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William Wyler’s films are award favourites but I haven’t always loved his work consistently. At his best, he’s created tender melodramas or entertaining comedies and at his worst, he feels unbelievably bloated. The Best Years of Our Lives, at a staggering length of 172 minutes, feels at risk of carrying the bloatedness of Wyler at his worst, but the way he spends time here says otherwise, for not only is a thoughtful melodrama about veterans coming home from war present and instead a staple of its own era that to this day remains one of the most self-reflexive pieces of cinema ever made. But if the title weren’t already an indicator, the very nature of the story being told can bring one in for something tender.
Cinema from the Spectrum 