"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) Part 1/15

[eightmilerap]

this movie was brought out the same year freddie mercury was born thursday 5th september 1946, long may his memory live on for ever in our hearts.

[kw9920]

The Best Years of Our Lives is the best movie of our lives! It's splendid on every level (especially the deep focus cinematography and composition). As far as good and bad, things were simpler then, so the bad (ignorance, prejudice, etc.) was worse but the good (honesty, courage, etc.) was better.

[madmax8903]

Ok, Shaina, so where's part two?

[MrCombat1965]

@madmax8903 Part 2 is thbeyeoub and it goes from there. A post a few pages down gives the sequence for the movie. One of my favorite films of all time FYI. I hope this helps.

[madmax8903]

@MrCombat1965 Hey, I watched the rest of it, absolutely superb, but forgot to thank you. Cheers.

[SONOFHERO52]

You know I am aware that the people of the World War 2 era were in the end human like all of us, making the best of what they had ,with all the flaws humans have, but then I realize the ungodly evil they fought ,and how so many paid a price for that battle, how so many remained stead-fast in their beliefs and loyalty on so many levels. They will always be the GREATEST GENERATION, who confirmed the ideas of GOD, FAMILY, and COUNTRY.....I stand in awe of them.

[reygato]

Best Film of Our Lives

[billonthepill]

good



[cskor]

I always cry after watching this. my favourite movie by far

[jaypiko]

thanks for this, amazing film. brings a tear to my eye every time

[GaryCooperFan]

This was such a heartwarming film. Thank you for uploading it! :)

[screenwriter44]

America will never be the same without the Greatest Generation. These guys have been my heroes since I was a little kid. This is one hell of a movie.

[Terrikins4ever]

I love Dana Andrews!<3. Especially in State Fair! hes a really good actor! and this movie is one of my favorites and im saying that as a 18 year old Canadian:)

[PlayIt4MeAgainSam]

Great film & cast.

Great post.

[1starryeyedkid]

Now this is a movie! The scene were Dana Andrews walks around the csrapped fighter planes...

[orangeness1]

I think all groups were generally happier back then. For example, I think black folks living in Harlem or south Chicago or Detroit, were happier back then too.

[grabit1]

Simply one of the very finest films ever made in Hollywood. And that means, one of the very finest movies ever made in America.

[blessOTMA]

The theme music and the film never fail to get me crying . Wonderful!

[orangeness1]

Theme music to movies in the 40s and 50s. Soo great! The country had some kind of sense of goodness it just doesn't have now, and this is reflected in the music.

[slLLyhumans]

@orangeness1

The people are still good , its the music thats gone loco........and yet people buy it.

[WoundedWolfgirl]

@orangeness1 Except for the raging inequality, racism and sexism. Other than that, it was all good.

Thank you for uploading, shaina! I've wanted to see this movie for a long time. :)

[stickitupyourasteric]

@orangeness1 this is a big country and back in the day there were alot of its people that didn't need big business and wallstreet. The American Farmer The American Grocery store The American Small town Pharmacy The American Small town Garage The American worker was able to move eigher into the big machine or away from it Now look what we have MEGA BUSINESS THAT RUNS EVERYTHING AND LEAVE NOTHING TO THE AVERAGE MAN.

[spacepatrolman]

@orangeness1

[tigershark50]

@orangeness1 Some sense of goodness? You mean like McCarthyism?

[jslasher1]

@orangeness1 Friedhofer's score, which won an Oscar, is one of the greatest ever composed for an American film.

[tully2shoes]

Yes, what does Al Jolson have to do with this great movie??? I don't get the comments below. I stayed up till the early morning hours, watching this movie with my mom. I was a teenager at the time and loved it. She had seen it at Radio City Music Hall when it came out.

[newhotman1001]

This is the greatest movie ever made. Dana Andrews was at his best and his affair with Teresa Wright actually turned out all right in the end. Harold Russell was actually a veteran who lost his hands in an accident. He was discovered in a training movie to show veterans how to cope with the loss of limbs. Fantastic cast that included movie greats Frederic March and Myrna Loy. Need there be anything more said?

[stickitupyourasteric]

@newhotman1001  affairs always turn out all right , lawyers love them, like dentists that give you a piece of candy.

[yaknbo]

What THE .... does Al Jolson have to do with this? See below.

[Gweezian]

I saw this for the first time last week on the Silver Screen channel one sleepless night. What a gem!

[blackbird2020]

I am a 20 year old girl and this is one of my favorite movies. To me it's perfect. I wish I could find my own Fred Derry or Homer :)

[irish89055]

blackbird... there are lots of them... coming home injured in some way from war each day...Thank God for them all...

[grabit1]

This movie is ageless, even though it may seem constricted. But it isn't.

[denbar]

This movie really is so much like it was when I was a kid. I remember my Dad and my uncle talking late into the night about the war. They both God Bless them were in the Army Airforce and saw much combat.Thanx for posting this video

[katzenjammer1979]

this was and is one of the best movies ever made. and im saying this as a 30-year old non-american.

[grabit1]

@katzenjammer1979

Here's an American, 1954, who knows just what you're saying. With a father and two uncles who also happened to arrive home on the same night.

[grabit1]

@katzenjammer1979

You're already an American, like it or not, if you recognize this as a masterpiece. I don't know it that's good or bad, but this film is a seminal film in the development of American Films (not the only one, by any means), but a masterpiece nevertheless. A double-bill of this film and John Ford's THEY WERE EXPENDABLE from the previous year would be perfect.

[spacepatrolman]

@grabit1 Watch Attack at spacepatrolman.stumbleupon you could call it a prequel to this movie.

[tialeetull]

@katzenjammer1979 the impact this film had on me the first time i saw it has forever set the standard for all war based films. i was 17 (45 now) and i loved it then - it still has huge impact on modern audiences - a tribute to wyler.

one of the american essential films to see! i agree with jammer - one the best films ever made without a doubt.

[Jayadancer1]

DISORDERED UPLOAD: Part 5 is missing. Watch in the following order:

1, b, c, d

[part missing]

thbeyeoue

thbeyeouh

thbeyeoug

thbeyoui

all the rest are in the right order

[keagleman21]

Thanks so much for uploading such a wonderful film we can watch again and again!

[TheSargeJ]

A true classic

[bearcub410]

wonderful movie thank you

[melostmo]

So many years later

and still remains a magnificent moving work of art

Reminds me very much of my Mom & Dad - both WWII vets.

[ddd1953]

This has to be one of the 100 best films of all time. Great script, great cast, great score. Such an aura of bitterswweetness, of something lost forever.

Note to trolls, run away, children, the adults are talking...go play with yourself in your parent´s basement, naked with your Star Wars action figures...

[tstoakley]

the best film of all time

[irarube]

I just watched the memorable harold Russell scene with Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell) when she shows she can handle his being handicapped and all. Very very moving. I cried as usual and of course the famous aircraft hangar scene. What a brillant brilliant film. One of my all-time favorites.

[Spiritualsound]

One of the most deeply memorable films ever. The direction, acting and music are beautiful and perfect, and it is therefore odd the story was allowed to contain occasional errors. Teresa Wright said she had two favorites among her own films and this is one. It captures qualities which are a fine memorial to her uniqueness and a vanished age. Its compelling attraction is even more than this because the sensitive balance of realism and true love can be identified by many romantics now.

[HurleyBurleyGirl]

My god I have watched this film a hundred times and it's like the first time for me. Amazing. I love every character, every scene, and especially the ones between Peggy and Fred.

[paul4opus]

I'm with you Lady. Still like playing this film while working even. It is EXCELLENT.

[mouth4war86]

who says "dick shit" what a loser

[dalerogstad]

Why don't you learn English asshole? No one has any idea what you just asked. What a moron.

[paul4opus]

U R A BAD PERSON.

[grabit1]

It's almost tragic that two of the best films ever made in Hollwood, this and iT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, had to happen in the same year. I could never argue with either of them.

But maybe they both needed to happen in 1946, and no other year together. Awards aren't anything. Either and both provided mortar required to bulk up America.

[grabit1]

And my comment had only to do with competition betwen movies. As if there should be any in the first place.

[LazlosPlane]

Let's not forget that the greatest musical bio-pic ever made was also made in that same year, "The Jolson Story." Larry Parks was nominated and had no chance. So was William Demarest but who could vote against Russell, the sentimental favorite?

[blappin23]

Not only did Fredric March beat out Larry Parks in "The Jolson Story", but also Lawrence Olivier in "Henry V" and James Stewart in probably his most famous role, "It's a Wonderful Life." What a great year for movies, huh?

[MightyAlz]

Why do people think The Jolson Story is so great? It's an idiotic film, hugely inaccurate and OTT and Larry Parks CANNOT act. The Jazz Singer is a MUCH better film as is The Best Years of our Lives...

[LazlosPlane]

The Jolson Story is, in my opinion as a film historian, the greatest film musical bio-pic ever made.

Some of the criticisms you make are accurate. But if you'd like a worthy defense write me.

[MightyAlz]

Well OK, let's disregard it as a film for second - as a biopic, it's maybe the worst film ever made.

I mean, it's as if they actually went out of their way to make the film as different from Al Jolson's actual life as possible...

[LazlosPlane]

I'm very sorry, but you couldn't be more wrong. Yes, on the surface many features are ficticious. But there are many, many subtle truths present in the script and in other choices made by the filmmakers that are present. You have to know the details of Jolson's life. I can't go into it here, but write me if you wish to know more, or just wish to vent in which case I'll let you alone.

Musically, however, there is no comparison in ANY film to Jolson's voice, etc. etc.

[MightyAlz]

In real life, Jolson's mother died when he was a boy. In the film, she is alive throughout.

I am well versed in Jolson's life - I watched the film, because I am an Al Jolson fan - but you need only read even the briefest biography to know the film is insanely inaccurate. As for "subtle truths" - I think that's maybe just wishful thinking.

And I don't vent.

[Fruth37]

My dads favorite movie. He graduated from high school in 1946 and said this was about how things were after the war. Thanks for posting this gem!

[AJNorth1]

Simply put, one of the finest motion pictures ever made. From Sherwood's exceptional screenplay to the marvelous, yet beautifully understated, acting; from Wyler's adroit direction and Toland's superb cinematography, to Friedhofer's magnificent score (among the very finest ever written for the screen), this picture is a snapshot of our republic that would have moved the Founders to tears. A film deeply imbued with humanity and decency, experiencing it cannot but make one a better human being.

[boblackey1]

TMC's Robert Osborn said many critics consider this film the best movie ever made.

[AJNorth1]

After Francis Goldwyn read an article entitled "The Way Home" in the 7 August, 1944, edition of Time magazine concerning the travails of servicemen returning from the war to civilian life, her husband, producer Samuel Goldwyn, was moved to make of a film on the subject.

[AJNorth1]

Goldwyn hired writer, newspaperman and former war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write an original story, which became the blank-verse novella "Glory for Me" (1945); Kantor would later win a Pulitzer Prize for his Civil War novel "Andersonville."

[grabit1]

Actually read "Andersonville" if you haven't already.

You will never write anything in other than free verse again, even if it's for a business meeting.

[AJNorth1]

Goldwyn then hired playwright Robert E. Sherwood to turn Kantor's story into a screenplay. Former Director of War Information and speechwriter for FDR (it was he who coined the phrase that became "the arsenal of democracy"), Sherwood had already won three of his four Pulitzer Prizes and was himself no stranger to the cinema (he had co-written the screenplay for Hitchcock's first American film, "Rebecca," 1940). The result was titled "The Best Years of Our Lives."

[AJNorth1]

Himself fresh out of the service, William Wyler was an ideal choice for director. Commissioned a major in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Wyler flew actual combat missions while making two classic documentaries, "The Memphis Belle" (1943) and "Thunderbolt" (1944). His courage while filming under extreme and life-threatening conditions earned him an Air Medal - and promotion to Lieutenant Colonel.

[AJNorth]

Conducted by Franco Collura leading the London S.O., a superb re-recording of the score was made in 1978 and released by Preamble on Lp; in 1988 they issued the CD.

Preamble is no longer extant, but the Australian 'Label X' obtained the rights and have reissued a new digital transfer from the original master tapes in the best sound to date. It is available from Screen Archives Entertainment (screenarchives-dot-com) - an excellent source for soundtrack recordings, with an extensive catalog.

[spacepatrolman]

They finally got around to inducting hoagy carmichael into the songwriters hall of fame in the early 1970s .

[ART13autotune]

love it there is room for the golf clubs

but not for a returning vet

[LazlosPlane]

Thanks so much for posting!!! I'm writing an essay on how many morons there are writing essays based on research done on YouTube! Perfect!

[tanginumin00]

is everyone watching this for an essay about this film and the cold war?

[spacepatrolman]

The music was lost but reconstructed from the soundtrack and re recorded and released on record and reel to reel tapes .

[BethKWebb]

This is one of the best movies of all time. A classic! I just watched it tonight with my aunt and grandma. It's a tradition to watch it around Memorial Day (usually more than once). Thank you for posting it! :)

[Bo618]

great movie thanks

[zachschevelle]

Thanks for posting, i need this for an essay also. Where are parts 2-15 though?

[vonfox83]

thank you so much!

[fcuklmao]

You have SAVED ME, searching for this vid bloody everywhere for a film essay - you're my hero for the week XD

[FrankCapraLover]

Thanks a MILLION for reposting this movie!!! I'm sooo grateful to you!!!! To make up for your lost comments, I'm going to comment on every of your videos....thanx once again!!!