Making the Best Years of Our Lives : The Hollywood Classic That Inspired a Nation / Alison Macor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Macor, Alison, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Best years of our lives (Motion picture).

Best years of our lives (Motion picture)--Influence.

Best years of our lives (Motion picture)--Public opinion.

Post-traumatic stress disorder in motion pictures.

Veterans in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (206 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press, [2022]

Summary:

Released in 1946, The Best Years of Our Lives became an immediate success. Life magazine called it “the first big, good movie of the post-war era” to tackle the “veterans problem.” Today we call that problem PTSD, but in the initial aftermath of World War II, the modern language of war trauma did not exist. The film earned the producer Samuel Goldwyn his only Best Picture Academy Award. It offered the injured director, William Wyler, a triumphant postwar return to Hollywood. And for Harold Russell, a double amputee who costarred with Fredric March and Dana Andrews, the film provided a surprising second act. Award-winning author Alison Macor illuminates the film’s journey from script to screen and describes how this authentic motion picture moved audiences worldwide. General Omar Bradley believed The Best Years of Our Lives would help “the American people to build an even better democracy” following the war, and the movie inspired broad reflection on reintegrating the walking wounded. But the film’s nuanced critique of American ideals also made it a target, and the picture and its creators were swept up in the anti-Communist witch hunts of the late 1940s. In this authoritative history, Macor chronicles the making and meaning of a film that changed America.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Introduction

1. Warstruck

2. Every Veteran a Potential Mental Case

3. The Way Home

4. Underwater Again

5. Fade on Kiss

6. Pure Emotional Dynamite

7. It's All the Same Fight

8. A Training Film for All of Us

Acknowledgments

Note on Sources

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4773-2505-0

OCLC:

1309041165