Screening & Live Event | The Best Years of Our Lives: Engineering the Body

Dir. William Wyler. 1946, 170 mins. DCP. With Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Teresa Wright, Dana Andrews, Virginia Mayo, Harold Russell, Hoagy Carmichael. Three veterans struggle to readjust to their home lives after World War II. The biggest struggle comes for Homer (played by real-life veteran Harold Russell), who has lost both hands in combat and must learn to adapt to prosthetic hooks. Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor, William Wyler’s production is one of the most moving of all classic Hollywood films. The screening will be followed by a conversation about engineering prosthetics and the power and limitations of non-normative bodies.

With historian David Serlin and assistive technology expert Anita Perr in conversation.

Part of Science on Screen.