The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Due to some crazy scheduling conflicts, it took almost five weeks for the Meatheads to get together to watch The Best Years of Our Lives, the 1946 Best Picture winner. Just think about all the wacky events that have taken place in between:

*Charlie Sheen went CRAZY!

*Mike Bibby was traded to the Washington Wizards!

*Valentine’s Day happened!!

After the debacle that was Dances With Wolves, nothing could revive Team Movie Meats’ spirits more than a three-hour film from the 40s, right? Best Years tells the stories of three American veterans trying to adjust to civilian life post-World War II. First, there’s Al (Frederic March), a fun drunk whose daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright) falls in love with Fred (Dana Andrews), the second serviceman. But there’s a problem: Fred is married to a nightclub performer, who sucks as a person but is smoking hot, so he knows all his buddies would mock him if he left her. (That’s never mentioned in the film, but ... really, come on. That’s what would have happened. You know it.) Once Peggy makes her feelings known to Daddy Al, he’s not sure what to think. Sure he is friends with Fred, but the guy is still married.

Along with Al and Fred, we also follow the story of Homer (Harold Russell), a sailor who loses both hands in the war, leaving him with hooks. When he returns home, Homer feels insecure around his longtime girlfriend and family, struggling to believe they still accept him after losing his hands. What makes this story even more fascinating is Russell actually did lose his hands in World War II, and his hooks in the movie were real. Director William Wyler saw a documentary on Russell (and other rehabilitating soldiers) and immediately cast him for the role. Russell’s inspiring performance earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor; he was the first non-actor to ever win an Oscar, and only one non-actor has won one since.

The Best Years has many enjoyable scenes, with the most intense coming at Fred’s drug store. Working as a soda jerk – no really, that’s what the profession was called – and with Homer at the counter, a patron insults each of them for fighting on “the wrong side” in the war. Homer rips an American flag button off the patron’s jacket, and Fred totally punches the commie in the face, destroying a glass display case in the process. Who doesn’t like to watch traitors take a shot in the jaw? Additionally, Al gives a drunk speech at a banquet that goes from inspiring to embarrassing back to inspiring just in time; Homer gives glimpses of how he functions without hands; and Fred’s wife does the arbitrary “I have to let people know how the title of the movie came about by saying it in the middle of a speech” move they always did pre-1950. So that was fun.

Since you have only had 65 years to see the ending, we will not spoil it for you. All we will say is it is a happy ending (which is important to know ahead of time if you’re going to watch a three-hour movie). Wanna know what else is awesome? Uncle Butch’s name in real life is Hoagy Carmichael. Classic 40s, right?

A near-crisis occurred halfway through the movie when the DVD stopped. After already watching 1 ½ hours, you can imagine how scared we were about the possibility of a scratched disc derailing the experience. To fix it, Rachel suggested we flush the DVD. When everyone else responded in a puzzled fashion, Rachel jumped up and yelled, “No one here has ever heard of flushing a DVD to fix a scratch?!” Turns out she first heard about it a whole week ago, so her shock was warranted. Luckily, a simple restart put everything back in control without a hitch, and we even learned one of the scenes is titled “Sweet Hangover” in the process. But would Rachel’s suggestion of a flushed DVD actually work? This question was asked on Yahoo! Answers in the past, and here are the community’s responses: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071230120818AAgFymU.

The Best Years of Our Lives won eight Academy Awards, including Best Actor (March), Best Supporting Actor (Russell), Best Director (Wyler) and, obviously, Best Picture. And it’s not like it defeated a bunch of crap films: other nominations for Best Picture included Henry V, The Razor’s Edge, and It’s a Wonderful Life. It was a huge commercial success at the time, making $20.4 million which in today’s figures would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 billion.

But just ‘cause the Academy loved it doesn’t mean the Meatheads did! So how did they rate it?

JIMI: (1.0 Acting + 1.21 Visuals + 1.45 Wow + 1.7 Story + 1.2 Enjoyability) = 6.56

TRACY: (1.45 Acting + 1.292 Visuals + 1.56 Wow + 1.89 Story + 1.67 Enjoyability) = 7.862

RACHEL: (1.45 Acting + 1.5 Visuals + 1.321 Wow + 1.29 Story + 1.4 Enjoyability) = 6.961

TAD: (1.45 Acting + 1.1 Visuals + 1.321 Wow + 1.78 Story + 1.48 Enjoyability) = 7.131

NICK: (1.321 Acting + 1.321 Visuals + 1.321 Wow + 1.5 Story + 1.4321 Enjoyability) = 6.8951

FINAL: 7.081

Interesting score notes: Tracy enjoyed the story saying it “didn’t feel contrived”, and her overall score of 7.862 is her highest score yet, proving this very well may be the best year of HER life. … Nick was a little “1.321-happy” with his first three scores, but perhaps he helped hypnotize Tad and Rachel, who followed suit in the Wow Factor category. Nick also finished with the first four-decimal score thus far. … For the second time in three films, Jimi had the lowest overall score. Still, his 6.56 is significantly higher than his TMM record-low score of 3.55 for An American in Paris.

FAVORITE LINE: “It is peculiarly appropriate that we meet here tonight to honor one who has valiantly fought for that freedom.” (Milton) Apparently it was so appropriate, it was peculiar. Try to say “peculiarly appropriate” three times fast. See, you can’t!

Honorable mention: “Just a few years of normal growth – don’t you approve?” (Peggy, in response to Al barely recognizing her years later.)

RANDOM VISUAL: The dance party where everyone was crammed so tightly between the tables there was no room to dance. This was a friggin’ Best Picture winner – you couldn’t cough up a couple bucks for a bigger room? Or, let’s see, get rid of 80 extras?

MOVIE MEAT: Post-World War II bomb shelter moon food and spam. Obviously.

TIME OF DEATH: 12:03 AM on March 15, 2011

NEXT MOVIE: It Happened One Night (1934), selected by Rachel

(That’s Nick’s belly poking in from the right – he’s gaining weight for a new puppetry role!)