Veterans' Day 2009: What it means...

Movie Review: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946):

Starring Fredric March and Myrna Loy (Known best as the duo in The Thin Man series of movies) and Dana Andrews.
This is an old Black and White movie that is pretty serious in it’s underpinnings, but is sure worth a look. You could start out this movie with: …..And they lived Happily Ever After….

Well, what happens AFTER??? It’s over. The war is over, and three weary service men return home from their grueling days in WWII. They hitch a ride together in a “retired” B-17 bomber, and discover they come from the same little hometown of “Boonville, Ohio”. The others quickly discover that “Homer” has lost both hands as his ship in the Pacific had been sunk. He shows amazing dexterity with his mechanical hooks. He’s resigned to his fate (“Boy, you outta see me with a bottle of beer…”), but is very worried about his fiancé at home. She doesn’t know about his disability.

Dana Andrews is the dashing soda-fountain jerk-turned decorated war hero (Fred) as a B-17 bombardier that returns home to find his pin-up wife is living the fast life as “floozy” and has left him far behind. In one scene, where he explains that all the party days were done now they were out of money, and reminds her it was ‘for better or for worse’, and she retorts, “Well, when do we get to the better?”

Fredric March plays the elder Sergeant Al Stephenson, that returns home to find his kids grown and his family self-sufficient. He left his home as a rather stuffy bank president, only to find things have changed since he was gone.

The trio-of servicemen try to find their footings again after losing the “best years of their lives” giving all for their country. Their country doesn’t treat them too nicely when they return, either. This isn’t Vietnam; these are decorated and celebrated war heroes! But, yet they try to fit into a world that has changed and they themselves have lost their wide-eyed innocence, and the ways to fit back into society.

I highly recommend seeing this movie! I think it should be required viewing during Memorial and Veterans’ Days. It says something powerful that definitely resonates today… As the world’s last superpower, we have become very adept at raising powerful military armies. But what do you do with a soldier after he is done fighting? How can he (or she) be de-compressed? How can they become loving and working parts of the world again after all they have seen and had to do, in the protection of their country?

There are so many great lines in this movie. So many poignant scenes. So many great messages of love, patience, understanding, peace and sometimes rebellion of the “old ways” of doing things.

This is just one scene where a very inebriated Al Stephenson and his wife attend a “welcome home” banquet with stuffy bankers and their well-attired wives. He’s about to tell them all what he thinks of them in a very funny (if not woozy) speech.

I’m sure you’ll all agree with me if I said that now is the time for all of us to stop all this nonsense, face facts, get down to brass tacks, forget about the war and go fishing.
But I’m not gonna say it. I’m just going to sum the whole thing up in one word. [Milly coughs loudly to caution him - worrying that he will tell off the boss.] My wife doesn’t think I’d better sum it up in that one word. I want to tell you all that the reason for my success as a Sergeant is due primarily to my previous training in the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. The knowledge I acquired in the good ol’ bank I applied to my problems in the infantry.

For instance, one day in Okinawa, a Major comes up to me and he says, ‘Stephenson, you see that hill?’ ‘Yes sir, I see it.’ ‘All right,’ he said. ‘You and your platoon will attack said hill and take it.’ So I said to the Major, ‘but that operation involves considerable risk. We haven’t sufficient collateral.’ ‘I’m aware of that,’ said the Major, ‘but the fact remains that there’s the hill and you are the guys that are going to take it.’ So I said to him, ‘I’m sorry Major, no collateral, no hill.’ So we didn’t take the hill and we lost the war.’ I think that little story has considerable significance, but I’ve forgotten what it is.

And now in conclusion, I’d like to tell you a humorous anecdote. I know several humorous anecdotes, but I can’t think of any way to clean them up, so I’ll only say this much. I love the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company.

There are some who say that the old bank is suffering from hardening of the arteries and of the heart. I refuse to listen to such radical talk. I say that our bank is alive, it’s generous, it’s human, and we’re going to have such a line of customers seeking and getting small loans that people will think we’re gambling with the depositors’ money. And we will be. We will be gambling on the future of this country. I thank you.

I guess the most touching part of the movie is where “Homer” finally let’s his fiancé in on why he has been so distant, as he leads her upstairs to his bedroom to show her what “living with these things” means. He can take off his mechanical arms, but cannot put them back on by himself. He says, “I’m as dependant as a baby that doesn’t know how to get anything except cry for it..”

She helps him button up his pajama top and says that she will never leave him. She turns out the light and leaves the door open as he stairs at the ceiling, happy tears welling up in his eyes. It’s all very touching and meaningful.

And it also holds meaning for us today. Sometimes we really need to know that our military men and women really sacrifice for our freedoms and lately, our much bellyhooed "rights". And we need to make sure that we do not forget their sacrifices so that we can go about our lives the way we do. But this movie is more than that too... sure, it's a love story...and sure...they are mostly happy in the end... and yeah, it's in black and white and Mighty oldish looking... but it's a great story. One that will stick with you long after the movie's done.