The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

In 1946, Americans, like millions of people around the world, were settling back into life post World War II. It is only fitting that the Best Picture winner from that year follows the lives of three men from the same town as they come home from the war on the European and Pacific fronts.

The three men are Al, a married man with two grown children; Fred, a guy from the wrong side of the tracks who married a blonde military groupie just before leaving to fight; and Butch, a sweet guy with a great gal that he feels deserves better than him now that he is returning from war after losing both of his hands.

Butch begins to push his girlfriend away, even though she does not seem to have a problem with his injuries.

As luck would have it, Al's wholesomely beautiful daughter (Peggy) meets Fred and the two fall for each other. Of course Blondie is in the way but she is quickly losing interest in her husband now that he is out of uniform and working his pre-war job as a soda jerk in a local pharmacy.

Peggy admits to her mother that she feels Fred deserves better than his current wife and that she intends to break up their marriage. Her mother tells her that her own marriage to Al was faced with the same problem in the past but they overcame it. When Al hears of this, he quickly tells Fred to stay away from his daughter. A little hypocritical there, Al. Men are fine with women chasing after them and ruining marriages, unless of course one of the women is his own daughter.

Fred is absolutely adorable and even knocks around one of his customers for having negative things to say about the war. He of course loses his job for this and his wife, who is courting other men, tells him that she gave him the best years of her life and is now leaving him. Men still are fascinated by shallow women like her so it shows men may never evolve.

In the end, Fred plans to leave town and move on with his life elsewhere. While at the airport, he happens to stumble into a better job dealing with the planes he flew in the war. Butch does marry his girlfriend and it is at the wedding Fred and Peggy see each other again. Peggy, unlike his charming ex-wife, seems happy to struggle along side him. While it never says, one can assume that Fred and Peggy added to the Baby-Boomer generation.

The Best Years of Our Lives is one of my favorite Oscar winning films. I am not saying that any war should be romanticized. However, World War II is the last time in American history that the unquestionable majority stood behind the country's fight. Korea seems to be a war forgotten by anyone not directly involved. Vietnam was the first time the country really divided and generations openly disagreed with each other. The Cold War cannot really "count" as a war. The streets of NYC did not fill with people following any news in either Iraq conflict. Americans pulled together for the war effort in the 1940s. The end of the war and the boys coming home was a huge reason for celebration for the nation. Perhaps one of the greatest moments on film is the nurse-sailor kiss in Times Square on V-J Day. I mean, does a world war really have to end to get kissed like that? Unless you are staring in a major motion picture, I am assuming so.