---
product_id: 254802917
title: "Best Years of Our Lives, The [Blu-ray]"
price: "¥6523"
currency: JPY
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.jp/products/254802917-best-years-of-our-lives-the-blu-ray
store_origin: JP
region: Japan
---

# Best Years of Our Lives, The [Blu-ray]

**Price:** ¥6523
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- **What is this?** Best Years of Our Lives, The [Blu-ray]
- **How much does it cost?** ¥6523 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.jp](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/254802917-best-years-of-our-lives-the-blu-ray)

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## Description

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare. Captain Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) is returning to a loveless marriage; Sergeant Al Stephenson (Fredric March) is a stranger to a family that's grown up without him; and young sailor Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) is tormented by the loss of his hands. Can each man find the courage to rebuild his world? Or are the best years of their lives a thing of the past? Featuring a brilliant cast that includes Myrna Loy and Virginia Mayo, this postwar classic garnered eight Oscars *, including Best Picture. Heart-wrenching, touching and "filled with emotional dynamite" (The Hollywood Reporter), it remains "one of the best films about war veterans ever made" (American Movie Classics Magazine).

Review: Before the movie, before the screenplay, a book-length poem - Many viewers of this great American movie -- it won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, for 1946 -- are unaware that it was based on a most unusual book-length narrative poem by MacKinlay Kantor, "Glory for Me," published in 1945. In 1970, I was a lieutenant working at the Air Force Historical Research Center. The older historians told a word-of-mouth story how the book and the movie came to be. No doubt the story had been embroidered over many years of retelling, but here's the way I heard it. In 1944, movie titan Samuel Goldwyn knew that whether the allied victory in World War II would come sooner, or later, millions of American veterans would return home. Many -- especially those with physical and psychological wounds -- would have trouble finding jobs and "readjusting." Goldwyn knew that journalist and playwright MacKinlay Kantor, who had flown missions with the 305th Bomb Group from England earlier in the war, had gotten to know American servicemen in combat at first hand. Goldwyn asked Kantor to write a screenplay for a planned movie on the veterans returning home. According to the story, Kantor had driven up to a Tennessee mountain retreat to work on the screenplay. He took his typewriter and a case of bourbon. He emerged some months later with empty bottles and "Glory for Me," written in the form of a narrative poem, not a screenplay. Goldwyn was not pleased, and he eventually gave Kantor's poem to Robert Sherwood to reshape for the screen. When the film finally appeared, Kantor was given a minimum of credit. Sherwood -- deservedly -- won the Oscar for Best Writing. If you like the movie, you will be richly rewarded by reading the poem. Kantor's and Sherwood's treatments of the same characters and the same American town ("Boone City") shows two gifted men working the same basic story in different literary forms, poem and screenplay. Reading the book allows one to discover how, here and there, they made some different creative choices. In Kantor's poem, Homer's disability is spasticity, which makes for some painful reading. Sherwood gave Homer a physical disability -- loss of hands and the use of prosthetic hooks. Sherwood's choice was a wise one for the moviegoing public, and few are the hearts not moved by Harold Russell's ortrayal of Homer in the film. But Kantor's portrayal of Homer and his girl Wilma are equally moving, perhaps because the poem gave more room for character development. When Frederic March played Al Stephenson -- the older sergeant returning to his prewar life as a banker at the Cornbelt Trust Company -- he masterfully compressed much of Kantor's material in eloquent but short scenes. In Kantor's fuller telling of the story, Al was the son of a pioneer banker who had made loans to farmers a generation earlier. The poem has more social and historical texture. In Kantor's poem, Homer's uncle Butch (Hoagy Carmichael's character in the movie) provides a vehicle to explore class feelings in pre- and post-war America. This was one of Kantor's themes that Sherwood could not fit into the film. Similarly, Kantor told his readers more about Novak (the veteran asking for a loan to open a nursery) and his experiences as a Seabee in the Pacific. Kantor's use of lilacs as a metaphor for peace and normality could not be picked up in the film. On the other hand, Sherwood changed the story line to say more about wartime marriages. Marie (Virginia Mayo in the film) proves shallow and unfaithful when Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) returns home. The movie's title, not found in Kantor's poem, came from a scene when the two argued. The book was published in January, 1945, months before the war ended. Kantor well anticipated the major contours of veteran adjustment, but there was more to his foresight. On the final page of the poem he showed real prescience when he alluded to the unresolved social tensions that all Americans, not just the veterans, would confront in the coming years. Reading habits have changed in the six decades since the book was published, and readers may now find that it takes some pages to adjust to the poetic form. Kantor's poetic shortcomings earned some dismissive reviews. Poems similar in form by Kantor's contemporaries like Stephen Vincent Benet are now dismissed as middlebrow when they are read at all. I am confident, though, that with each page the reader will find new lines and new scenes to savor and treasure. "The Best Years of Our Lives" is a truly great American movie. "Glory for Me" deserves equal recognition. Kantor recognized the coming drama of the returning veterans. He dignified their individual struggles in a literary form that recalled the great epics and placed the American veterans among mankind's heroes. He gave an immortal film -- a film that affected tens of millions -- its basic structure, plot, characters, tone, and feeling. Not a bad result for a few months of solitude with a case of bourbon. -30-
Review: One of my All-time Favorites - This is one of my all-time favorite movies & still relevant today. I love the authenticity & what it has to say about life, love and the challenges facing veterans.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN  | B08NDXFDFC |
| Actors  | Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo |
| Best Sellers Rank | #10,281 in Movies & TV ( See Top 100 in Movies & TV ) #1,327 in Drama Blu-ray Discs |
| Customer Reviews | 4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars (2,881) |
| Director  | William Wyler |
| MPAA rating  | NR (Not Rated) |
| Media Format  | NTSC, Subtitled |
| Number of discs  | 1 |
| Product Dimensions  | 0.38 x 5.35 x 6.75 inches; 2.26 ounces |
| Release date  | December 22, 2020 |
| Run time  | 2 hours and 50 minutes |
| Studio  | Warner Archives |

## Product Details

- **Format:** NTSC, Subtitled
- **Genre:** Drama
- **Language:** English
- **Runtime:** 2 hours and 50 minutes

## Images

![Best Years of Our Lives, The [Blu-ray] - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71TIPiNksiS.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Before the movie, before the screenplay, a book-length poem
*by D***P on July 4, 2008*

Many viewers of this great American movie -- it won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, for 1946 -- are unaware that it was based on a most unusual book-length narrative poem by MacKinlay Kantor, "Glory for Me," published in 1945. In 1970, I was a lieutenant working at the Air Force Historical Research Center. The older historians told a word-of-mouth story how the book and the movie came to be. No doubt the story had been embroidered over many years of retelling, but here's the way I heard it. In 1944, movie titan Samuel Goldwyn knew that whether the allied victory in World War II would come sooner, or later, millions of American veterans would return home. Many -- especially those with physical and psychological wounds -- would have trouble finding jobs and "readjusting." Goldwyn knew that journalist and playwright MacKinlay Kantor, who had flown missions with the 305th Bomb Group from England earlier in the war, had gotten to know American servicemen in combat at first hand. Goldwyn asked Kantor to write a screenplay for a planned movie on the veterans returning home. According to the story, Kantor had driven up to a Tennessee mountain retreat to work on the screenplay. He took his typewriter and a case of bourbon. He emerged some months later with empty bottles and "Glory for Me," written in the form of a narrative poem, not a screenplay. Goldwyn was not pleased, and he eventually gave Kantor's poem to Robert Sherwood to reshape for the screen. When the film finally appeared, Kantor was given a minimum of credit. Sherwood -- deservedly -- won the Oscar for Best Writing. If you like the movie, you will be richly rewarded by reading the poem. Kantor's and Sherwood's treatments of the same characters and the same American town ("Boone City") shows two gifted men working the same basic story in different literary forms, poem and screenplay. Reading the book allows one to discover how, here and there, they made some different creative choices. In Kantor's poem, Homer's disability is spasticity, which makes for some painful reading. Sherwood gave Homer a physical disability -- loss of hands and the use of prosthetic hooks. Sherwood's choice was a wise one for the moviegoing public, and few are the hearts not moved by Harold Russell's ortrayal of Homer in the film. But Kantor's portrayal of Homer and his girl Wilma are equally moving, perhaps because the poem gave more room for character development. When Frederic March played Al Stephenson -- the older sergeant returning to his prewar life as a banker at the Cornbelt Trust Company -- he masterfully compressed much of Kantor's material in eloquent but short scenes. In Kantor's fuller telling of the story, Al was the son of a pioneer banker who had made loans to farmers a generation earlier. The poem has more social and historical texture. In Kantor's poem, Homer's uncle Butch (Hoagy Carmichael's character in the movie) provides a vehicle to explore class feelings in pre- and post-war America. This was one of Kantor's themes that Sherwood could not fit into the film. Similarly, Kantor told his readers more about Novak (the veteran asking for a loan to open a nursery) and his experiences as a Seabee in the Pacific. Kantor's use of lilacs as a metaphor for peace and normality could not be picked up in the film. On the other hand, Sherwood changed the story line to say more about wartime marriages. Marie (Virginia Mayo in the film) proves shallow and unfaithful when Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) returns home. The movie's title, not found in Kantor's poem, came from a scene when the two argued. The book was published in January, 1945, months before the war ended. Kantor well anticipated the major contours of veteran adjustment, but there was more to his foresight. On the final page of the poem he showed real prescience when he alluded to the unresolved social tensions that all Americans, not just the veterans, would confront in the coming years. Reading habits have changed in the six decades since the book was published, and readers may now find that it takes some pages to adjust to the poetic form. Kantor's poetic shortcomings earned some dismissive reviews. Poems similar in form by Kantor's contemporaries like Stephen Vincent Benet are now dismissed as middlebrow when they are read at all. I am confident, though, that with each page the reader will find new lines and new scenes to savor and treasure. "The Best Years of Our Lives" is a truly great American movie. "Glory for Me" deserves equal recognition. Kantor recognized the coming drama of the returning veterans. He dignified their individual struggles in a literary form that recalled the great epics and placed the American veterans among mankind's heroes. He gave an immortal film -- a film that affected tens of millions -- its basic structure, plot, characters, tone, and feeling. Not a bad result for a few months of solitude with a case of bourbon. -30-

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of my All-time Favorites
*by J***E on January 7, 2026*

This is one of my all-time favorite movies & still relevant today. I love the authenticity & what it has to say about life, love and the challenges facing veterans.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Have Things Really Changed So Much?
*by C***O on December 19, 2010*

I absolutely LOVE this film! My father is a WWII veteran. I think of him and his peers when I view this movie. So many aspects of coming home from war are touched upon in this film. When I see it, I wonder sometimes if we have really changed so much. Here is why I say this...The soldier longs for home, for his family, for his girl. And then when the day finally arrives that he is actually going home, the uncertainty sets in. I know I've changed. Will my family understand this? What will they think of me? Will I be able to relate to them? Or the soldier who suffered the loss of his hands. How will people treat me? Will I be able to function as a man and provide for my family? Or will people feel sorry for me/pity me? The soldier who comes home only to find that his wife has moved on. That she is selfish, only thinking of herself and the next good time. The realization that the relationship was superficial from the beginning. That just when he needs support the most, it is not there. As well, the family who waits for the returning soldier. They have been dreaming of this day for a long time. But when he finally is home, he is somewhat like a stranger. They know that he has been through experiences that they will never fully understand. The wife's desire for things to "get back to normal." The reality that things can and never will completely be the same. The returning father who tries to relate to his children. He remembers as they were when he left, but they have grown up now. They can't fully relate to what their father has been through. Then there is the "cluelessness" of the folks in the community who wonder where the soldier has been all this time. They have no understanding of what the soldier has been through or how they have changed...nor do they want to hear much about it. The performances in this film are stellar and the musical soundtrack really captures the heart of the film. One of the most telling scenes is when Dana Andrews (who played a former tail gunner) climbs into a junked bomber parked in a field. As he looks out the dirty windshield with the sweat running down his face, he starts to imagine, once again, that he is in the heat of battle. The music reaches a crescendo that transports us into the battle with the loud and unwavering hum of the bombers as they enter a dangerous confrontation with the enemy. The fact that an actual veteran, played by Harold Russell, with a real disability is in the movie helps make it the classic that is truly is. He was basically untrained as an actor, which contributes to the everyman appeal of this film. You couldn't ask for a better cast in this film, Frederic March, Myrna Loy, Virginia Mayo, Teresa Wright, Cathy O'Donnell, Dana Andrews, and Harold Russell. I hope that MGM, or whoever the distributor is, will come out with a fully restored version and a documentary that talks about the making of and legacy of this wonderful film.

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*Last updated: 2026-01-29*