The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
“What happens to our heroes after the war?” is a question that has always troubled Americans, from the Civil War vets who fled to the frontier to start a new life to the Iraq and Afghanistan vets currently caught in the bureaucracy of the VA. One of the earliest films to address this dilemma is also one of the best. Director William Wyler made a bold decision to cast a real veteran who had lost his hands in the war (Harold Russell) in a supporting role. Audiences of the time were used to more sanitized looks at the horrors of war. The gamble paid off, with the film cleaning up at the Academy Awards, including a special Oscar for Russell. It remains a moving portrait of our soldiers coming home.
