Editing The Best Years of Our Lives (section)

==Production==
[[Samuel Goldwyn]] was inspired to produce a film about veterans after reading an August 7, 1944, article in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' about the difficulties experienced by men returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former [[war correspondent]] [[MacKinlay Kantor]] to write a screenplay. His work was first published as a novella, ''Glory for Me'', which Kantor wrote in [[blank verse]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Kantor|first=MacKinlay|title=Glory for Me|date=1945|publisher=Coward-McCann|oclc=773996}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Easton|first=Carol|title=The Search for Sam Goldwyn|date=2014|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|others=Carl Rollyson (contributor)|isbn=978-1-62674-132-4|chapter=The Best Years|quote=Andrews looked at the onionskin pages and asked, 'Mac, why did you write this in blank verse?' 'Dana', said Kantor with a wry smile, 'I can't afford to write in blank verse, because nobody buys anything written in blank verse. But when Sam asked me to write this story, he didn't tell me not to write it in blank verse!'|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AfkaBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT158}}</ref><ref name="Orriss 1984, p. 119">Orriss 1984, p. 119.</ref><ref name="emanuellevy.com">{{cite web|last=Levy|first=Emanuel|author-link=Emanuel Levy|date=April 4, 2015|title=Oscar History: Best Picture–Best Years of Our Lives (1946)|url=http://emanuellevy.com/review/oscar-history-best-picture-best-years-of-our-lives-1946/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118050301/http://emanuellevy.com/review/oscar-history-best-picture-best-years-of-our-lives-1946/|archive-date=January 18, 2017|access-date=2017-01-16|work=Emanuel Levy: Cinema 24/7|format=review|df=mdy-all}}</ref> [[Robert E. Sherwood]] then adapted the novella as a screenplay.<ref name="emanuellevy.com" />

Director Wyler had flown combat missions over Europe in filming ''[[Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress|Memphis Belle]]'' (1944), and worked hard to get accurate depictions of the combat veterans he had encountered. Wyler changed the original casting, which had featured a veteran suffering from [[post-traumatic stress disorder]], and sought out Harold Russell, a non-actor, to take on the exacting role of Homer Parrish.<ref name="Orriss p. 121" />

For ''The Best Years of Our Lives'', he asked the principal actors to purchase their own clothes, in order to connect with daily life and produce an authentic feeling. Other Wyler touches included constructing life-size sets, which went against the standard larger sets that were more suited to camera positions. The impact for the audience was immediate, as each scene played out in a realistic, natural way.<ref name="Orriss p. 121">Orriss 1984, p. 121.</ref>

Recounting the interrelated story of three veterans right after the end of [[World War II]], ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' began filming just over seven months after the war's end, starting on April 15, 1946, at a variety of locations, including the [[Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden]], [[Ontario International Airport]] in [[Ontario, California]], Raleigh Studios in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], and the Samuel Goldwyn/Warner Hollywood Studios.<ref name="Orriss p. 121" />

In ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' [[cinematographer]] [[Gregg Toland]] used [[deep focus]] photography, in which objects both close to and distant from the camera are in sharp [[Focus (optics)|focus]].<ref name=Dave_Kehr>Kehr, Dave. [https://chicagoreader.com/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives/ "'The Best Years of Our Lives'."] ''[[The Chicago Reader]]''. Retrieved: November 6, 2022.</ref> For the passage of Fred Derry's reliving a combat mission while sitting in the remains of a former bomber, Wyler used "zoom" effects to simulate Derry's subjective state.<ref>Orriss 1984, pp. 121–122.</ref>

The fictional Boone City was patterned after [[Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]].<ref name="Orriss 1984, p. 119" /> The "Jackson High" football stadium seen early in aerial footage of the bomber flying over the Boone City is [[Corcoran Stadium]] located at Xavier University in Cincinnati. A few seconds later Walnut Hills High School with its dome and football field can be seen along with the downtown Cincinnati skyline ([[Carew Tower]] and [[Fourth and Vine Tower]]) in the background.<ref>[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/68507/the-best-years-of-our-lives#trivia "Trivia: 'The Best Years of Our Lives'."] ''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: November 6, 2022.</ref>

After the war, the combat aircraft featured in the film were being destroyed and disassembled for reuse as scrap material. The scene of Derry's walking among aircraft ruins was filmed at the [[Ontario Air National Guard Station|Ontario Army Air Field]] in Ontario, California. The former training facility had been converted into a scrap yard, housing nearly 2,000 former combat aircraft in various states of disassembly and reclamation.<ref name="Orriss p. 121" />