Posted on 03/16/2024 6:13:21 PM PDT by simpson96
The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Harold Russell. The film is about three United States servicemen re-adjusting to societal changes and civilian life after coming home from World War II. The three men come from different services with different ranks that do not correspond with their civilian social class backgrounds.
The film was a critical and commercial success. It won seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Fredric March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), Best Film Editing (Daniel Mandell), Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert E. Sherwood), and Best Original Score (Hugo Friedhofer).
In addition, Russell was also awarded an honorary Academy Award, the only time in history that two such awards were given for a single performance.
It was the highest-grossing film in the United States since the release of Gone with the Wind.
"The Best Years Of Our Lives" (1946) aircraft graveyard scene
Some years ago, I was in a bookstore, and came across a book on ship breaking of US Navy ships.
It showed photographs of them in various states of being broken up, and it was sad and disheartening to me.
I know that some people scoff at the concept that men could find something elevated in a piece of steel called a warship, and fairly, when I served on one, I certainly found times (as a young man) to dislike it intensely and wish I were somewhere else.
But it is also true that men have cried with real tears and sadness as a ship they had lived in for years slid, flaming, steaming and hissing, below the surface of the water and disappeared.
Men often refer to ships as “she”, and I think I understand why. (although today, they may not. What do I know...)
But in this book about ships being broken up after WWII, there was a picture of a heavy cruiser (a Baltimore class, I think) whose bow had been removed all the way back to the #2 turret.
It struck me in the same way if you have ever seen someone missing a nose due to surgery or an accident-almost as an obscene defacement.
It really stuck in my memory.
Heh, I know...I know...
🙂👍
my dad was a plank owner on the USS Sierra AD18
rode her all the way to China...
i thought i’d been shaving wi her when one day she popped up again
In September 1979, Sierra cruised one day behind Hurricane Frederic on her way to a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, for an overhaul. The overhaul included the addition of female berthing quarters for the first female officers that began serving on the ship. During the first several months in drydock, her crew assisted the City of Mobile to help in cleanup and relief efforts after Hurricane Frederic. The crew received the Humanitarian Medal for their efforts in Mobile.
No—I don’t think you were dis-respecting Mr. Russell. Perhaps a mis-memory on your end—happens all the time with me. And to be frank, I just looked him up on wiki..
But the movie itself I think was an honest portrayal of returning vets and how to fit back into society. How can you go back to being a soda jerk when you were an officer and bombardier.
The airplane graveyard was at Ontario Army Airport in California. This according to a Google search.
Pilots were the “Rock Stars” of the military.
What struck me most in the narrative was “the smell”. I remember visiting the maritime museum in Astoria Oregon begun by building around the bridge of a WW II destroyer. I served on a LST for 19 months in and around Vietnam. It was built in 1953, but smell of paint and grease was the same. I looked around the bridge and could recognize all the instruments.
Now they are worth a hundred or more times that price as post-war surplus.
Kathleen Parker seems not to realize how Democrats think. The “country’s sake” registers as little with them as would a lesson in calculus delivered to a cat.
It's really so-oo easy to check up on these things before shooting one's mouth off here.
Regards,
My dad retired a Marine Lt. Col. at age 44. This included 2 tours of Vietnam as a chopper pilot. He spent the last 38 years of his life trying to figure out what to do with his life after that.
He came home to a tramp of a wife, played by Virginia (hold the) Mayo.
“12 O’clock High” with Gregory Peck. Was shown to us in Air Force Officer Training School in early 60’s. Heavy, dark and insightful psychological piece on the emotional impact of war.
The comrade in arms next to you when under fire in war (and the rest of your life for that matter) is all that matters.
Picking the correct enemies and rightful fights also matters.
“Command Decision” - Clark Gable
I am adding your list to my list of movies I want to want to watch.
King Rat has the same theme.
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