Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War

government farmed out its war propaganda effort to Hollywood, allowing these directors the freedom to film in combat zones as never before. The product of five years of scrupulous archival research, Five Came Back provides a revelatory new understanding of Hollywood’s role in the war through the life and work of these five men who chose to go, and who came back.“Five Came Back is one of the great works of film history of the decade.” --Slate“A tough-minded, information-packed and irresistibly readable work of movie-minded cultural criticism. Now a Netflix original documentary series, also written by Mark Harris, premiering on March 31,2017: the extraordinary wartime experience of five of Hollywood's most important directors, all of whom put their stamp on World War II and were changed by it forever Here is the remarkable, untold story of how five major Hollywood directors—John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra—changed World War II, and how, in turn, the war changed them. Like the best World War II films, it highlights marquee names in a familiar plot to explore some serious is

A Tear closed the book with me My tears helped close the bookMaybe I am one of the oldest reviewers so myperspective is different. The Second World War affected me as a child to thepoint that I had to write a book about it myself, from that childhood point ofview. It was something I could not forget all my life . I saw 'the great movies'as a child and yes, I mentioned them in my books. They too, affected me as a child.The generations since, can only try to understand what it was like. Harrish. Insightful, Interesting Look at Hollywood History With the new documentary coming out soon, this is the best time to buy a copy of this book. It's a fascinating look at Hollywood past, and how wartime politics shaped the careers of five similar-yet-different directors. It's an insightful time capsule for movie buffs, and I highly recommend it. (When I finished reading it, I gave my copy to my dad, and he liked it too. This seems like a pretty solid "dad gift."). "History and Cinema" according to Patrick Mc Coy. really enjoyed Mark Harris' first book, Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, about the changes in the movie industry in the late 60s. It was with great anticipation that I read his latest, Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War (201History and Cinema Patrick Mc Coy really enjoyed Mark Harris' first book, Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, about the changes in the movie industry in the late 60s. It was with great anticipation that I read his latest, Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War (2014) which combines two of my greatest interest-films and WWII history. Harris follows five Hollywood directors (John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George . ) which combines two of my greatest interest-films and WWII history. Harris follows five Hollywood directors (John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George

. Mark Harris is the author of Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, which was a New York Times notable book of the year and was named one of the ten best nonfiction books of the decade by Salon. A graduate of Yale University, Harris lives in New York City with his husband, Tony Kushner. An editor at large at Entertainment Weekly

Every chapter contains small, priceless nuggets of movie history (Joseph Goebbels thought Wyler’s Mrs. He turned that unlikely trick in Pictures at a Revolution (2008), about the five Best Picture nominees in 1967 and how they defined a sea change in Hollywood and in society at large, and he does it again here. --Bill Ott . Miniver was “an exemplary propaganda film” and hoped the Germans could copy it), and nearly every page offers an example of Harris’ ability to capture the essence of a person or an event in a few, perfectly chosen words (describing Huston as a “last-call bon vivant”). The number is once more five, but this time it’s five acclaimed directors who went to war in the 1940s to make propaganda films and came home changed by what they saw and what they did. From Booklist *Starred Review* It’s hardly news that the movies affect and are affected by the broader canvas of po