Event Film and Video Screenings Live! At The Library: "The Making of The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946)

Alison Macor, author of "Making The Best Years of Our Lives: The Hollywood Classic That Inspired a Nation", will introduce a screening of the 1946 Academy Award-winning masterpiece included among the first 25 films named to the Library’s National Film Registry.

Macor will discuss the film’s tumultuous journey from script to screen against the backdrop of a nation struggling to deal with its walking wounded. An award-winning author and former film professor, Macor received a Public Scholars grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write "Making Best Years", which "Cineaste" recently praised as giving “the certified masterpiece…the treatment it deserves—intelligent, sensitive, and respectful.” 

This 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 shared the screen with movie stars Fredric March and Dana Andrews, the film provided a surprising second act. 

This event is free, but free-timed entry passes are required to enter the Library of Congress. Click the "Get Tickets" link above and select a timed-entry pass for your preferred entry time.