The Best Years of Our Lives

In this critically acclaimed film directed by William Wyler, widely regarded as one of the best American films in the 20th century, three World War II veterans experience difficulties adjusting to postwar life. Fred (Dana Andrews) is a war hero who, unable to compete with more highly skilled workers, has to return to his low-wage soda jerk job. Bank executive Al (Fredric March) gets into trouble for offering favorable loans to veterans. After losing both hands in the war, Homer (Harold Russell) returns to his loving fiancée, but must struggle to adjust. The film was a critical and commercial success. It won seven Academy Awards and was the highest-grossing film in both the United States and UK since the release of Gone with the Wind in 1939. In 1989, The Best Years of Our Lives was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."