1. The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)
Interestingly, the director of this film, William Wyler, did both the worst movie on this list, as well as the best. Starring Fredric March, Dana Andrews, and Harold Russell, The Best Years of Our Lives is about three veterans returning from World War II and suffering from then undiagnosed P.T.S.D. The Deer Hunter is kind of like this, too, but that movie’s much less subtle, and the subtlety is what makes this movie a masterpiece.
We get a sense that these are changed men, but they’re struggling to understand that it’s them who’ve changed and not the world itself. It’s powerful stuff, and it even beat It’s a Wonderful Life, which I also love, but not as much as this heavy drama.
