| The Best Years of Our Lives | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | William Wyler |
| Produced by | Samuel Goldwyn |
| Written by | Robert E. Sherwood MacKinlay Kantor |
| Starring | Fredric March Myrna Loy Dana Andrews Teresa Wright Virginia Mayo Harold Russell |
| Music by | Hugo Friedhofer |
| Cinematography | Gregg Toland |
| Editing by | Daniel Mandell |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 21, 1946 |
| Running time | 172 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2.1 million |
| Gross revenue | $23,650,000[1] |
The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film about three servicemen trying to piece their lives back together after coming home from World War II.
Samuel Goldwyn was motivated to produce the film after his wife Frances read an August 7, 1944 article in Time magazine about the difficulties experienced by war veterans returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write the story, which was first published as a novella, Glory for Me, which was written in blank verse.[2] Robert Sherwood then wrote the screenplay.[3] It was directed by William Wyler, with cinematography by Gregg Toland. The film won seven Academy Awards. In addition to its critical success the film was a massive commercial success upon release becoming the highest grossing film in both the USA and UK since the release of Gone with the Wind. It remains the sixth most profitable film of all time in the UK.[4]
The ensemble cast includes Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, and Hoagy Carmichael. It also features Harold Russell, a U.S. paratrooper who had lost both his hands in a training accident.
Contents |
After World War II, demobilized servicemen Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Frederic March) meet while hitching a ride home in a bomber to Boone City, a fictional Midwestern city, patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio.[2] Fred was a highly decorated Army Air Forces captain and bombardier with the Eighth Air Force in Europe, who still suffers from nightmares of combat. Homer had been in the Navy, losing both of his hands from burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk. For replacements, he has mechanical hook prostheses. Al served as an infantry sergeant in the 25th Infantry Division, fighting in the Pacific.
Prior to the war, Al had worked as a bank executive and loan officer for the Corn Belt Savings and Loan in Boone City. He is a mature man with a loving family and comfortable home: his patient wife Milly (Myrna Loy), adult daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright) and college freshman son Rob. Al now is having trouble readjusting to civilian life, as do his two chance acquaintances, and he is showing signs of alcoholism.
The bank, anticipating an increase in loans to returning war veterans, promotes Al to Vice President in charge of the small loan department because of his war experience. However, after he approves a chancy loan to a veteran, Al's boss Mr. Milton advises him not to gamble on further loans without collateral. At his welcome-home dinner, a slightly-drunk Al gives a stirring speech, acknowledging that people will think that the bank is gambling with the depositors' money if he has his way, "And they'll be right; we'll be gambling on the future of this country!" Mr. Milton applauds his sentiments, but Al remarks later, "He'll back me up wholeheartedly until the next time I help some little guy, then I'll have to fight it out again."
Before the war, Fred had been an unskilled drugstore soda jerk, having been raised in a poor neighborhood. He does not want to return to his old job, but has no choice, given the stiff competition from other returning veterans and his lack of civilian skills. He had met Marie (Virginia Mayo) while in training and married her shortly afterward, before shipping out less than a month later. She took a job as a night club waitress and set up her own apartment while Fred was overseas. She does not relish being married to a soda jerk and seemed more attracted to Fred as an officer.
Peggy meets Fred after coming home with Al following an alcohol-fueled "reunion" at a local watering hole owned by Homer's uncle, Butch (Hoagy Carmichael). The relationship between Peggy and Fred begins slowly, but there is a mutual attraction almost from the start. After a double-date with Fred and Marie, Peggy holds Marie in contempt after discovering how shallow and selfish she is. Peggy tells her parents she intends to break up Fred and Marie's marriage, only to be told that their own marriage overcame similar problems. To protect Peggy, Al pressures Fred to break off all contact with his daughter. Fred does so, but the friendship between the two men is strained almost to the breaking point.
Homer was a football quarterback before the war. Before leaving to fight, he had become engaged to Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell). When he returns, both Homer and his parents have trouble dealing with his disability. He does not want to burden Wilma with a handicapped man, so he pushes her away, although she is the one who has adjusted best to the situation. His uncle Butch owns a bar where the three men meet from time to time. Butch counsels Homer, but is careful not to tell his nephew what to do.
At the drugstore where Fred now works, an obnoxious soda fountain customer, who says that the war was fought against the wrong enemies, gets into an altercation with Homer, Fred punches the troublemaker and loses his job. When Fred returns home to tell his wife the bad news, he discovers her with another man (also a war vet). Marie exclaims:
I gave up the best years of my life, and what have you done? You flopped! Couldn't even hold that job at the drugstore. So I'm going back to work for myself and that means I'm gonna live for myself too. And in case you don't understand English, I'm gonna get a divorce.
Fred decides to leave town, and goes to his father's house to say goodbye. He gives his father, Pat Derry, his medals and citations, saying dismissively that they were "passed out with the k-rations." After he leaves, his father reads to his partner Fred's Distinguished Flying Cross citation, and for the first time learns the details of his son's extraordinary heroism.
Fred arrives at the airport and books space on the first outbound transport, not caring where it goes. While waiting for the aircraft to depart, Fred walks around the airport to kill time and wanders into a vast wartime aircraft "boneyard". Climbing into the nose of a B-17 Flying Fortress, he begins to relive intense memories of combat. He is brought out of his reverie by the boss of a work crew. Derry assumes that the aircraft, like himself, are garbage to be thrown away but the crew chief explains that the aluminum is being salvaged to build pre-fabricated housing. Fred talks the man into giving him a job.
Wilma tells Homer that her family wants her to go away, since it seems that he will not marry her. He bluntly and explicitly demonstrates how hard life with him would be, but she is unfazed. When she makes it clear that she loves him regardless, he gives in. Now divorced, Fred is Homer's best man at the wedding. He greets Peggy pleasantly but formally, but they exchange meaningful looks throughout the ceremony. Homer successfully manipulates Wilma's wedding ring with his mechanical hands, and places it onto her finger. As the guests gather to congratulate Homer and Wilma, Fred suddenly approaches Peggy and holds her, telling her that their life together will be a hard struggle, that they'd be "kicked around" and it might be years before they can get ahead. However, she beams despite his discouraging words. They embrace, and kiss.
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Casting brought together established stars as well as character actors and relative unknowns. Famed drummer Gene Krupa is seen in archival footage, while Tennessee Ernie Ford, later a famous television star, appears as an uncredited "hillbilly singer" (in the first of his only three film appearances). At the time the film was shot, Ford was unknown as a singer, and working in San Bernardino as a radio announcer-disc jockey, his singing skills not yet known. They would not emerge until he began making records in 1949. Notable film producer and director Blake Edwards appears fleetingly as an uncredited "Corporal". Actress Judy Wyler was also cast in her first role in her father's production.
Additional uncredited cast members include Mary Arden, Al Bridge, Harry Cheshire, Joyce Compton, Heinie Conklin, Clancy Cooper, Claire Du Brey, Tom Dugan, Edward Earle, Billy Engle, Pat Flaherty, Stuart Holmes, John Ince, Teddy Infuhr, Robert Karnes, Joe Palma, Leo Penn, Jack Rice, Suzanne Ridgeway, Ralph Sanford and John Tyrrell.[5]
Director William Wyler had actually flown combat missions over Europe in filming Memphis Belle (1944) and worked hard to get realistic depictions of the combat veterans he had encountered. One of the innovative elements he introduced was in asking all the principal actors to purchase their own clothes to maintain an affinity for the period and provide a more genuine "feel." Other Wyler touches included constructing life-size sets which went against the standard larger sets that were more suited to camera positions. The impact to the audience was immediate as each scene played out in a realistic, natural way.[6]
The movie began filming on April 15, 1946 at a variety of locations including the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Ontario International Airport, Ontario, California, Raleigh Studios, Hollywood and the Samuel Goldwyn/Warner Hollywood Studios.[citation needed] The Best Years of Our Lives is notable for cinematographer Gregg Toland's use of deep focus photography, in which objects both close to and distant from the camera are in sharp focus.[7] His evocative sequence of Fred Derry reliving a combat mission while sitting in the remains of a former bomber, utilized imaginative "zoom" effects to simulate an aircraft taking off.[8]
The wartime combat aircraft that feature prominently in the film were being destroyed in large numbers at the end of hostilities. When former air force bombardier Derry walks among the aircraft ruins, the sequence was filmed at the Ontario Army Air Field in Ontario, California where the former training facility had been converted into a scrap yard housing nearly 2,000 former combat aircraft in various states of disassembly.[6]
Shortly after its premiere at the Astor Theater, New York, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, hailed the film as a masterpiece, and wrote, "It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment but as food for quiet and humanizing thought... In working out their solutions Mr. Sherwood and Mr. Wyler have achieved some of the most beautiful and inspiring demonstrations of human fortitude that we have had in films."[9] He also said the ensemble casting gave the "'best' performance in this best film this year from Hollywood."
A more recent critic, Dave Kehr, is more reluctant to praise the film, but he makes the case for why the film is important today. He wrote, "The film is very proud of itself, exuding a stifling piety at times, but it works as well as this sort of thing can, thanks to accomplished performances by Fredric March, Myrna Loy, and Dana Andrews, who keep the human element afloat. Gregg Toland's deep-focus photography, though, remains the primary source of interest for today's audiences."[7] David Thomson offers tempered praise: "I would concede that Best Years is decent and humane... acutely observed, despite being so meticulous a package. It would have taken uncommon genius and daring at that time to sneak a view of an untidy or unresolved America past Goldwyn or the public."[10]
Not everyone was as complimentary. Iconoclastic critic Manny Farber called it "a horse-drawn truckload of liberal schmaltz."[11][12]
Currently, the film has a 97% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 26 reviews.[13]
1947 Academy Awards
The film received seven Academy Awards. Despite his touching Oscar-nominated performance, Harold Russell was not a professional actor and the Board of Governors considered him a long shot to win, so he was given an honorary award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance". However, he was named Best Supporting Actor to a tumultuous reception, making him the only actor to receive two Academy Awards for the same performance. He later sold one of them for $50,000, first claiming it was to pay his wife's medical bills, but later admitting it was to finance a cruise for her[14]. He often joked, "I can pick up anything but the check!" Also Fredric March won his second Best Actor award after winning in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (he shared with Wallace Beery in The Champ) and he was the second man to win Best Actor twice since Spencer Tracy won for Boys Town but it was his first outright Award.
| Award | Result | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| Best Motion Picture | Won | Samuel Goldwyn Productions (Samuel Goldwyn, Producer) |
| Best Director | Won | William Wyler |
| Best Actor | Won | Fredric March |
| Best Writing (Screenplay) | Won | Robert E. Sherwood |
| Best Supporting Actor | Won | Harold Russell |
| Best Film Editing | Won | Daniel Mandell |
| Best Music (Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) | Won | Hugo Friedhofer |
| Best Sound Recording | Nominated | Gordon Sawyer Winner was John P. Livadary - The Jolson Story |
| Honorary Award | Won | To Harold Russell for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in The Best Years of Our Lives |
1947 Golden Globe Awards
1948 BAFTA Awards
Other wins
In 1989, the National Film Registry selected it for preservation in the United States Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
American Film Institute recognition
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Lost Weekend |
Academy Award for Best Picture 1946 |
Succeeded by Gentleman's Agreement |
| Preceded by New Award |
BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source 1948 |
Succeeded by Hamlet |
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| The Best Years of Our Lives | |
|---|---|
|
File:The Best Years of Our Lives film Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | William Wyler |
| Produced by | Samuel Goldwyn |
| Written by |
Robert E. Sherwood MacKinlay Kantor |
| Starring |
Fredric March Myrna Loy Dana Andrews Teresa Wright Virginia Mayo Harold Russell |
| Music by | Hugo Friedhofer |
| Cinematography | Gregg Toland |
| Editing by | Daniel Mandell |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 21, 1946 |
| Running time | 172 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2.1 million |
| Gross revenue | $23,650,000[1] |
The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film about three servicemen trying to piece their lives back together after coming home from World War II. It won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Picture.
Samuel Goldwyn was inspired to produce a film about veterans after reading an August 7, 1944 article in Time magazine about the difficulties experienced by men returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write a screenplay. His work was first published as a novella, Glory for Me, which Kantor wrote in blank verse.[2][3]
Robert Sherwood then adapted the novel as a screenplay.[3] The film was directed by William Wyler, with cinematography by Gregg Toland. The film won seven Academy Awards, including those for best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, editing, screenplay, and original score.
In addition to its critical success, the film quickly became a great commercial success upon release. It became the highest grossing film in both the USA and UK since the release of Gone with the Wind. It remains the sixth most attended film of all time in the UK, with over 20 million tickets sold.[4]
The ensemble cast includes Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, and Hoagy Carmichael. It also features Harold Russell, a U.S. paratrooper who had lost both hands in a training accident.
Contents |
After World War II, demobilized servicemen Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Frederic March) meet while hitching a ride home in a bomber to Boone City, a fictional Midwestern city, patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio.[2] Fred was a decorated Army Air Forces captain and bombardier with the Eighth Air Force in Europe, who still suffers from nightmares of combat. Homer had been in the Navy, where he lost both hands from burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk. For replacements, he has mechanical hook prostheses (as Harold Russell had, so no artifice was required). Al served as an infantry platoon sergeant in the 25th Infantry Division, fighting in the Pacific.
Prior to the war, Al had worked as a bank executive and loan officer for the Corn Belt Savings and Loan in Boone City. He is a mature man with a loving family and comfortable home: his patient wife Milly (Myrna Loy), adult daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright) and college freshman son Rob. Al now is having trouble readjusting to civilian life, as do his two chance acquaintances, and he is showing signs of alcoholism.
The bank, anticipating an increase in loans to returning war veterans, promotes Al to Vice President in charge of the small loan department because of his war experience. However, after he approves a chancy loan to a veteran, Al's boss Mr. Milton advises him not to gamble on further loans without collateral. At his welcome-home dinner, a slightly drunk Al gives a stirring speech, acknowledging that people will think that the bank is gambling with the depositors' money if he has his way, "And they'll be right; we'll be gambling on the future of this country!" Mr. Milton applauds his sentiments, but Al remarks later, "He'll back me up wholeheartedly until the next time I help some little guy, then I'll have to fight it out again."
Before the war, Fred had been an unskilled drugstore soda jerk, having been raised in a poor neighborhood. He does not want to return to his old job, but has no choice, given the stiff competition from other returning veterans and his lack of civilian skills. He had met Marie (Virginia Mayo) while in training and married her shortly afterward, before shipping out less than a month later. She took a job as a night club waitress and set up her own apartment while Fred was overseas. She does not relish being married to a soda jerk and seemed more attracted to Fred as an officer.
Peggy meets Fred after coming home with her father Al following an alcohol-fueled "reunion" at a local watering hole owned by Homer's uncle, Butch (Hoagy Carmichael). The relationship between Peggy and Fred begins slowly, but there is a mutual attraction almost from the start. After a double-date with Fred and Marie, Peggy is contemptuous of Marie, believing she is shallow. Peggy tells her parents she intends to break up Fred and Marie's marriage, only to be told that their own marriage overcame similar problems. To protect Peggy, Al pressures Fred to break off all contact with his daughter. Fred does so, but the friendship between the two men is strained almost to the breaking point.
Homer was a football quarterback before the war. Before leaving to fight, he had become engaged to Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell). When he returns, both Homer and his parents have trouble dealing with his disability. He does not want to burden Wilma with a handicapped man, so he pushes her away, although she adjusts best to his changed life. His uncle Butch owns a bar where the three men meet from time to time. Butch counsels Homer, but refrains from telling his nephew what to do.
At the drugstore where Fred works, an obnoxious customer, who says that the war was fought against the wrong enemies, gets into an altercation with Homer. After Fred punches the troublemaker, he loses his job. One day when Fred returns home from collecting his unemployment check and job hunting, he discovers his wife with another man (Steve Cochran in an early role as another veteran). Marie exclaims:
I gave up the best years of my life, and what have you done? You flopped! Couldn't even hold that job at the drugstore. So I'm going back to work for myself and that means I'm gonna live for myself too. And in case you don't understand English, I'm gonna get a divorce.
Fred decides to leave town, and goes to his father's house to say goodbye. He gives his father, Pat Derry, his medals and citations, saying dismissively that they were "passed out with the k-rations." After he leaves, his father reads aloud the citation for Fred's Distinguished Flying Cross citation. For the first time, he learns of his son's extraordinary heroism.
Arriving at the airport, Fred books space on the first outbound transport, not caring about the destination. While waiting departure, Fred walks around the airport to kill time and wanders into a vast wartime aircraft "boneyard". Climbing into the nose of a B-17 Flying Fortress, he begins to relive intense memories of combat. The boss of a work crew interrupts him. Fred had thought of the aircraft as unwanted debris to be thrown away, like him. When the crew chief says the aluminum is being salvaged to build housing, Fred talks him into a job.
Wilma tells Homer that her family wants her to go away, since it seems that he will not marry her. He bluntly demonstrates how hard life with him would be, but she is unfazed. When she makes it clear that she loves him anyway, he gives in.
Now divorced, Fred is Homer's best man at the wedding. He greets Peggy formally, but they exchange meaningful looks throughout the ceremony. As the guests gather to congratulate Homer and Wilma, Fred approaches Peggy and holds her. He says that their life together will be a hard struggle, and it might be years before they can get ahead. She smiles despite his words and they embrace.
|
|
Casting brought together established stars as well as character actors and relative unknowns. Famed drummer Gene Krupa was seen in archival footage, while Tennessee Ernie Ford, later a famous television star, appeared as an uncredited "hillbilly singer" (in the first of his only three film appearances). At the time the film was shot, Ford was unknown as a singer. He worked in San Bernardino as a radio announcer-disc jockey. Blake Edwards, later notable as a film producer and director, appeared fleetingly as an uncredited "Corporal". Actress Judy Wyler was cast in her first role in her father's production.
Additional uncredited cast members include Mary Arden, Al Bridge, Harry Cheshire, Joyce Compton, Heinie Conklin, Clancy Cooper, Claire Du Brey, Tom Dugan, Edward Earle, Billy Engle, Pat Flaherty, Stuart Holmes, John Ince, Teddy Infuhr, Robert Karnes, Joe Palma, Leo Penn, Jack Rice, Suzanne Ridgeway, Ralph Sanford and John Tyrrell.[5]
Director William Wyler had flown combat missions over Europe in filming Memphis Belle (1944) and worked hard to get accurate depictions of the combat veterans he had encountered.
For The Best Years of Our Lives, he asked the principal actors to purchase their own clothes, in order to connect with daily life and produce an authentic feeling. Other Wyler touches included constructing life-size sets, which went against the standard larger sets that were more suited to camera positions. The impact for the audience was immediate, as each scene played out in a realistic, natural way.[6]
The movie began filming on April 15, 1946 at a variety of locations, including the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Ontario International Airport, Ontario, California, Raleigh Studios, Hollywood and the Samuel Goldwyn/Warner Hollywood Studios.[citation needed] Many scenes were also filmed in Phoenxiville, PA, most notably the banking scenes using the Farmers and Mechanics Bank located on Main Street and various other scenes showing Bridge Street and Main Street in Phoenixville, PA. The Best Years of Our Lives is notable for cinematographer Gregg Toland's use of deep focus photography, in which objects both close to and distant from the camera are in sharp focus.[7] For the passage of Fred Derry's reliving a combat mission while sitting in the remains of a former bomber, Wyler used "zoom" effects to simulate an aircraft's taking off.[8]
The "Jackson High" football stadium seen early in the movie in aerial footage was Corcoran Stadium, the home of Xavier University's (Cincinnati) football team from 1929 to 1973.
After the war, the combat aircraft featured in the film were being destroyed and disassembled for reuse as scrap material. The scene of Derry's walking among aircraft ruins was filmed at the Ontario Army Air Field in Ontario, California. The former training facility had been converted into a scrap yard, housing nearly 2,000 former combat aircraft in various states of disassembly.[6]
Big-band jazz drummer Gene Krupa briefly appears in a montage of nightclub performers.
Upon its release, the film received extremely positive reviews from critics. Shortly after its premiere at the Astor Theater, New York, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, hailed the film as a masterpiece. He wrote,
"It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment but as food for quiet and humanizing thought... In working out their solutions Mr. Sherwood and Mr. Wyler have achieved some of the most beautiful and inspiring demonstrations of human fortitude that we have had in films."[9]He also said the ensemble casting gave the "'best' performance in this best film this year from Hollywood."
A contemporary critic, Dave Kehr, wrote,
"The film is very proud of itself, exuding a stifling piety at times, but it works as well as this sort of thing can, thanks to accomplished performances by Fredric March, Myrna Loy, and Dana Andrews, who keep the human element afloat. Gregg Toland's deep-focus photography, though, remains the primary source of interest for today's audiences."[7]David Thomson offers tempered praise: "I would concede that Best Years is decent and humane... acutely observed, despite being so meticulous a package. It would have taken uncommon genius and daring at that time to sneak a view of an untidy or unresolved America past Goldwyn or the public."[10]
Not everyone was as complimentary. The critic Manny Farber called it "a horse-drawn truckload of liberal schmaltz."[11][12]
In July 2010, the film has a 97% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 35 reviews.[13] The film enjoys a 100% "Fresh" rating on the site's "Top Critics" section, based on 8 reviews.
The film was a massive popular success. When box office prices are adjusted for inflation, it remains one of the top 100 grossing films in U.S. history. Among films released before 1950, only Gone With the Wind, The Bells of St. Mary's and four Disney titles have done more total business, in part due to later re-releases. (Reliable box office figures for certain early films such as Birth of a Nation and Charlie Chaplin's comedies are unavailable.) [14]
1947 Academy Awards
The film received seven Academy Awards. Fredric March won his second Best Actor award (after winning in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). (Dana Andrews' brilliant performance turned out to be overshadowed by the acclaim Fredric March and Harold Russell received.)
Despite his Oscar-nominated performance, Harold Russell was not a professional actor. As the Academy Board of Governors considered him a long shot to win, they gave him an honorary award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance". When Russell won Best Supporting Actor, there was an enthusiastic response. He is the only actor to have received two Academy Awards for the same performance. He later sold one of the awards for $50,000, first claiming it was to pay his wife's medical bills. Later he said it was to pay for a cruise for her.[15] He often joked, "I can pick up anything but the check!"
| Award | Result | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| Best Motion Picture | Won | Samuel Goldwyn Productions (Samuel Goldwyn, Producer) |
| Best Director | Won | William Wyler |
| Best Actor | Won | Fredric March |
| Best Writing (Screenplay) | Won | Robert E. Sherwood |
| Best Supporting Actor | Won | Harold Russell |
| Best Film Editing | Won | Daniel Mandell |
| Best Music (Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) | Won | Hugo Friedhofer |
| Best Sound Recording | Nominated | Gordon Sawyer Winner was John P. Livadary - The Jolson Story |
| Honorary Award | Won | To Harold Russell |
1947 Golden Globe Awards
1948 BAFTA Awards
Other wins
In 1989, the National Film Registry selected it for preservation in the United States Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
American Film Institute recognition
| Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Best Years of Our Lives |
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Going My Way | Academy Award winner for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor | Succeeded by Ben-Hur |
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