"William Wyler's deep-focus ode to the returning veterans of World War II is now a canonized collective memory of the postwar social upheaval and healing process, in which nice girls and good wives salved the emotional and physical wounds of their men in a classless America" (Andrew Sarris and Tom Allen, Village Voice). Nevertheless, the now-clichéd adage that you can't go home again is still fresh in this film that questions rapidly changing American values as much as it dramatizes three military men's alienation. Of the veterans-Frederic March, as a banker who can no longer bank on anything; Dana Andrews, whose bride-on-ice is a stranger to him; and Harold Russell, whose Homer returns to his fiancée having lost both his hands-Homer's anguish would seem to be the greatest. But as Lauri Klobus writes in Disability Drama in Television and Film, "Despite Homer's difficulties in adjusting to civilian life and himself, the overall impression left by this movie was that Homer was able. He used his hooks for such fine tasks as lighting cigarettes, ripping a pin off another man's lapel...even putting a wedding ring on Wilma's finger. His limitations were (in) how others reacted to him and how he himself was learning to assimilate the difficulties into his life...One poignant scene stood out. Homer, after scaring (the little girl) Louella, tiptoed into her bedroom late that night. He silently and gently drew the covers up over her in a rarely seen illustration of tenderness associated with a person utilizing a prostheses. Hooks-as-weapons are much more prevalent." This was the first film to feature a disabled actor in a major role (Russell, a veteran who lost his hands during the war, won an Oscar as well as a special Award for bringing hope to other veterans). It was also the first to deal in a straightforward manner with the fears of nondisabled people regarding intimacy with those who are disabled, and vice-versa.