never flinches from the reality of the challenges they face, and is superbly acted from start to finish,
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  • Beautiful, emotive and thought-provoking.

    Rated - 5.0 stars  
    By ansonort (21 reviews) from London , 29 Jul 2011
    Watching this movie these days you forget how daring this was when first released. So many post-war movies were released depicting heroic soldiers performing heroic deeds against dastardly enemies. But here was a film telling the story of ordinary guys from an ordinary town thrust through no fault of their own into extraordinary circumstances, returning to a familiar world that now feels anything but familiar.

    They say you can't go home again. Here's the story of three ex-soldiers who try with varying degrees of success.

    You'd have to wait another 20 years before the movie business tried to tell the story again, this time in 'Coming Home' about soldiers returning from Vietnam.

    But 'The Best Years of Our Lives' did it first. And did it so very well.
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