The Best Years of Our Lives

Dec 25, 1946

2h 51m

★ 7.8

Three wonderful loves in the best picture of the year!

Overview

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Genres

Drama

Romance

Production Companies

The Samuel Goldwyn Company

The Best Years of Our Lives Trailers

Cast

Fred Derry

Dana Andrews

Al Stephenson

Fredric March

Homer Parrish

Harold Russell

Peggy Stephenson

Teresa Wright

Milly Stephenson

Myrna Loy

Wilma Cameron

Cathy O'Donnell

Marie Derry

Virginia Mayo

Butch Engle

Hoagy Carmichael

Hortense Derry

Gladys George

Pat Derry

Roman Bohnen

Mr. Milton

Ray Collins

Mrs. Parrish

Minna Gombell

When illegal card dealer and recovering heroin addict Frankie Machine gets out of prison, he decides to straighten up. Armed with nothing but an old drum set, Frankie tries to get honest work as a drummer. But when his former employer and his old drug dealer re-enter his life, Frankie finds it hard to stay clean and eventually finds himself succumbing to his old habits.

6.5

Blackmail

Jul 11, 1929

London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.

8.1

Rashomon

Aug 26, 1950

Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

6.4

Secret Beyond the Door

Dec 24, 1947

After a whirlwind romance in Mexico, a beautiful heiress marries a man she barely knows with hardly a second thought. She finds his New York home full of his strange relations, and macabre rooms that are replicas of famous murder sites. One locked room contains the secret to her husband's obsession, and the truth about what happened to his first wife.

7.8

Dances with Wolves

Mar 30, 1990

Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

6.9

Wag the Dog

Dec 25, 1997

During the final weeks of a presidential race, the President is accused of sexual misconduct. To distract the public until the election, the President's adviser hires a Hollywood producer to help him stage a fake war.

7.9

Titanic

Nov 18, 1997

101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.

8.3

Sunset Boulevard

Aug 10, 1950

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

7.2

Out of Africa

Dec 20, 1985

Tells the life story of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself. The film is based on her 1937 autobiographical novel.

7.9

Downfall

Sep 16, 2004

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

7.6

The Last Samurai

Dec 5, 2003

Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.

7.8

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Nov 4, 1927

A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.

7.7

Stalag 17

May 29, 1953

It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem—there seems to be a security leak.

7.1

Soldier of Orange

Sep 22, 1977

The lives of Erik Lanshof and five of his closest friends take different paths when the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940: fight and resistance, fear and resignation, collaboration and high treason.

8.4

Life Is Beautiful

Dec 20, 1997

A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.

5.7

The Silent Ocean

Feb 27, 1983

A doctor, who commits malpractice in a major urban hospital, retreats to a remote house in the countryside. Although he is acquitted, his conscience is not so easily appeased. When a murder occurs and the southern Styria village searches for the culprit, he has to take a stand.

8.1

Children of Paradise

Mar 15, 1945

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

7.2

The Diary of Anne Frank

Mar 18, 1959

The true, harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

7.0

Monsieur Batignole

Mar 6, 2002

In 1942, in an occupied Paris, the apolitical grocer Edmond Batignole lives with his wife and daughter in a small apartment in the building of his grocery. When his future son-in-law and collaborator of the German Pierre-Jean Lamour calls the Nazis to arrest the Jewish Bernstein family, they move to the confiscated apartment. Some days later, the young Simon Bernstein escapes from the Germans and comes to his former home. When Batignole finds him, he feels sorry for the boy and lodges him, hiding Simon from Pierre-Jean and also from his wife. Later, two cousins of Simon meet him in the cellar of the grocery. When Pierre-Jean finds the children, Batignole decides to travel with the children to Switzerland.

7.0

Born on the Fourth of July

Dec 20, 1989

Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, Ron Kovic becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.