Description
Book Synopsis2023 Wall Award Finalist, Theatre Library Association
How a Hollywood gem transformed the national discourse on post-traumatic stress disorder.
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 Y
