Mark Harris, a columnist for “Entertainment Weekly,” has recently written a well-reviewed book about Hollywood during World War II. More specifically, he focuses on five directors who worked for the War Department. These five men all were well-known Hollywood directors who made major contributions by applying their craft to wartime needs. John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, William Wyler and Frank Capra chose not to sit out the war “in mockie-land while the good people are fighting.”
Ford was already on active duty in the Navy in 1941. Once the war broke out, he found himself on Midway and filmed the crucial battle. His “Battle of Midway” (1942) went against all the principles of a Hollywood film, but is heralded as a “hallmark of documentary reality.” Capra’s famous series “Why We Fight” was required reviewing by the armed forces. John Huston’s epic combat film “The Battle of San Pietro” and a 1946 documentary, about soldiers being treated for “battle neurosis,” “Let There Be Light” puts him in the good company of these other film makers. George Stevens shot the only color footage of the war in Europe and headed the Special Coverage Unit as the Allies entered Dachau. They became at that point not combat photographers, but “gatherers of evidence.” Rounding out the list is William Wyler, who helped cemented American-British relations with his memorable “Mrs. Miniver,” and after the war helped Americans understand what it was like for returning soldiers in his Academy Award film “The Best Years of Our Lives.” As an enlisted member of the Army Signal Corps he gained first-hand experience as he shot film of bombing missions over Germany. This experience lead him to direct a remarkable documentary, “The Memphis Belle” A Story of a Flying Fortress.” FDR upon seeing the film said “This has to be shown right away, everywhere.”
Harris has written a very detailed, interesting story that many readers, myself included, would love to read.