Editing The Best Years of Our Lives (section)

===Critical response===
Upon its release, ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' received extremely positive reviews from critics. Shortly after its premiere at the [[Astor Theatre (New York City)|Astor Theater, New York]], [[Bosley Crowther]], film critic for ''[[The New York Times]]'', hailed the film as a masterpiece. He wrote,
{{blockquote|It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment, but as food for quiet and humanizing thought... In working out their solutions, Mr. Sherwood and Mr. Wyler have achieved some of the most beautiful and inspiring demonstrations of human fortitude that we have had in films." He also said the [[ensemble cast]]ing gave the "'best' performance in this best film this year from Hollywood".<ref>Crowther, Bosley. [http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?res=EE05E7DF1739E561BC4A51DFB767838D659EDE ''The Best Years of our Lives''.] ''[[The New York Times]]'', November 22, 1946. Retrieved: April 26, 2007.</ref>}}

[[File:Best Years of Our Lives 01 bar.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Deep focus framing.|Director Wyler and cinematographer Toland used deep focus to keep Fred visible in the phone booth in the far background of the frame.]]
French film critic [[André Bazin]] used examples of Toland's and Wyler's deep-focus visual style to illuminate his theory of realism in film{{--}}going into detail about the scene in which Fred uses the phone booth in the far background while Homer and Butch play piano in the foreground. Bazin explains how deep focus functions in this scene:
{{blockquote|The action in the foreground is secondary, although interesting and peculiar enough to require our keen attention since it occupies a privileged place and surface on the screen. Paradoxically, the true action, the one that constitutes at this precise moment a turning point in the story, develops almost clandestinely in a tiny rectangle at the back of the room{{--}}in the left corner of the screen.... Thus the viewer is induced actively to participate in the drama planned by the director.<ref name="Bazin">{{Cite book |last=Bazin |first=André |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jrQmDSH1omEC&q=%2522andre+bazin%2522+%2522best+years+of+our+lives%2522&pg=PA11 |title=Bazin at Work: Major Essays & Reviews from the Forties & Fifties |publisher=Routledge |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-415-90018-8 |editor-last=Cardullo |editor-first=Bert |location=New York |pages=14–15 |language=en |chapter=William Wyler, or the Jansenist of Directing}}</ref>}}

Professor and author Gabriel Miller discusses briefly the use of deep-focus in both the bar scene and the wedding scene at the end of the picture in an article written for the National Film Preservation Board.<ref>Gabriel Miller, ''The Best Years of Our Lives'', https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/best_years.pdf Accessed 11/14/2022</ref> From ''[[The Nation (magazine)| The Nation]]'' in 1946, critic [[James Agee]] wrote, "In fact, it would be possible, I don't doubt, to call the whole picture just one long pious piece of deceit and self-deceit, embarrassed by hot flashes of talent, conscience, truthfulness, and dignity. And it is anyhow more than possible, it is unhappily obligatory, to observe that a good deal which might have been very fine, even great, and which is handled mainly by people who could have done, and done perfectly, all the best that could have been developed out of the idea, is here either murdered in its cradle or reduced to manageable good citizenship in the early stages of grade school. Yet I feel a hundred times more liking and admiration for the film than distaste or disappointment."<ref>Agee, James - ''Agee on Film Vol.1'' © 1958 by The James Agee Trust.</ref>

Several decades later, film critic [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] offered tempered praise: "I would concede that ''Best Years'' is decent and humane... acutely observed, despite being so meticulous a package. It would have taken uncommon genius and daring at that time to sneak a view of an untidy or unresolved America past Goldwyn or the public."<ref>Thomson, 2002, p. 949. 4th Edition; the first edition was published in 1975. See {{cite book |title=A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema |last=Thomson |first=David |publisher=Secker & Warburg |location=London |date=1975 |oclc=1959828}}</ref> [[Pauline Kael]] wrote, "Despite its seven Academy Awards, it's not a great picture; it's too schematic and it drags on after you get the points. However, episodes and details stand out and help to compensate for the soggy plot strands and there's something absorbing about the banality of its large-scale good intentions; it's compulsively watchable."<ref>Kael, Pauline - ''5001 Nights at the Movies'' 1991 ISBN 0-8050-1366-0</ref>

''The Best Years of Our Lives'' has a 97% "Fresh" rating at [[Rotten Tomatoes]], with an average rating of 8.9/10, based on 97 reviews. The critical consensus states: "An engrossing look at the triumphs and travails of war veterans, ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' is concerned specifically with the aftermath of World War II, but its messages speak to the overall American experience."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Best Years of Our Lives |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/best_years_of_our_lives |access-date=2023-08-13 |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media]] |language=en}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film holds a weighted average score of 93 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Best Years of Our Lives Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-best-years-of-our-lives |access-date=August 13, 2023 |website=[[Metacritic]] |publisher=[[Fandom, Inc.]]}}</ref>

''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' film critic [[Roger Ebert]] put the film on his "Great Movies" list in 2007, calling it "... modern, lean, and honest".<ref>Ebert, Roger. [https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-best-years-of-our-lives-1946 "The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)."] ''Chicago Sun Times'', December 29, 2007. Retrieved: May 1, 2021.</ref>
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