Shortlisted for the Longman-History Today Award 2015
Five Came Back tells the untold story of how Hollywood changed World War II, and how World War II changed Hollywood.
Before the Second World War the Hollywood box office was booming. But government investigations into allegations of corruption and racketeering were rife. A feeling hung in the air that the business was too foreign, too Jewish, too 'un-American' in its values and causes. Then the war changed everything. With Pearl Harbor came the opportunity for Hollywood to prove its critics wrong by turning its talents to the war effort.
No industry professionals played a bigger role in the war than America's most legendary directors: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. Between them they were on the scene for 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.
With characteristic insight and expert knowledge of these five incredible lives, Harris looks at the ways in which the war changed the history of film forever.
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. This copy is in new, unmarked condition bound in black cloth covered boards with bright gilt titling to the spine. This copy is bright, tight, white and square. The unclipped dust wrapper is in new condition. International postal rates are calculated on a book weighing 1 Kilo, in cases where the book weighs more than 1 Kilo increased postal rates will be quoted, where the book weighs less then postage will be reduced accordingly. 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. In a move unheard of at the time, the U.S. government farmed out its war propaganda effort to Hollywood, allowing these directors the freedom to film in combat zones as never before. They were on the scene at almost every major moment of America?s war, shaping the public?s collective consciousness of what we?ve now come to call the good fight. 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. Ref H 5. Seller Inventory # 033672