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Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War
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Nominee for Readers' Favorite History & Biography (2014)In Pictures at a Revolution, Mark Harris turned the story of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967 into a landmark work of cultural history, a book about the transformation of an art form and the larger social shift it signified. In Five Came Back, he achieves something larger and even more remarkable, giving us the untold story of how Hollywood changed World War II, and how World War II changed Hollywood, through the prism of five film directors caught up in the war: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. It was the best of times and the worst of times for Hollywood before the war. The box office was booming, and the studios’ control of talent and distribution was as airtight as could be hoped. But the industry’s relationship with Washington was decidedly uneasy—hearings and investigations into allegations of corruption and racketeering were multiplying, and hanging in the air was the insinuation that the business was too foreign, too Jewish, too un-American” in its values and causes. Could an industry this powerful in shaping America’s mind-set really be left in the hands of this crew? Following Pearl Harbor, Hollywood had the chance to prove its critics wrong and did so with vigor, turning its talents and its business over to the war effort to an unprecedented extent. No industry professionals played a bigger role in the war than America’s most legendary directors: Ford, Wyler, Huston, Capra, and Stevens. Between them they were on the scene of almost every major moment of America’s war, and in every branch of service—army, navy, and air force; Atlantic and Pacific; from Midway to North Africa; from Normandy to the fall of Paris and the liberation of the Nazi death camps; to the shaping of the message out of Washington, D.C. As it did for so many others, World War II divided the lives of these men into before and after, to an extent that has not been adequately understood. In a larger sense—even less well understood—the war divided the history of Hollywood into before and after as well. Harris reckons with that transformation on a human level—through five unforgettable lives—and on the level of the industry and the country as a whole. Like these five men, Hollywood too, and indeed all of America, came back from the war having grown up more than a little.
511 pages, Hardcover
First published February 20, 2014
269 people are currently reading
5424 people want to read
About the author
Mark Harris
7 books287 followersMark Harris’s first book, Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, was published this year. He writes the “Final Cut” column for Entertainment Weekly and has also written about pop culture for many other publications, most recently The New York Times, Details, GQ, Portfolio, The Washington Post, Slate, The Guardian, and The Observer Film Quarterly. A graduate of Yale University, he lives in New York City with his husband, Tony Kushner.
By the way: He is not the author of Grave Matters. That's a very good book by a different Mark Harris.
By the way: He is not the author of Grave Matters. That's a very good book by a different Mark Harris.
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November 14, 2024
“Over the next four years, the war would give each man exactly what he wanted, but those wishes would come true at a cost greater than any of them could have imagined. They would go to London and France, to the Pacific theater and the North African front, to ruined Italian cities and German death camps; they would film the war from land, sea, and air in ways that shaped, then and for generations after, America’s perception of what it looked and sounded like to fight for the fate of the free world. They would honor their country, risk their lives, and create a new visual vocabulary for fictional and factual war movies; some of them would also blur the lines between the two, compromising themselves in ways they would spend the rest of their days trying to understand, or justify, or forget. By the time they came home, the idea they had once held that the war would be an adventure lingered only as a distant memory of their guileless incomprehension. They returned to Hollywood changed forever as men and as filmmakers…”
- Mark Harris, Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War
John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra are among the most famous, successful, and honored directors in Hollywood history. Even if their names are only vaguely familiar – if you do not, like me, spend hours watching Turner Classic Movies – you have likely seen their films, many of which have achieved cinematic immortality.
For example, Ford won a total of six Academy awards, and shaped our vision of America’s continental expansion with his surprisingly complex westerns. Stevens gave us epics with an edge, such as Shane, Giant, and A Place in the Sun. When not engaged in tumultuous affairs, Huston wrote, directed, and acted, creating The Treasure of the Sierra Madre among other classics. He also fathered Anjelica and Danny, successful actors in their own right. Wyler won three Academy Awards for directing, and was nominated twelve times in total. He stands out for his success on canvases as varied as Roman Holiday, Ben Hur, Friendly Persuasion, and The Liberation of L.B. Jones. Finally, Capra represented America itself, an immigrant who absorbed his adopted country, and then gave it life on film in iconographic works such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Though they all worked in the same general period, in terms of theme, style, tone, and demeanor, these men were incredibly different as artists. However, they all shared one thing in common. When the United States entered the Second World War, they offered their unique services to the military.
That is the tale told in Mark Harris’s engrossing, unputdownable Five Came Back.
***
The degree of difficulty in Five Came Back is exceptionally high. It is hard enough to follow one person’s journey, much less five. The surprise is not that Harris succeeds, but that he seems to do so effortlessly. From first page to last, he expertly navigates his way through this material, segueing between multiple storylines without any trace of confusion.
As in the great drama of the Greeks, Harris chooses a three-act structure for Five Came Back. The first section takes place prior to Pearl Harbor, and introduces us to the five protagonists, working at a time in which Hollywood, like much of America, maintained an isolationist stance, even as large segments of the global population warred with each other. In the second, Harris deals with the aftermath of America’s forced entry into the conflict, which entailed an unprecedented mobilization of manpower and industry. In the patriotic rush to help, Ford, Stevens, Huston, Wyler, and Capra all ended up in uniform, though each trod a different path. The third and final section takes us to the darkest days of the war – especially the discovery of Germany’s concentration camps – and describes how the directors’ wartime service affected their postwar lives.
***
One of the advantages Harris has – one that he utilizes well – is that the five lives he is juggling are each striking in their own ways. For instance, you have the curmudgeonly Ford, desperately anxious to be recognized for his contributions, without seeming to be desperate. Then there is Huston, who forced himself to accompany men into combat, despite his overwhelming fears. The personalities of each man – the good, the bad, and the complicated – are wonderfully delineated.
Harris also emphasizes the diversity in each man’s arc. Wyler did his best work in the air, flying on five bombing missions to capture aerial footage that is – to this very day – shockingly visceral. Stevens crossed Europe with the armies of liberation following D-Day; his cameras captured Dachau, and his footage later became evidentiary exhibits at the Nuremberg Tribunal. Meanwhile, Capra remained stateside, working on the now-famous Why We Fight series, which took so long to produce that it remained uncompleted at war’s end.
To keep the big picture in focus, each chapter is date stamped, and gives the locations where events take place. Thus, even with action unfolding all over the earth, sometimes simultaneously, Harris maintains narrative cohesion.
***
Five Came Back obviously isn’t the story of World War II, but a World War II story. That said, it fascinates because it views the war from an unusual angle, through specific eyes.
In following Capra’s work on Why We Fight – which included a documentary on black soldiers – we are given exposure to the military’s institutional racism. When recounting Ford’s efforts to film the Normandy landings, we discover that much of the surviving footage couldn’t be aired, because it was too graphic.
The evolution of Hollywood is also captivating. Having been raised on pseudo-propaganda films like Wake Island and Bataan, I had always assumed that the film industry was fully on board with working for the United States Government. That assumption turned out to be quite wrong, and by 1944 – with millions being gassed, with cities burning – Hollywood turned away from battle-centric movies, catering to an audience privileged enough to be exhausted by war news.
Harris does not glorify his subject, or heroize his subjects. He devotes a lot of space to discussing the use of recreations in purportedly nonfictional documentaries. Harris further raises questions – ultimately unanswerable – about the ethical responsibilities of artists using their talents for what amounts to agitprop.
All of this is rather heavy, and in general, Five Came Back is pretty serious minded. However, there are also moments of levity. John Ford, for example, never made a movie that I couldn’t show to a six-year-old. During the war, though, he put together a documentary for new soldiers called Sex Hygiene, which was “replete with frontal nudity and excruciating closeups of penile chancroids.” In the meantime, Capra, Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, and Chuck Jones teamed up to make a series of raunchy, humorous – and classified – training cartoons, featuring the bumbling “Private Snafu.”
***
Of note, much of the output created by Ford, Stevens, Wyler, Huston, and Capra are easily accessible online. If you read this, I highly recommend watching the work-product as well. Ford’s Battle of Midway, Wyler’s Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress, and Stevens’s D-Day to Berlin, are all powerful pieces, and are enriched by the backstories Harris provides.
***
Celebrity has its privileges. None of these five directors had to go to war. They were too old or physically unfit. Moreover, their studio bosses did not want to release them from their contracts. Many other directors and actors remained in their day jobs, and were well-rewarded for staying out of uniform. For every Jimmy Stewart, who flew B-24s in combat, you had a Ronald Reagan making training films in Culver City, or a John Wayne who never joined at all.
Though all shared different motivations for joining the war effort, all five directors made a tangible impact. They did not win the war, or even shorten it. But they helped preserve it, in awful immediacy, for generations to come. As we get further from the Second World War, and as its most important lessons become more easily ignored, this contribution looks ever more important.
- Mark Harris, Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War
John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra are among the most famous, successful, and honored directors in Hollywood history. Even if their names are only vaguely familiar – if you do not, like me, spend hours watching Turner Classic Movies – you have likely seen their films, many of which have achieved cinematic immortality.
For example, Ford won a total of six Academy awards, and shaped our vision of America’s continental expansion with his surprisingly complex westerns. Stevens gave us epics with an edge, such as Shane, Giant, and A Place in the Sun. When not engaged in tumultuous affairs, Huston wrote, directed, and acted, creating The Treasure of the Sierra Madre among other classics. He also fathered Anjelica and Danny, successful actors in their own right. Wyler won three Academy Awards for directing, and was nominated twelve times in total. He stands out for his success on canvases as varied as Roman Holiday, Ben Hur, Friendly Persuasion, and The Liberation of L.B. Jones. Finally, Capra represented America itself, an immigrant who absorbed his adopted country, and then gave it life on film in iconographic works such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Though they all worked in the same general period, in terms of theme, style, tone, and demeanor, these men were incredibly different as artists. However, they all shared one thing in common. When the United States entered the Second World War, they offered their unique services to the military.
That is the tale told in Mark Harris’s engrossing, unputdownable Five Came Back.
***
The degree of difficulty in Five Came Back is exceptionally high. It is hard enough to follow one person’s journey, much less five. The surprise is not that Harris succeeds, but that he seems to do so effortlessly. From first page to last, he expertly navigates his way through this material, segueing between multiple storylines without any trace of confusion.
As in the great drama of the Greeks, Harris chooses a three-act structure for Five Came Back. The first section takes place prior to Pearl Harbor, and introduces us to the five protagonists, working at a time in which Hollywood, like much of America, maintained an isolationist stance, even as large segments of the global population warred with each other. In the second, Harris deals with the aftermath of America’s forced entry into the conflict, which entailed an unprecedented mobilization of manpower and industry. In the patriotic rush to help, Ford, Stevens, Huston, Wyler, and Capra all ended up in uniform, though each trod a different path. The third and final section takes us to the darkest days of the war – especially the discovery of Germany’s concentration camps – and describes how the directors’ wartime service affected their postwar lives.
***
One of the advantages Harris has – one that he utilizes well – is that the five lives he is juggling are each striking in their own ways. For instance, you have the curmudgeonly Ford, desperately anxious to be recognized for his contributions, without seeming to be desperate. Then there is Huston, who forced himself to accompany men into combat, despite his overwhelming fears. The personalities of each man – the good, the bad, and the complicated – are wonderfully delineated.
Harris also emphasizes the diversity in each man’s arc. Wyler did his best work in the air, flying on five bombing missions to capture aerial footage that is – to this very day – shockingly visceral. Stevens crossed Europe with the armies of liberation following D-Day; his cameras captured Dachau, and his footage later became evidentiary exhibits at the Nuremberg Tribunal. Meanwhile, Capra remained stateside, working on the now-famous Why We Fight series, which took so long to produce that it remained uncompleted at war’s end.
To keep the big picture in focus, each chapter is date stamped, and gives the locations where events take place. Thus, even with action unfolding all over the earth, sometimes simultaneously, Harris maintains narrative cohesion.
***
Five Came Back obviously isn’t the story of World War II, but a World War II story. That said, it fascinates because it views the war from an unusual angle, through specific eyes.
In following Capra’s work on Why We Fight – which included a documentary on black soldiers – we are given exposure to the military’s institutional racism. When recounting Ford’s efforts to film the Normandy landings, we discover that much of the surviving footage couldn’t be aired, because it was too graphic.
The evolution of Hollywood is also captivating. Having been raised on pseudo-propaganda films like Wake Island and Bataan, I had always assumed that the film industry was fully on board with working for the United States Government. That assumption turned out to be quite wrong, and by 1944 – with millions being gassed, with cities burning – Hollywood turned away from battle-centric movies, catering to an audience privileged enough to be exhausted by war news.
Harris does not glorify his subject, or heroize his subjects. He devotes a lot of space to discussing the use of recreations in purportedly nonfictional documentaries. Harris further raises questions – ultimately unanswerable – about the ethical responsibilities of artists using their talents for what amounts to agitprop.
All of this is rather heavy, and in general, Five Came Back is pretty serious minded. However, there are also moments of levity. John Ford, for example, never made a movie that I couldn’t show to a six-year-old. During the war, though, he put together a documentary for new soldiers called Sex Hygiene, which was “replete with frontal nudity and excruciating closeups of penile chancroids.” In the meantime, Capra, Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, and Chuck Jones teamed up to make a series of raunchy, humorous – and classified – training cartoons, featuring the bumbling “Private Snafu.”
***
Of note, much of the output created by Ford, Stevens, Wyler, Huston, and Capra are easily accessible online. If you read this, I highly recommend watching the work-product as well. Ford’s Battle of Midway, Wyler’s Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress, and Stevens’s D-Day to Berlin, are all powerful pieces, and are enriched by the backstories Harris provides.
***
Celebrity has its privileges. None of these five directors had to go to war. They were too old or physically unfit. Moreover, their studio bosses did not want to release them from their contracts. Many other directors and actors remained in their day jobs, and were well-rewarded for staying out of uniform. For every Jimmy Stewart, who flew B-24s in combat, you had a Ronald Reagan making training films in Culver City, or a John Wayne who never joined at all.
Though all shared different motivations for joining the war effort, all five directors made a tangible impact. They did not win the war, or even shorten it. But they helped preserve it, in awful immediacy, for generations to come. As we get further from the Second World War, and as its most important lessons become more easily ignored, this contribution looks ever more important.
April 29, 2021
Five Hollywood directors volunteered for active duty after Pearl Harbor. They ranged in age from mid-thirties to late forties and had families to support. They were in no danger of being drafted at their age, and taking an indefinite leave from their careers was risky. They took huge cuts in pay to join up. They all accepted commissions and spent the war doing what they did best -- making movies.
I came into Five Came Back with a pretty sketchy idea of who these five directors were (Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, William Wyler, George Stevens). I remembered Capra did It's a Wonderful Life and John Ford did westerns, or was that John Huston? So, to be honest, I was ready to bail out if it turned out to be for insiders.
Once I started the book though, I was hooked. Mark Harris did a tremendous amount of research to track down the stories of the five. There's a fair amount of personal information and some gossipy bits, but mostly it's the story of the movies they made while they were in uniform. Since they were working for Uncle Sam and not for a movie studio or a news outlet, most of what they did was propaganda and training films. But because these were talented and creative men, they didn't churn out standard issue films.
While all the stories are fascinating, that of George Stevens is the most gripping. He was with the first Allied unit that entered the Dachau concentration camp after the Germans had fled. No one was prepared for the horror. And as an army unit, they were unable to do much right away for the many inmates who had survived to that point. Stevens filmed as much as he could, and his film would be used as evidence during the Nuremburg Trials. The experience shattered him though, and it took years for him to recover enough to make movies again.
An interesting theme that runs throughout is that of the nature of propaganda. All the directors were tasked to make propaganda films, and this was not considered a devious or dishonest thing to do. It was considered a necessary morale booster for both the military and civilian populations. Some of the directors wanted to keep the films as honest as possible, but others (especially Capra) had no qualms about "recreating" events or enhancing them for effect.
When the war was over and the directors resumed their Hollywood careers, they found that they had a hard time getting back into the swing. Time hadn't stopped while they were away and those directors and actors who had not left Hollywood had profited nicely. JohnHuston Ford never forgave John Wayne for staying out of the army while making a lucrative career of playing war heroes.
A well-researched and very well-written account of an unusual period in movie history.
I came into Five Came Back with a pretty sketchy idea of who these five directors were (Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, William Wyler, George Stevens). I remembered Capra did It's a Wonderful Life and John Ford did westerns, or was that John Huston? So, to be honest, I was ready to bail out if it turned out to be for insiders.
Once I started the book though, I was hooked. Mark Harris did a tremendous amount of research to track down the stories of the five. There's a fair amount of personal information and some gossipy bits, but mostly it's the story of the movies they made while they were in uniform. Since they were working for Uncle Sam and not for a movie studio or a news outlet, most of what they did was propaganda and training films. But because these were talented and creative men, they didn't churn out standard issue films.
While all the stories are fascinating, that of George Stevens is the most gripping. He was with the first Allied unit that entered the Dachau concentration camp after the Germans had fled. No one was prepared for the horror. And as an army unit, they were unable to do much right away for the many inmates who had survived to that point. Stevens filmed as much as he could, and his film would be used as evidence during the Nuremburg Trials. The experience shattered him though, and it took years for him to recover enough to make movies again.
An interesting theme that runs throughout is that of the nature of propaganda. All the directors were tasked to make propaganda films, and this was not considered a devious or dishonest thing to do. It was considered a necessary morale booster for both the military and civilian populations. Some of the directors wanted to keep the films as honest as possible, but others (especially Capra) had no qualms about "recreating" events or enhancing them for effect.
When the war was over and the directors resumed their Hollywood careers, they found that they had a hard time getting back into the swing. Time hadn't stopped while they were away and those directors and actors who had not left Hollywood had profited nicely. John
A well-researched and very well-written account of an unusual period in movie history.
May 16, 2018
Very well reported with extensive detail. For the first time I am able to figure out how the WWII film units worked (or in some cases didn't).
I do get the feeling that the author doesn't really know which civilian films were great, which were good and which were neither as he relies exclusively on contemporary film reviews to describe the receptions the films received and almost no mention of which films have survived the test of time.
The movies made by these men must be seen to appreciate the book and they are for the most part all available on You Tube:
William Wyler's The Memphis Belle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G28ys...
John Huston's Let There be Light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiD6b...
John Huston's Report from the Aleutians
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ocvt...
John Huston's The Battle of San Pietro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xssaW...
John Ford's The Battle of Midway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW8tQ...
John Ford's December 7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7g1q...
George Stevens' D-Day to Berlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0pua...
Frank Capra's Why We Fight: Prelude to War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm3Gs...
Frank Capra's Know Your Enemy, Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBIfn...
I do get the feeling that the author doesn't really know which civilian films were great, which were good and which were neither as he relies exclusively on contemporary film reviews to describe the receptions the films received and almost no mention of which films have survived the test of time.
The movies made by these men must be seen to appreciate the book and they are for the most part all available on You Tube:
William Wyler's The Memphis Belle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G28ys...
John Huston's Let There be Light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiD6b...
John Huston's Report from the Aleutians
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ocvt...
John Huston's The Battle of San Pietro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xssaW...
John Ford's The Battle of Midway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW8tQ...
John Ford's December 7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7g1q...
George Stevens' D-Day to Berlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0pua...
Frank Capra's Why We Fight: Prelude to War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm3Gs...
Frank Capra's Know Your Enemy, Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBIfn...
February 2, 2014
I’m a big fan of Mark Harris, who writes for Entertainment Weekly and who wrote my favorite book of 2008, PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION: FIVE MOVIES AND THE BIRTH OF NEW HOLLYWOOD. His first book was about the five films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1967 (BONNIE & CLYDE, THE GRADUATE, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, DOCTOR DOLITTLE, and GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER) and how 1967 was the year when Old Hollywood and New Hollywood clashed for the first time. It was a brilliantly constructed book and as juicy as it was fascinating.
FIVE CAME BACK tells the story of five film directors (John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler and Frank Capra) from 1938 to 1947, when they enlisted into the military and made films during World War II. It’s also an amazingly vivid chronicle of history through the setting of the second World War—for example how initially timid studios were about saying anything negative about the Nazis in films out of fear of losing film revenue overseas. Also, because there was a fairly vocal isolationist movement in the US opposing America getting involved with “a war that doesn’t concern us,” those who did speak up against the bombings going on in Europe were often silenced by antisemitism. (And most of the studio heads were Jewish and keeping a low profile.)
Harris is an amazing historian (check out the 69 pages of notes in the back), but his 15 years at EW has honed his smooth, assured and witty writing style. Despite the fact that he seamlessly recreates the world of these filmmakers through their letters and memoirs, he is not afraid to contradict or correct the (sometimes self-serving) memories of the filmmakers.
FIVE CAME BACK tells the story of five film directors (John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler and Frank Capra) from 1938 to 1947, when they enlisted into the military and made films during World War II. It’s also an amazingly vivid chronicle of history through the setting of the second World War—for example how initially timid studios were about saying anything negative about the Nazis in films out of fear of losing film revenue overseas. Also, because there was a fairly vocal isolationist movement in the US opposing America getting involved with “a war that doesn’t concern us,” those who did speak up against the bombings going on in Europe were often silenced by antisemitism. (And most of the studio heads were Jewish and keeping a low profile.)
Harris is an amazing historian (check out the 69 pages of notes in the back), but his 15 years at EW has honed his smooth, assured and witty writing style. Despite the fact that he seamlessly recreates the world of these filmmakers through their letters and memoirs, he is not afraid to contradict or correct the (sometimes self-serving) memories of the filmmakers.
May 8, 2014
I don't give many books 5 stars, but this was an exceptional pop culture history about five Hollywood directors and their adventures and misadventures working for the government producing propaganda films during WWII. Clearly structured, well written, and full of interesting things I'd never heard before. Highly recommended.
August 10, 2015
A great Hollywood book about 5 important directors. Of the 5 it was Mr. Stevens I was most impressed with. An honorable man that had to take on something horrific. The care he took of men he was with during the war and his letters home show him to be a man of courage and dignity.
July 3, 2020
علت اینکه به فارسی کامنت میزارم اینه که میخوام خبر بدم که به زودی ترجمه ی این کتاب راهی بازار میشه
این کتاب که مستندی هم با همین موضوع و همین نام ساخته شده، داستان پنج کارگردان بزرگ هالیوودیه که به انتخاب خودشون و داوطلبانه به جنگ جهانی دوم اعزام شدن تا بتونن وقایع جنگ رو ثبت کنن
وقایعی که در جنگ بر آنها گذشت، نوع ارتباطشون با مقامات نظامی، تاثیر جنگ بر شخصیت، زندگی شخصی و حرفه ایشون تو کتاب به طور مفصل بحث شده
ثبت حماسه ی مردان نبرد چقدر باید برای هنرمند دغدغه باشه تناقضیه که اهالی هنر رو در ایران همیشه درگیر میکنه، چیزی که به نظر میرسه برای بقیه حل شده باشه...
این کتاب که مستندی هم با همین موضوع و همین نام ساخته شده، داستان پنج کارگردان بزرگ هالیوودیه که به انتخاب خودشون و داوطلبانه به جنگ جهانی دوم اعزام شدن تا بتونن وقایع جنگ رو ثبت کنن
وقایعی که در جنگ بر آنها گذشت، نوع ارتباطشون با مقامات نظامی، تاثیر جنگ بر شخصیت، زندگی شخصی و حرفه ایشون تو کتاب به طور مفصل بحث شده
ثبت حماسه ی مردان نبرد چقدر باید برای هنرمند دغدغه باشه تناقضیه که اهالی هنر رو در ایران همیشه درگیر میکنه، چیزی که به نظر میرسه برای بقیه حل شده باشه...
September 8, 2014
About the WWII experiences of five movie directors. John Huston, John Ford, William Wyler, George Stevens, Frank Capra; they are the five who came back. Each went off to war with a picture of what the experience would be like. That picture, at the start, was essentially movie-ish, which makes sense, as at the time these were movie-ish men. They were Doing Their Part; they weren't shirkers hiding behind what is understood as Hollywood glamour by everyone except those who have spent four minutes there; they were courageously and patriotically bringing their confidence, fame, and proven leadership skills to a world in peril that needed them. Their imagination of what was to come reflected back to each man a version of his own experience in life thus far.
But the war, and the world, had its own ideas, and though each of the five came back to more success, and more fame -- each came back to find themselves on the road to becoming legends -- their story is a tragic one, and Harris's point -- which is, as I see it, which I suppose makes it *my* point, the impossibility of ever really knowing where you are in your life -- is one with which anyone can identify, whether or not they directed HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY or SWINGTIME or THE MALTESE FALCON or THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. Bits and pieces of each of these stories are well-known; it's Harris's achievement that he locates the larger and deeper history in how he weaves them together, as he did in his previous book, PICTURES FROM A REVOLUTION, the other best book about movies I know, because it's not about movies; movies and our ideas about them are only the lens through which Harris sees the world. I'm grateful to this book, too, as it sent me to see THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, which I'd seen, of course because it's a movie you see if you like movies, and which, in the light of what the author tells us about William Wyler's war experience, reveals itself as a profound and deeply personal work of art.
But the war, and the world, had its own ideas, and though each of the five came back to more success, and more fame -- each came back to find themselves on the road to becoming legends -- their story is a tragic one, and Harris's point -- which is, as I see it, which I suppose makes it *my* point, the impossibility of ever really knowing where you are in your life -- is one with which anyone can identify, whether or not they directed HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY or SWINGTIME or THE MALTESE FALCON or THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. Bits and pieces of each of these stories are well-known; it's Harris's achievement that he locates the larger and deeper history in how he weaves them together, as he did in his previous book, PICTURES FROM A REVOLUTION, the other best book about movies I know, because it's not about movies; movies and our ideas about them are only the lens through which Harris sees the world. I'm grateful to this book, too, as it sent me to see THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, which I'd seen, of course because it's a movie you see if you like movies, and which, in the light of what the author tells us about William Wyler's war experience, reveals itself as a profound and deeply personal work of art.
March 24, 2014
An invaluable work for movie and WWII buffs such as myself. That's a pretty big tent, but I'm not sure if it will hold as much fascination for general readers. It's quite accessible, but without a firm grasp of both their era in Hollywood and the events of the war, it might be hard for a reader to understand just how emblematic the experience of these five noted, privileged Americans was.
Harris does a particularly fine job of telling the truth without indulging in gossip or casting judgment upon the peccadillos and recollections of his subjects. Stevens & Wyler, especially, get portrayals here rendering them and their films even more interesting than I'd found them before.
Fine as it is, though, I'm struck by how the lives of the 'average' men in The Boys In The Boat, a 20th-century history I also recently finished, fascinated me even more. Ironic that the normal, everyday lives of last century are more mysterious than those of celebrities and artists.
Harris does a particularly fine job of telling the truth without indulging in gossip or casting judgment upon the peccadillos and recollections of his subjects. Stevens & Wyler, especially, get portrayals here rendering them and their films even more interesting than I'd found them before.
Fine as it is, though, I'm struck by how the lives of the 'average' men in The Boys In The Boat, a 20th-century history I also recently finished, fascinated me even more. Ironic that the normal, everyday lives of last century are more mysterious than those of celebrities and artists.
March 25, 2014
Now THIS is how you write history/biography (ahem, A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940). This has everything: detail, continuity, storytelling, suspense, and adequate conclusions. Even if you know your WWII history and/or films, this gives such insight to the five directors who served and their personal experiences doing so, that I can't imagine that this would be a retread for anyone. Can I give it six stars?
Also, in a slap fight between John Wayne and John Ford, I don't know for whom I'm rooting less. Maybe it could just go on for infinity?
Also, in a slap fight between John Wayne and John Ford, I don't know for whom I'm rooting less. Maybe it could just go on for infinity?
April 8, 2014
Highly recommended. Who wouldn't love a book with Dr Seuss, George Marshall and Olivia de Havilland as supporting characters?
January 10, 2016
Stellar scholarship on a fascinating topic. Well done and a permanent addition to my library.
July 7, 2017
An interesting look at the five most successful directors who were for the most part too old to be drafted and most likely would have not passed the physical who volunteered their services for the war effort, earning a yearly military salary that was not much more and for some was less than their weekly salary earned in the studio system.
John Ford who went over to active duty before we were at war, John Huston and William Wyler were playing tennis when they heard Pearl Harbor had been bombed; Wyler who was 39 and whose wife Tali was expecting their first child was in uniform by Dec 18th, Huston who was 35 and had frail health that would classify him 4F at any recruitment office would join a month later. Wyler was Jewish and had first seen American soldiers when his home town in Alsace had been liberated in World War I. George Stevens was filming 'Woman of the Year' with Kate Hepburn joined as son as he had the film wrapped up and Frank Capra the highest paid director and Italian immigrant gave up the good life to join up. They all were assigned to the Signal Core and tasked with creating training films, morale films and eventually covering battles.
This is a well documented text, that covered the long 4 years they served. They were entirely different personalities, Huston a verbally anti-Semite in spite of having close Jewish friends within the industry, some had very conservative political views, others were liberal and progressive and none of them suited for the discipline that the Army and Navy tried to impose on them.
They recruited some of the best cameramen, screen writers, soundmen, and technicians to join them in their tasks which were often at loggerheads with what their professional military wanted of them....they were soon to find out that there is "a right way and a wrong way and the Army way'. They struggled through their frustrations and persevered, some with more dignity than others.
Huston seemed to get to most battles after they were over and filmed a lot of pure Hollywood recreations for the home audiences. He was for the most part a lout, going on benders, behaving in a manner unbecoming an officer. He did make one great film that the military suppressed, 'Let There be Light' and hid away for 35 years. It was close to his heart because he was suffering from PTSD and he filmed it at a Military Psychiatric Hospital, interviewing and following a group of soldiers with severe mental trauma through their recoveries. It was painful yet a hopeful film, but it was a side of war that the military did not want to be shown. Wyler lost his hearing on a B25 flight where he was filming lying by open bomb bay doors. He eventually recovered limited hearing in one ear which deeply affected his post war years. Stevens payed the highest price filming the liberation of Dachau, and staying to make two long films, interviewing survivors of both the death camps and work camps, which were too graphic to be shown to general audiences but were used at the Nuremberg Trials: 'Nazi Concentration and Labor Camps' and 'The Nazi Plan'
The propaganda films, like Capra's 'Why We Fight'series which included a 'Know Your Allies' and 'Know Your Enemies' were highly effective. I can personally attest to that, as my Great Aunt Mary who lived in San Francisco held an obsessive hatred for all Japanese to the extent that in the 50s much to my terror she would accelerate into any Asians in a crosswalk, hoping to terrify and/or injure them, because "Of what they had done to our boys"...the problem was she could not distinguish Chinese from Japanese, from Korean, and while to my knowledge she never made physical contact with any Asian, I know she terrified many Asian families for years and years.
Very readable and if one loves film, it is a story of immense talents who gave up four years of the most productive years of their life while the greedy stayed home and amassed fortunes and they returned to a world that no longer made sense to them.
John Ford who went over to active duty before we were at war, John Huston and William Wyler were playing tennis when they heard Pearl Harbor had been bombed; Wyler who was 39 and whose wife Tali was expecting their first child was in uniform by Dec 18th, Huston who was 35 and had frail health that would classify him 4F at any recruitment office would join a month later. Wyler was Jewish and had first seen American soldiers when his home town in Alsace had been liberated in World War I. George Stevens was filming 'Woman of the Year' with Kate Hepburn joined as son as he had the film wrapped up and Frank Capra the highest paid director and Italian immigrant gave up the good life to join up. They all were assigned to the Signal Core and tasked with creating training films, morale films and eventually covering battles.
This is a well documented text, that covered the long 4 years they served. They were entirely different personalities, Huston a verbally anti-Semite in spite of having close Jewish friends within the industry, some had very conservative political views, others were liberal and progressive and none of them suited for the discipline that the Army and Navy tried to impose on them.
They recruited some of the best cameramen, screen writers, soundmen, and technicians to join them in their tasks which were often at loggerheads with what their professional military wanted of them....they were soon to find out that there is "a right way and a wrong way and the Army way'. They struggled through their frustrations and persevered, some with more dignity than others.
Huston seemed to get to most battles after they were over and filmed a lot of pure Hollywood recreations for the home audiences. He was for the most part a lout, going on benders, behaving in a manner unbecoming an officer. He did make one great film that the military suppressed, 'Let There be Light' and hid away for 35 years. It was close to his heart because he was suffering from PTSD and he filmed it at a Military Psychiatric Hospital, interviewing and following a group of soldiers with severe mental trauma through their recoveries. It was painful yet a hopeful film, but it was a side of war that the military did not want to be shown. Wyler lost his hearing on a B25 flight where he was filming lying by open bomb bay doors. He eventually recovered limited hearing in one ear which deeply affected his post war years. Stevens payed the highest price filming the liberation of Dachau, and staying to make two long films, interviewing survivors of both the death camps and work camps, which were too graphic to be shown to general audiences but were used at the Nuremberg Trials: 'Nazi Concentration and Labor Camps' and 'The Nazi Plan'
The propaganda films, like Capra's 'Why We Fight'series which included a 'Know Your Allies' and 'Know Your Enemies' were highly effective. I can personally attest to that, as my Great Aunt Mary who lived in San Francisco held an obsessive hatred for all Japanese to the extent that in the 50s much to my terror she would accelerate into any Asians in a crosswalk, hoping to terrify and/or injure them, because "Of what they had done to our boys"...the problem was she could not distinguish Chinese from Japanese, from Korean, and while to my knowledge she never made physical contact with any Asian, I know she terrified many Asian families for years and years.
Very readable and if one loves film, it is a story of immense talents who gave up four years of the most productive years of their life while the greedy stayed home and amassed fortunes and they returned to a world that no longer made sense to them.
May 21, 2014
Mark Harris's book about five Hollywood directors (John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, Frank Capra) who joined the military to direct the American propaganda effort during World War II is remarkable. It is the product of deep research, much of it archival, and it contains story after interesting story about how these gifted but flawed men advanced the Allied cause. Hollywood's relationship with the government had been complicated and very critical before the war. The five en, and those who worked for them, were too used to creative independence to become cogs in the war machine. The story of how they shaped the images of the war, and about how those images shaped them, makes a tremendous story.
March 22, 2023
I love how much this book shits on John Wayne for being a coward and not joining up during WWII.
March 18, 2022
Wow, this is the type of book I like: a deep dive of people in an interesting job at an interesting time. 5 Hollywood directors of the golden age, signing up for filmmaking jobs in the military during World War Two.
Mark Harris proved he could juggle 5 interlocking film stories in his last book. And this story just proved he could do it with fewer living people to interview.
Really good. Harris is an exceptional non fiction writer.
Mark Harris proved he could juggle 5 interlocking film stories in his last book. And this story just proved he could do it with fewer living people to interview.
Really good. Harris is an exceptional non fiction writer.
January 9, 2019
This is the amazing true life story of some of the greatest Hollywood film directors who were asked to film events during WWII and produce training films for the soldiers while putting aside their careers. John Ford, George Steven, John Huston, William Wyler and Frank Capra were the ones asked to give up their Hollywood jobs to work with the government. A few stayed to make instructional films to train soldiers; others accompanied troops to war torn regions putting their lives in danger while filming. This was a page turner for me from the beginning to the end!
February 8, 2016
Well researched and easy to read. I enjoyed the flow of the overall story of World War II and how the five directors worked on different areas around the world. The photos are great and allow a visual account of the directors but now I need to go find a bunch of the movies and footage that they shot.
October 12, 2018
Mark Harris writes a well crafted book on the history of five famous Hollywood directors who volunteered in the armed forces during WWII in order to produce documentaries and propaganda films to be showcased to soldiers and the general public for purposes such as training, news coverage, and the promotion of United States' goals during the war. The book is a very different WWII history than what you generally read where the focus is on battles and the decisions of generals. Instead you follow the lives of these five men and the different projects they either thought up to do themselves or were assigned to do in order to cover the war through photography or film. From the snow covered islands off Alaska to North Africa, these five men spread out over the entire world to cover the events of the war and carefully crafted a recorded record that was used to educate and entertain the people of the United States.
Harris writes very clearly and I was engaged the entire time. These five men ended up being involved in nearly every major event that the U.S. participated in during the war and were able to share what they saw to us. The only snag I found reading this book was that the author only occasionally used page breaks to denote when the chapter was switching between characters. So there were times when I was reading a paragraph and then when I moved on to the next paragraph, the author was suddenly talking about a different character, and their were times I didn't realize that happened at first. I do recommend the book for film lovers and people who enjoy WWII history.
Harris writes very clearly and I was engaged the entire time. These five men ended up being involved in nearly every major event that the U.S. participated in during the war and were able to share what they saw to us. The only snag I found reading this book was that the author only occasionally used page breaks to denote when the chapter was switching between characters. So there were times when I was reading a paragraph and then when I moved on to the next paragraph, the author was suddenly talking about a different character, and their were times I didn't realize that happened at first. I do recommend the book for film lovers and people who enjoy WWII history.
March 31, 2022
I'm glad I finally decided to pick up Five Came Back. This was such a fascinating story of well known Hollywood directors during wartime. I've definitely added some movies to my watchlist. I'm glad I've seen some of them for reference. If you haven't seen The Mortal Storm or To Be or Not To Be, I can't recommend them enough.
November 14, 2015
The brilliance of this book is in how well it's told. I had shied away from it until I saw Mark Harris on Turner Classic Movies in October and watched some of the films discussed here. Even then I read Harris's other book Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood thinking that a mediocre treatment of 1967 cinema would be easier to swallow than a weak job on World War II. It turns out that both are instant classics.
What makes the book a cut above is that you come away with distinct portraits of the five directors and how the war changed them professionally and personally. Why did they go to war? What were they leaving behind.
Frank Capra was the most heralded of the men in this story before the war, but he saw the least combat action, and his output was straight ahead propaganda. He would outlive the others but his Hollywood career would end first. The failure of It's a Wonderful Life broke him economically and spiritually. Luckily he lived long enough to see it become heralded as the best film he ever made. Despite retiring first he outlived the other four men in the story.
John Ford was at the Battle of Midway and won a Purple Heart for his work there. He made one Hollywood movie while in uniform about the war, but mostly made westerns afterwards. Harris doesn't tell us that the pro New Deal and World War II hawk was also pro-Vietnam and was thought of as a reactionary by younger Hollywood folks in the late 60s.
John Huston was the least distinguished before the war but would have the longest postwar career of the men. He never acknowledged his re-enactments on the Battle of San Pietro in life or in his autobiography. He even wrote a few Hollywood scripts while in uniform under pseudonyms.
William Wyler lost nearly all of his hearing shooting footage on bomber missions. The author doesn't mention that his documentary Memphis Belle would adapted into a Hollywood film after his death produced by his daughter. His postwar output was diverse. He made westerns, and comedies and biblical epics, and musicals. His first film upon returning The Best Years of Our Lives was a big Oscar winner and blue chip classic.
For my money the most interesting of these characters was George Stevens. A man known for light comedy that witnessed the holocaust in person and was never the same again. His string of classics in the 1950s are so different from his pre-war output that it's like he was two entirely different people. Let me recommend George Stevens: A Filmmakers Journey, a documentary produced by his son in the 1980s. It explores his work in depth. The only biography of Stevens I have been able to find is out of print. I would love to see Harris tackle Stevens as a solo project.
What makes the book a cut above is that you come away with distinct portraits of the five directors and how the war changed them professionally and personally. Why did they go to war? What were they leaving behind.
Frank Capra was the most heralded of the men in this story before the war, but he saw the least combat action, and his output was straight ahead propaganda. He would outlive the others but his Hollywood career would end first. The failure of It's a Wonderful Life broke him economically and spiritually. Luckily he lived long enough to see it become heralded as the best film he ever made. Despite retiring first he outlived the other four men in the story.
John Ford was at the Battle of Midway and won a Purple Heart for his work there. He made one Hollywood movie while in uniform about the war, but mostly made westerns afterwards. Harris doesn't tell us that the pro New Deal and World War II hawk was also pro-Vietnam and was thought of as a reactionary by younger Hollywood folks in the late 60s.
John Huston was the least distinguished before the war but would have the longest postwar career of the men. He never acknowledged his re-enactments on the Battle of San Pietro in life or in his autobiography. He even wrote a few Hollywood scripts while in uniform under pseudonyms.
William Wyler lost nearly all of his hearing shooting footage on bomber missions. The author doesn't mention that his documentary Memphis Belle would adapted into a Hollywood film after his death produced by his daughter. His postwar output was diverse. He made westerns, and comedies and biblical epics, and musicals. His first film upon returning The Best Years of Our Lives was a big Oscar winner and blue chip classic.
For my money the most interesting of these characters was George Stevens. A man known for light comedy that witnessed the holocaust in person and was never the same again. His string of classics in the 1950s are so different from his pre-war output that it's like he was two entirely different people. Let me recommend George Stevens: A Filmmakers Journey, a documentary produced by his son in the 1980s. It explores his work in depth. The only biography of Stevens I have been able to find is out of print. I would love to see Harris tackle Stevens as a solo project.
August 10, 2016
I received this book as an advance uncorrected proof for free through Goodreads First Reads, and am grateful for the gift.
I found the book to be especially engrossing, and did not stop reading it until I reached the epilogue. The book is very moving throughout, with a thorough and vivid look into the social environment preceding, during, and following World War II. The author put considerable effort into exploring the main characters of the story, and portrayed them all in a balanced, complex, and believable manner that gave strong light to their personalities. He did the same with the many other historical figures throughout the book.
Although the book is overall well-structured, the organization has a couple of hitches here and there. At a few points, he would initially only give a vague mention of a film, and then go into more detail a few chapters later. This left me confused initially on what the movies were actually about. This and a few other organizational issues threw me off occasionally.
One thing that confused me was a sentence in the final paragraph of the prologue: "But privately, they would still count among their most meaningful accomplishments a body of work that most of their admirers had long forgotten or never seen at all." Since the five directors took part in a number of projects during the war, sometimes together and sometimes individually, I had difficulty determining exactly which endeavor was the one emphasized in the prologue. It could be referring to their experiences in the war in general, but if so it should be explained better.
In addition, there were a few comma errors. For instance, on page 77 there was the sentence "Capra, had more at stake than his self-esteem."
However, this is still an exceptionally remarkable book, and the few minor issues can be polished out in the officially published version. I was amazed at the depth of detail into a side of America and World War II that I had never really considered before. The story was very moving and kept me interested throughout the book. I really enjoyed reading this book and learning about the directors' personal adventures during that time period.
I found the book to be especially engrossing, and did not stop reading it until I reached the epilogue. The book is very moving throughout, with a thorough and vivid look into the social environment preceding, during, and following World War II. The author put considerable effort into exploring the main characters of the story, and portrayed them all in a balanced, complex, and believable manner that gave strong light to their personalities. He did the same with the many other historical figures throughout the book.
Although the book is overall well-structured, the organization has a couple of hitches here and there. At a few points, he would initially only give a vague mention of a film, and then go into more detail a few chapters later. This left me confused initially on what the movies were actually about. This and a few other organizational issues threw me off occasionally.
One thing that confused me was a sentence in the final paragraph of the prologue: "But privately, they would still count among their most meaningful accomplishments a body of work that most of their admirers had long forgotten or never seen at all." Since the five directors took part in a number of projects during the war, sometimes together and sometimes individually, I had difficulty determining exactly which endeavor was the one emphasized in the prologue. It could be referring to their experiences in the war in general, but if so it should be explained better.
In addition, there were a few comma errors. For instance, on page 77 there was the sentence "Capra, had more at stake than his self-esteem."
However, this is still an exceptionally remarkable book, and the few minor issues can be polished out in the officially published version. I was amazed at the depth of detail into a side of America and World War II that I had never really considered before. The story was very moving and kept me interested throughout the book. I really enjoyed reading this book and learning about the directors' personal adventures during that time period.
February 22, 2015
More a work of history and biography than of film scholarship, it's still a remarkably astute accounting, even when it comes to its somewhat secondary topics of craft, aesthetics, and production, of the five best-known and most successful Hollywood directors to, for different reasons and with different personal and artistic effects, volunteer their services to the military during WWII: Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, and William Wyler. The extent and quality of research and organization, the fleet storytelling, and the general well-channeled knowledge of and passion for the subject(s) on display here are rather impressive. This is leaps and bounds beyond entertainment journalist (and Mr. Tony Kushner) Harris's entirely respectable, but a bit tentative (and much less original) prior work, PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION (a fine retelling of the well-known BONNIE & CLYDE moment of how Hollywood's '70s Golden Age came to be). I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in these directors, in wartime's repercussions in the American movie industry, or even in the localized, history-on-the-ground details of the war itself.
March 4, 2016
This is the story of five well known and popular movie directors who put their careers on hold to serve in the US military during World War II. The five - John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, Frank Capra - are of varying temperaments (Wyler and Stevens come off best as people) and achieve much (Wyler, again, with his B-17 documentary “Memphis Belle”) or very little (especially Huston but also Capra) during their time in the service. It’s an interesting story but I found the telling to be very slow with whole sections where nothing seemed to be happening. Most interesting was the beginning and it’s placing of the five directors in the context of golden age Hollywood and the placing of Hollywood itself in the context of a world on the brink of war.
September 28, 2017
The author has really done his research and this book is a fine detailed addition to the historical record. The emphasis was on the work they did for the US Army, and to a lesser degree, those films they made for Hollywood. It was interesting.
Oh and here's something that strikes me as odd: the author makes several mentions of the author Eric Knight who wrote some of the scripts for Capra's "Why We Fight" series and whose death in 1943 affected Capra deeply. Yet the author makes no mention at all of the fact that Knight's best-known work is "Lassie Come-Home"!!
And one more thing that I found odd -- Wyler was born in ALsace-Lorraine, in a town called Muhlhausen. But throughout the book, the author constantly refers to the town as "Mulhouse." Why??
Oh and here's something that strikes me as odd: the author makes several mentions of the author Eric Knight who wrote some of the scripts for Capra's "Why We Fight" series and whose death in 1943 affected Capra deeply. Yet the author makes no mention at all of the fact that Knight's best-known work is "Lassie Come-Home"!!
And one more thing that I found odd -- Wyler was born in ALsace-Lorraine, in a town called Muhlhausen. But throughout the book, the author constantly refers to the town as "Mulhouse." Why??
April 24, 2021
Loved this. If you have any interest in making films or reading biographies about creative folk or reading about war, then, this is the book for you. A glorious insight into the five big Hollywood directors who went off to war and the impact this had on their lives and careers. Harrowing in parts - George Stevens is behind the camera to provide evidence of the concentration camps - but a compelling read. Harris is a wonderful writer, researcher and analyst. I now have a list of war films that I want to watch. Top Tip: keep a pen handy as you read this book!
August 17, 2021
The type of book that reminds me why I love movies, and that I have so much more to learn. A masterful book from Harris, with a truly impressive amount of research, weaving history and biography together in a way that is informative and exciting. I feel I learned an enormous amount about who these directors were and their distinct personalities, idiosyncrasies, their strengths and their shortcomings. Time to get to know them better through the movies they made.
December 19, 2014
This was an interesting look at five directors who became involved in the WWII war effort. I knew very little about any of this going in, and I am glad I read this because it was very interesting and revealing.
July 26, 2015
Fascinating look at five famous film directors (Capra, Huston, Ford, Wyler, Stevens) who joined the service and made films for the govt in WWII.
March 10, 2018
Mark Harris's new book, "Five Came Back", is a must-read for both film and history lovers. Harris, the author of other books on the subject - has hit a home run with "Five Came Back".
World War 2 was really the first "filmed" war. Oh, movies had been made during WW1 but they were inferior to the later advances in technology in the intervening years. By 1939 - the beginning of the war in Europe - Hollywood directors had been filming using sound for 10 or so years, and in color for a few years. Five directors - at varying stages of their careers - were making their names in producing excellent movies for entertainment. The five, John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens, had different reasons for their participation in the war effort, but all were active because of their patriotism to the United States. (Ford, Stevens, and Huston were US-born, while Frank Capra was brought here as a child, and William Wyler came a bit later in his life.)
"Hollywood" had been a bit risk-adverse during the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930's. American-made movies were generally big hits in European countries and the studios and their bosses were afraid of alienating the governments of France, Germany, and Italy. The studio bosses - with the exception of Jack Warner (head of Warner Brothers) who was quite vocal in the 1930's - were more concerned with profits rather than politics. With America's entry into the war - December 8th, 1941 - Hollywood began making war films, often directed by the five directors Harris highlights in his book. All five began making pictures under government auspices, too, and served their country in military capacities.
All five made films for both commercial consumption at theaters and for military use. They also produced newsreel footage of the actual battles that were shown in theaters before the movie presentation. They were all hired to "tell the story" of American participation in the on-going war, and tell it they did. The term "embed" could almost have been used for William Wyler, whose own participation in bombing raids over France and Germany, led to some of the most harrowing film produced in the war. John Ford was equally involved in Pacific theater operations. (John Ford was very critical of John Wayne - who he often used in his films - who he viewed as cowardly because he never actually joined the military, but merely portrayed brave men in film.)
Harris has written an excellent book that looks at men and war. The film directors who went to war and produced some of the best war-time and post-war movies. A truly good read for those interested in movies and history.
World War 2 was really the first "filmed" war. Oh, movies had been made during WW1 but they were inferior to the later advances in technology in the intervening years. By 1939 - the beginning of the war in Europe - Hollywood directors had been filming using sound for 10 or so years, and in color for a few years. Five directors - at varying stages of their careers - were making their names in producing excellent movies for entertainment. The five, John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens, had different reasons for their participation in the war effort, but all were active because of their patriotism to the United States. (Ford, Stevens, and Huston were US-born, while Frank Capra was brought here as a child, and William Wyler came a bit later in his life.)
"Hollywood" had been a bit risk-adverse during the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930's. American-made movies were generally big hits in European countries and the studios and their bosses were afraid of alienating the governments of France, Germany, and Italy. The studio bosses - with the exception of Jack Warner (head of Warner Brothers) who was quite vocal in the 1930's - were more concerned with profits rather than politics. With America's entry into the war - December 8th, 1941 - Hollywood began making war films, often directed by the five directors Harris highlights in his book. All five began making pictures under government auspices, too, and served their country in military capacities.
All five made films for both commercial consumption at theaters and for military use. They also produced newsreel footage of the actual battles that were shown in theaters before the movie presentation. They were all hired to "tell the story" of American participation in the on-going war, and tell it they did. The term "embed" could almost have been used for William Wyler, whose own participation in bombing raids over France and Germany, led to some of the most harrowing film produced in the war. John Ford was equally involved in Pacific theater operations. (John Ford was very critical of John Wayne - who he often used in his films - who he viewed as cowardly because he never actually joined the military, but merely portrayed brave men in film.)
Harris has written an excellent book that looks at men and war. The film directors who went to war and produced some of the best war-time and post-war movies. A truly good read for those interested in movies and history.
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