1946 singlehandedly restores my faith in classic movies!!
:The Best Years of Our Lives:
This Academy Award winning movie followed the lives of three men returning from service in WW II to their home town, Boon City, and the hardships they faced: alcoholism, broken marriages, fitting in with significant physical disabilities (one man had lost both his hands), finding meaningful work after responsible jobs in the military that didn’t translate to civilian life, PTSD.
Each man has both his demons and strong rays of sunshine and support ready and able to help see him through the rough spots. In a storyline perhaps more hopeful than real life, each man, in the end, looks toward the good, takes advantage of the good people offering to stand by them and is on a path to life getting better by the end of the film.
There was a lot of real-life stuff dealt with.
:It’s a Wonderful Life:
The American Film Institute (AFI) named It’s a Wonderful Life the 20th greatest film of all time in their 2007 list and filmsite.org reports that it gives The Best Years of Our Lives a run for the Oscar. I have to agree. I’ve never watched this movie outside of the Christmas season so I’m not sure if it’s as affecting in July but it never fails to make me cry, literally. Jimmy Stewart plays the man we all wish we had as a friend and the type of person we all wish we could be – someone who comes to term with the facts of their lives and realizes that while their dreams might not have come true, their life has true meaning and they have made a real and unmistakable difference in their communities, to their families, and to a wide pool of business and social acquaintances.
As far as “would I watch it again” in fact I watch it just about every other Christmas season (alternately with the Jean Luc Picard version of “A Christmas Carol”). I owned a copy on VHS but my VHS player has died so I’ll probably end up buying a DVD version at some point in the future.
:Notorious:
Notorious is another movie I own a copy of, and have for decades, although it had been a long time since I’d seen it. This is the first year for me where filmsite.org suggested two alternatives and I’m all “Yes! Yes!”
Notorious is a sweeping espionage romance with Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claud Raines. The romance between Grant and Bergman is dark and gritty and extremely successful. It doesn’t pull on your heart strings quite as deeply as Gone With the Wind but it is still masterful, without the residual racist guilt you get from watching Gone With the Wind. I found the love story much more compelling than Casablanca.
In Notorious, the daughter of a convicted Nazi (Bergman) is turned into an American spy and goes undercover in the household of one of her father’s associates (Raines) where her life is shortly in danger. Spy handler Grant manages both her career and his love for her.
The acting was top notch with all three stars delivering wonderful performances.
One thing I found particularly interesting was how a woman’s (Bergman) substance abuse was treated so openly. She was a raging alcoholic and openly drunk in some scenes. I guess we have The Lost Weekend to thank in part.
Notorious is one of Hitchcock’s best and I highly recommend seeing it. As far as stacking it up against Its a Wonderful Life I just have to go with Wonderful Life because for me it has greater staying power and calls for a more emotional reaction over-all even though Notorious has a more compelling romance. But it’s a hard call.
When stacking these two up against Years I have to go with Notorious over Years. As touching as Years was, the dramatic romance and suspense of Notorious was more compelling to me. So…
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Notorious
- The Best Years of Our Lives
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