The Bearded Trio

FIVE CAME BACK “World War II “marked the government’s first attempt at a sustained program of filmed propaganda, and its use of Hollywood filmmakers to explain its objectives, tout its successes, and shape the war as a narrative for both civilians and soldiers constituted a remarkable, even radical experiment. Movies brought tens of millions of Americans out of their homes every week and stirred them to laughter, tears, anger, and, increasingly, patriotism. Filmmakers could not win the war, but Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, and William Wyler had already shown they could win the people. “[The five men] would honor their country, risk their lives, and create a new visual vocabulary for fictional and factual war movies. 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. They returned to Hollywood changed forever as men and filmmakers.”        ...