Friday, 17 February 2012

Best Years of Our Lives
(1946)

RATING:100%
FORMAT:DVD



A very fine motion picture, indeed, dealing with the consequences of war and the affects on three representatives of the armed services after their return from combat - especially concerning their varying fortunes in reintegrating into civilian life.

On the whole, these three find they have changed more than they thought and that this means life can never be what it was before, nor can they resume their old lives where they left off. For its entire length, the movie plays like the last third of The Deer Hunter, as we see people out of sorts with their old - once-familiar - surroundings.

A subtle well-played melodrama that carefully avoids too many Hollywood clichés to reveal a depth of characterization and human understanding rare in this most commercial of media. So much of the inner life of the characters is not only unstated but actually unstatable; requiring the best efforts of the actors. And, in the main, they deliver.

Tears are wrung from the audience without any false emotionalism because the sincerity of both the performances and the writing are self-evident. If only the film producers in California could produce movies like this more than once in a blue moon, my DVD player would be far less gloomy with what I put into it.



Copyright © 2012 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.