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Jul 27, 2014Old_Toto rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Although old_toto has seen this movie many times, each time is with more personal knowledge and experience, making the movie even better. Several male relatives and a female family-friend nurse returning from the WWII Pacific Theater suffered from incredible nightmares. Old_toto was warned not to get near them when they were sleeping out of concern for his safety when Grandma caught him watching them sleep. One relative was in a Veterans Hospital for two years before being released as an outpatient for several years more. Depression prevailed in spite of the fact that our family did everything possible to help them. Jobs, housing, alcohol abuse, divorce and all the other factors shown in this movie are presented as it really was. Additionally, this film boldly educated the general public regarding "minding our own business" as we all wanted to overwhelm our Veterans with our misguided curiosity, and unsolicited nurturing along with a universal feeling of helplessness regarding our desire to help make them "whole" again. Who can see a suffering being and not feel pity? The studio took a chance with presenting such story lines as "the hooks" which made widespread appearances in the late 1940s throughout America. Lines of people circled the theaters everywhere as word-of-mouth spread about this movie. It was and is a good national catharsis as old_toto witnessed many movie goers weeping throughout much of the movie but afterwards were feeling "better" for having seen it.