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1946 Best Picture:
The Best Years of Our Lives
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Competition:
Henry V, It's A Wonderful Life, The Razor's
Edge, The Yearling Other Winners:
Best Actor:
Frederic
March, The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Actress: Olivia de
Havilland, To Each His Own
Best Supporting Actor:
Harold
Russell, The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Supporting Actress: Anne
Baxter, The Razor's Edge
Best Director: William Wyler, The Best Years of Our Lives
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Cast:
Myrna Loy, Frederic March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo,
Cathy O'Connell, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Russell
Storyline:
The
war is over and the men are returning home, only to find out that things
just aren't the same. Did it deserve to
win: Sorry boys, but
no! The Best Years of Our Lives is an over long, boring film,
disguised as a well meaning picture. The Best Years of Our Lives
covered an important topic, soldiers trying to pick up where they left
off, but this one doesn't hold up. The
popular favorite of that year was Frank
Capra's It's A Wonderful Life, a Christmas treat
for many movie lovers, to this day, but I found that one lacking as
well. The
Razor's Edge, a rarely seen film these days, but certainly worth a look,
was a much more interesting film. Critique:
Watching
this film, I got to feeling that we were obligated to like it. The
soldiers who fought for freedom, come home and find life isn't what it
once was. I liked the premise, and I certainly agree with much of
the message, but that doesn't make for a great movie. On
some levels the film is interesting. It deals with several issues of
the day. G.I.'s are shunned, to an extent, by society, as is
demonstrated when they look for work, take up again with old lovers, and
apply for loans at the bank. But
the film moves very slowly, and for three hours, there isn't enough
happening. I
suspect that The Best Years of Our Lives had more credence back in its
day, when the issue was clearly front and center. It should be
applauded that the film was released at the time, but it doesn't seem to
hold true any longer. Wars since that time have been covered, and
Coming Home, the 1978 Jane Fonda-Jon Voight picture, covered the same
topic, but with the dreaded Vietnam war as its
backdrop.
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Best Scene:
The customer is wrong! When a man tries
to tell Homer that the war was all for nothing, Homer and Fred take
offence. The Best Years of Our Lives was certainly a patriotic film,
and any talk of the contrary would smell very Un-American. As a
result, the man is thrown into a display counter.
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Behind the Scenes:
Producer, Samuel Goldwyn
and director William Wyler, bickered during the production, and this
became their last collaboration. Wyler claimed that Goldwyn promised
him billing as "A William Wyler Production." Goldwyn
claimed their films had the 'Goldwyn touch.' Wyler quipped,
"What films of his, that I didn't direct, had the Goldwyn
touch?"
Foreigners
were getting in that year, and Hollywood was concerned. Two British
films were nominated for Best Picture, garnering a total of eight
nominations. Goldwyn held a press conference, urging Hollywood to
take notice. He said, "Today it is the British. Tomorrow
it will be the French or the Italians or the Russians." Harold
Russell won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and also received a special
award. He really lost his arms in the war, and the award was a
thanks for 'bringing hope and courage to his fellow
veterans.' That evening he announced his
retirement. He didn't appear on screen again until 1980, in the
film, Inside Moves. The
censorship-guru, Joe Breen, insisted on changes to the film, particularly
those that condoned divorce and touched on 'the sacred intimacies of
marriage.'
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