The Best Years of our Lives - movie review

I caught this 1946 movie late at night and kept watching it. The story of three very different WWII veterans trying to adjust to civilian life is skillfully intertwined: a banker, alienated from his life and family; a young sailor whom the war gave hooks for hands, humiliated and ashamed; and a regular Joe who can't support his wife's lavish lifestyle with his crummy job. The movie is unusual for its time: believable dialogue and characters, a lack of moralism or sentimentality, and a refusal to yield to the cheerful, propagandistic optimism of its day make it a non-controversial classic.