CLOSE ANALYSIS OF BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

Watch Best Years of Our Lives  (1946) and consider a few possible good candidates for scene or sequence analysis.
Genre cannot be reduced to individual parts or units of meaning. And yet, the way that genre operates in general is tied to the look and feeling of a film’s cinematography, acting style, lines of dialogue, lighting, and sound. So in this exercise the goal is to break a scene down into its most basic elements and then write about how those elements operate in the service of the larger purpose of the social problem film.
Begin by stating clearly and in very direct terms what aspects of the scene are most closely connected to the impression of this genre. You will find this easier to do if you reach for something that will be supported by some of the evidence that you are seeing. It should not require any plot summary or any description that takes you away from the scene. It needs to address the question: what are the components of this scene that are most closely tied to the film’s adherence to or departure from the genre? What do you see or hear that lends connection to the viewer’s understanding of this film’s supposed social commentary or close relationship to a real social issue? What, we want to know, is connecting STYLE to PURPOSE?