The Best Year of Our Lives (Wyler, 1946): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.30pm
This is a 35mm presentation.
Chicago Reader review:
This 1946 domestic epic about three World War II veterans returning to
civilian life, 172 minutes long and winner of nine Oscars, isn’t
considered hip nowadays. Its director, William Wyler, and literary
source, MacKinlay Kantor’s novel Glory for Me (adapted here by
Robert Sherwood), are far from fashionable, and the real veteran in the
cast, Harold Russell, who lost his hands in the war, has occasioned
outraged reflections from critic Robert Warshow about challenged
masculinity and even sick jokes from humorist Terry Southern. But I’d
call this the best American movie about returning soldiers I’ve ever
seen—the most moving and the most deeply felt. It bears witness to its
times and contemporaries like few other Hollywood features, and Gregg
Toland’s deep-focus cinematography is one of the best things he ever
did. The rest of the cast—including Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Teresa
Wright, Fredric March, Cathy O’Donnell, Virginia Mayo, Hoagy Carmichael,
and Ray Collins—is strong too.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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