The Best Years of Our Lives: Difference between revisions

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|the three war veterans are slowly returning to normal lives, with Homer marrying Wilma, and Fred getting divorced from his unloving wife freeing him to court Al's college-age daughter. But all three acknowledge they still have tough roads ahead of them.}}

* [[Cast the Expert]]: Harold Russell, a man who had lost both hands in [[World War II]], was cast as a man who had lost both hands in [[World War II]]. He did such a good job he won an Oscar (plus a second honorary Oscar), despite never having acted before.

* [[Girl Next Door]]: Literally with Homer's girlfriend Wilma.

* [[Oscar Bait]]: Arguably one of the first films to qualify for this

** [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]]: Homer is hugged by his girlfriend Wilma. And he hugs her back.

** Al can no longer relate to his wife or his children who grew up without him, and is turning into an alcoholic;

** Fred dismisses the war medals he's earned, and finds himself climbing into the remains of a bomber plane that are getting taken apart now that the war's over;

** Homer is ashamed of his artificial hooks and can't keep himself around his family or his girl-next-door sweetheart.

* [[Throw It In]]: Harold Russell, a real life veteran who never acted before, flubbed his lines during his character's wedding scene. William Wyler left it in, considering it natural.

* [[World War II]]: Or, at least, the psychological effects of it.

* [[Written in Infirmity]]: Homer was supposed to be merely shell-shocked, but when real-life amputee Harold Russell was cast, his disability was written in.