The Best Years of Our Lives

Airman Fred Derry, banker Al Stephenson, and sailor Homer Parrish meet while returning to Boone City after World War II. Fred faces unemployment and a strained marriage, Al returns altered to family and banking, and Homer confronts life with prosthetic hooks.

Harold Russell's physical directness gives Homer's independence rare authenticity. Shared taxi rides, family rooms, bank offices, drugstores, aircraft graveyards, and Gregg Toland's deep-focus staging let separate veterans occupy one social world.