Netflix’s documentary series “Five Came Back” profiles the wartime experience of five Old Hollywood directors who all served in World War II: John Ford, Frank Capra, John Huston, William Wyler and George Stevens. For years, the films they made about the war were hard to find or completely unavailable to the public. But now Netflix is making them available for streaming. Here’s the story on each:
“The Battle of Midway” – directed by John Ford (1942)
“At that moment, reality comes to him, and he moves to meet it.” That’s a quote from Paul Greengrass in “Five Came Back,” describing John Ford’s filmmaking in “The Battle of Midway,” a brief, 18-minute doc that ended up winning an Oscar. It was the first real war footage audiences had ever seen, and Ford gets right in the thick of the carnage.
“Prelude to War” – directed by Frank Capra (1942)
Frank Capra was faced with a challenge: How to make a propaganda film as scarily effective as Leni Reifenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will?” He ultimately turned some of that film’s footage against the Nazis as a way to rally Americans. “Let our boys see these guys,” Capra says in “Five Came Back. “We shoot nothing.”
“World War II: Report from the Aleutians” – directed by John Huston (1943)
John Huston was frustrated that he was assigned to Alaska, away from the action, for his first film as part of the war. He narrates a clinical documentary about life among U.S. soldiers protecting the Aleutian Islands that could serve as a gateway for a Japanese attack.
“Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia” – directed by Frank Capra (1943)
The first of Capra’s seven planned (unfinished) training films designed to boost morale and sell the war to the American people highlighted the “scale and grandeur” of the Soviet Union military, and the need for our alliance with the Soviets against the Nazis.
“Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines” – directed by John Ford (1943)
This Ford training film teaches OSS agents how to use aliases, concealment, ambush techniques and more. Ford even acts in the film.
“Tunisian Victory” – directed by Frank Capra, John Huston (1944)
The U.S. Army wanted a response to the invigorating “Desert Victory” put out by the British film unit, so Capra and Huston cobbled together this film of mostly staged footage in an African battle.
“The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress” – directed by William Wyler (1944)
William Wyler spent countless hours in the air with the crew of B-17 bombers doing raids over Germany. He came to know them so well, he wrote a letter to the parents of a lost pilot. As a Jew, Wyler risked worse than capture if something went wrong. But the finished film was the first movie ever reviewed on the front page of The New York Times.
“The Negro Soldier” – directed by Stuart Heisler (1944)
Writer Carlton Moss felt black soldiers serving in World War II were being underserved, so he made an effort to tackle issues of race and sidestep the traditional problems and stereotypes seen in other training and propaganda films.
“San Pietro” – directed by John Huston (1945)
Huston was in San Pietro when the Allies invaded Italy and witnessed the battle firsthand. The footage was so realistic, years went by before anyone realized it was staged. However, the wounded and dead American soldiers on film were all real. The government at first felt the film would ruin morale and that Huston had made an anti-war film. “If I ever make a pro-war film, I ought to be shot,” Huston once said.
“Nazi Concentration Camps” – directed by George Stevens (1945)
Shortly after being on the front lines at D-Day, George Stevens was witness to the horrors of the concentration camps in Dachau. He captured incredibly graphic footage ultimately used in the Nuremburg trials, saying he planned on “using the camera to gather evidence.”
“Know Your Enemy: Japan” – directed by Frank Capra (1945)
Capra made a series of American propaganda films that targeted Axis forces. “Know Your Enemy – Japan” got delayed because it didn’t know whether to blame the emperor or the Japanese people themselves. It ended up being called “brutally jingoistic and horribly racist” in “Five Came Back” and fueled some of the Japanese racism in ‘40s America.
“Let There Be Light” – directed by John Huston (1946)
Huston took a sentimental eye to filming combat veterans recovering from psychological trauma before post-traumatic stress was even a term. But the U.S. government buried it, feeling it counterproductive to postwar efforts. It was finally released in 1981 and is now preserved in the Library of Congress.
“Thunderbolt” – directed by William Wyler (1947)
Wyler was ahead of his time when he mounted cameras inside small fighter planes, getting creative to get the shots and not hurt the aerodynamics of the plane itself. As a result, he captured striking aerial footage of fighters making attacks over Germany, all of it in color.
