All language subtitles for Five.Came.Back.S01E01.1080p.WEBRip.x264-STRiFE

The winner is...

And the winner is...

George Stevens!

[cheering]

William Wyler.

John Huston.

[cheering continues]

John Ford.

Mr. Frank Capra.

I discovered Frank Capra,
like most people in my generation,

through It's a Wonderful Life.

Capra is a master
at constructing emotion,

structurally, into a film.

I think I have cried more
in Frank Capra films,

and I have stopped thinking more
in Frank Capra films,

than in any other filmmaker's work.

[Steven Spielberg]
I don't really think

that William Wyler
saw himself as an artist.

When he set up the camera,
he didn't set up the camera

to be told how extraordinary his angle
and compositions were.

He set up the camera in such a way
to help tell the story better.

And then having met him,
I think it was the late '60s,

I so admired that he was somebody that
had wielded so much power and authority

and was at the top of his game,

and won three Academy Awards
for Best Director,

who was still gracious and kind.

[Francis Ford Coppola]
I was drawn to John Huston.

There's a lot of comparison
between Huston and Hemingway

because Hemingway had
that type of masculine derring-do.

But despite his irascible
personal character and personal life,

Huston had
this extraordinary intelligence.

He made many, many, many films,
and among them, some truly great ones.

[Paul Greengrass] The first time I can
remember watching John Ford movies

was film club at school.

Ford, by then,
had this sort of bifurcated reputation.

On the one hand, he was a controversial
arch-conservative figure.

On the other hand...

Hold it!

...he was at that point being revered,
as he rightly is,

as the great auteur and master
of American cinema.

[Lawrence Kasdan] George Stevens'
facility with dramas, comedy,

musicals, was unique.

He was not drawn
to that which came easily to him.

He wanted to challenge himself
all the time.

Those five filmmakers happened to be
in that place then,

when the greatest conflict of all
came knocking.

Cinema, in its purest form,
could be put in the service of propaganda.

[military drumming]

Hitler and Goebbels understood
the power of the cinema

to move large populations
towards your way of thinking.

[Kasdan] All five of them were willing
to turn away

from a very comfortable life
and serve their country

in the best way they thought they could.

And to go out into the world,
where there was no script,

and there was no third act
that anybody wrote

where you knew you would come
out of it safely.

[Guillermo del Toro] Each of them
participate on an epic scale

in the grandest interventions

in the largest war
the world has ever seen.

[Spielberg] These documentaries
that the five filmmakers made

were powerful for American audiences.

I do think all five of them
paid a very personal price.

These filmmakers
that came back with footage

about the truth of that war...

were changed forever.

[Kasdan] The group of directors
that we're talking about...

were part of the first wave.

They were creating the art form.

[Spielberg] Film was an intoxicant

from the very first days
of the silent movies.

And I think early, early on,

Hollywood realized
they had a tremendous tool,

or even a weapon, for change,
through cinema.

[narrator] By the late 1930s,

moviegoing had become
an essential part of American culture.

More than half the adult population went
to the movies at least once a week,

and before every film
theaters played newsreels,

which were the only source
of visual news at the time.

[man] Power to the nth power,

proclaimed by Hitler
at the Nuremberg Nazi Congress.

The Nazi Party above the state,
and he above the Nazi Party,

affirmed by thundering cheers.

[narrator] In the early years
of Hitler's rise,

Hollywood paid little attention.

In movies, there was no Fuehrer.
There were no Nazis.

[Greengrass] Ford was very early to see
the threat that Nazi Germany posed.

[narrator] Twenty years earlier,
when the US entered the First World War,

John Ford was 22
and just starting out as a director.

Ford not serving in World War I...

affected him very, very deeply,

and Four Sons was an attempt
to explore the cost of that war.

What it was
was the beginning of Ford

trying to address reality.

Ford, the man,
was a figure of patrician authority

who believed in duty and tradition,
and evoked them wonderfully.

He was a man
who sought solace in alcohol,

and had a rebel soul,

and was proud of his Irish rebel heritage.

I'm very courteous to my equals.

More than courteous to my inferiors.

I'm speaking in terms of pictures.

And I'm horribly rude to my superiors,
so-called.

[narrator] Like Ford, John Huston
was already aware

of the looming threat in Europe.

He had recently returned to Hollywood
after some time in England.

[John Huston] In London,
when I was about 25 years old,

a whole series of circumstances
mounted up

to my finally being completely broke.

I could've called to my father for help,
or friends.

But I'm enough of a believer
in the gambler's creed,

that if you're in a bad streak,
there's nothing to do about it.

You've just got to play it out.

[Coppola] John Huston was the son
of Walter Huston,

who was an important actor,

and he got to learn about acting,
and, of course, learned from his father.

I just had only admiration
for John Huston.

He's done a lot of things
that pirates do.

You know, he'd had a fight
with Errol Flynn over Olivia de Havilland.

Oh, that I could've had a fight
with Errol Flynn over Olivia de Havilland.

[Huston] Errol said,
"Do you want to make anything of it?"

And... I said, "Yes."

We weren't friends then.

There's no better way to get friends
with a man than to have a fight with him.

[Coppola] Huston had many marriages,

and many, in between the marriages,
episodes with women,

and was obviously very attractive
to women,

and was very attracted to women.

Despite his bad-boy behavior
throughout this period,

Huston, as a writer,
had this conceptual mind

and had really begun to attract
the attention of people

for his screenwriting work.

[man] The end of a nation.

World in alarm at the peril of war.

What will come next? Czechoslovakia?

When will Nazi aggression end?

The democratic nations draw together
against the ambitions of the dictators.

[narrator] Huston was hired
by Warner Bros.

to co-write the historical drama Juarez.

He turned the script into
a pointed anti-Hitler allegory.

Democracy: The rule of the cattle,
by the cattle, for the cattle.

[narrator]
But when the production started,

he faced the tyranny of a movie star.

Paul Muni felt his part was too small

and had his brother-in-law
rewrite the script.

Only a little of Huston's work remained.

[Huston] The lot of the writer
in Hollywood at that time

was rather dismal.

One would write
what one thought were good pictures,

and they would be changed
when they got to the screen

and become bad pictures.

[narrator] Huston decided the only way
he could exert control over his work

was to become a director.

He had a powerful mentor.

His best friend in Hollywood
was an established filmmaker

who was his opposite
in almost every way:

William Wyler.

They first met when Wyler hired him
to write dialogue

for a film starring Huston's father.

The two men quickly became
inseparable pals.

[Spielberg] William Wyler
was very, very soft-spoken.

When he demonstrated
that forcefulness of personality

was only when he was on the floor,
directing.

[William Wyler] I'm demanding,
such as the audience is demanding.

I'm demanding of myself, too.

I try to get the best out of people,
and if it takes a little more work

and a little more sweat to do it,
then that's what we'll have to do.

[Spielberg] Which is why they called him
40-take Willy,

because he was a perfectionist.

He was completely in control
of when he knew he had gotten it.

Willy Wyler's way of directing was tough.

Believe me, he expected a lot of you,

and you therefore gave
much, much better performances.

Miss Davis,
I'm very happy to present to you,

on behalf of the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,

for the second time, their award
for your performance in Jezebel.

[Davis] Thank you.

[Spielberg]
I think all directors are actors,

even those that aren't employed
to work both sides of the camera.

I think when you have to speak to actors,
you become an actor.

And so, I believe that William Wyler
was also an actor

when he was working with his actors.

And I think that's what bonds
all of these directors.

They were performance directors
on top of everything else.

[narrator] Wyler needed
no education about the war.

For him, the stakes
could not have been higher.

He had come to America 20 years earlier
from Mulhouse,

a French town that Germany had taken
during World War I.

Now it was being threatened
once again.

Originally, I was supposed
to take over my father's business.

My father was a merchant in Mulhouse,
had a nice store.

I was not keen about it,
but I had no other prospects.

[narrator] Wyler was sponsored
by a distant relative

who happened to run Universal Studios:
Carl Laemmle.

[Wyler] He seemed to like me,
and suddenly, he said,

"How would you like to come to America?"

You know, at that time,
that was like going to the moon today.

[laughs]

My own family, although they were
delighted to have me in America,

it was not particularly a thing
for a young Jewish boy.

He should become a doctor or a lawyer
or something.

But to go into the film business
is a bit shady.

[chuckles]

[Spielberg] I think what speaks to me
the most about Wyler

was the fact that he was
a Jewish director

who was committed to his faith
and his culture.

He understood what Hitler was doing.

He understood what was going to happen
to the Jews.

[narrator] Wyler's family and friends
were still in Europe and terrified.

His attempts to bring them over
and sponsor them all

pushed him to his financial limits.

On a single night in Germany,
in November, 1938,

dozens of Jews were killed

and thousands of business
and temples destroyed

in the violent pogrom
that came to be known as Kristallnacht.

The rise of intolerance
in Germany today,

the suffering being inflicted
on an innocent and helpless people,

grieve every decent American.

It makes us fearful
for the whole progress of civilization.

[narrator] By the late '30s,
conflict had broken out across the globe.

Italy flexed its military muscle
in Africa.

[man]
In a blazing radio address,

Mussolini proclaims his decision:
"War. Italy will conquer Ethiopia."

[narrator] Imperial Japan invaded China.

[explosion]

[man]
The blast of war strikes Nantou,

and people flee from the terror
and thunder of the bombs.

In the event of war in Europe,
I think we should stay out of it entirely.

I haven't the slightest idea
of European affairs.

[Gerald Nye] Americans want no more war.

Most of all, they want
no more participation in foreign wars.

Hollywood was in
a very delicate situation.

[man]
Fear of war grips Europe.

Travel greatly impeded.

The men that ran the film companies,
who were mainly Jewish men,

did not want to cut off
this big market of Germany.

They did not understand completely
what was going on.

And they certainly weren't understanding
the threat from Japan.

So, there was a very strong feeling
in the country

of, "Let's stay out of this war."

[narrator] By his own admission,
George Stevens did not realize

the extent of the threat
Hitler and Japan posed in 1938.

He wanted his next film
to be an adaptation

of the acclaimed anti-war novel
Paths of Glory,

which was set during World War I.

What's interesting is Stevens' ambition.

He was very successful at making
these lighthearted musicals and comedies.

This is the guy that made Alice Adams,

Vivacious Lady,

and Swing Time,

the most elegant coverage
of Astaire and Rogers.

This is a man who had a gift
for light entertainment.

He's looking to expand his range.

The moment that he would have a success
in a genre or form,

he wanted to try something new.

He had a very curious mind.

[George Stevens]
It always interested me, with films,

the opportunity for exploration
of a new experience.

I think, mostly, the films that I did,

I did because I hadn't done
that kind of a film.

The directors in Hollywood,
movie directors,

are the princes of Hollywood.

They're never the kings.

Always hovering above the directors
are the people with the money.

And he ran into a brick wall
when it came to making Paths of Glory.

[narrator] RKO told Stevens, "This is
no time to be making an anti-war picture.

War is in the offing."

Stevens replied, "What better time
for an anti-war picture?"

But the studio steered him
towards Gunga Din instead.

[man]
On location with Gunga Din,

they see director George Stevens
and his crew

film a bit of action
for the big outdoor spectacle.

[Kasdan] He went off into the desert,

and made an extraordinarily fun,
swashbuckling adventure,

a film that had a huge impact
on Raiders of the Lost Ark,

and a hundred other movies.

But it is the opposite
of Paths of Glory.

It makes war look like fun.

[narrator] Stevens later said of the film,

"It celebrates the rumbling of the drums
and the waving of the flags.

Another year, and I would've been
too smart to do it."

In February, 1939, Frank Capra won
his third directing Oscar

for his film You Can't Take It With You.

He had won previously
for It Happened One Night

and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.

[del Toro] Before the war,
his dominance in the industry

was quite close to complete.

Capra bridges comedy

from the silent, which was
a gag-driven time for comedy,

to the verbal.

What are you going to do?

It's a system all my own.

[del Toro] It becomes accessible
to the man on the street,

and that makes his product
eminently American.

Consumable,
and yet of undeniable quality.

[narrator] Capra wanted his next film
to be about the American Revolution,

with George Washington as its hero.

But Harry Cohn, Capra's boss at Columbia,
turned it down,

and the reason was something
Capra hadn't considered.

Cohn didn't want to finance a picture

in which British soldiers
were portrayed as villains,

not when England might soon be
in a fight for its existence.

It was the start of an awakening
for Capra.

He decided to train his cameras
on contemporary Washington instead.

While scouting his next film in D.C.,

Capra, a conservative Republican,
met with President Roosevelt.

Let no one imagine
that America will escape,

that America may expect mercy.

The peace-loving nations
must make a concerted effort

in opposition
to those violations of treaties

and those ignorings of humane instincts,

which today are creating
a state of international anarchy,

international instability,

from which there is no escape
through mere isolation or neutrality.

[narrator] Capra was dazzled
by what he called "FDR's awesome aura."

He came home convinced
that Roosevelt was right.

America had to stop Hitler at any cost.

Like Ford, Capra went public at a rally.

He told the audience
that capitulation to Hitler

would mean barbarism and terror.

He never looked back.

The interesting thing about Capra,
also, for me,

is that he is an immigrant.

Capra comes from Italy,

which, at that time, is not seen
as a country that is sophisticated.

[narrator] Despite his fame,

the Sicilian immigrant
was still the target of slurs.

A Collier's magazine profile
called him a "Little Wop."

[del Toro] He is incredibly eager
and incredibly pressured

to prove himself.

That spirit is still the spirit
that he shares

with millions of other immigrants
from other countries in America.

And I think that is not only in him
and his career,

but in his characters.

America is almost dreamlike for him.

The dream of the Land of the Free

and the idea that one man
can stand against the system.

[man] The galleries are packed.

In the diplomatic gallery
are the envoys of two dictator powers.

They have come here
to see what they can't see at home:

Democracy in action.

There's no place out there for graft,
or greed, or lies,

or compromise with human liberties.

His films express
this basic need to be good.

Telegrams, 50,000 of them,
demanding that he yield this floor.

[del Toro] It always shows me
the true yearning inside of Capra,

which was existential and not political.

I think politically, he was very confused,

but the yearning, the need to be loved,
the need to be saved,

was true inside him.

I guess this is just another lost cause,
Mr. Paine.

[man] The Germans start bombing,
attacking Poland.

The Second World War begins
with terror from the sky.

Hitler has reconstructed Germany for war

and built a military juggernaut
too great for Poland to resist.

Britain declares war.

Two million men under arms

as the French Army
makes ready for battle.

America stands at the crossroads
of its destiny.

A few weeks have seen
great nations fall.

[narrator] By September, 1940,
Nazi Germany had conquered Belgium,

Holland, Norway, Luxembourg and France

and had begun a bombing campaign
over England.

[man] Winston Churchill
exhorts unbending resistance.

Downing Street, where the Prime Minister
resides, is bombed.

He is the voice of British determination
to stick it out.

[Charles Lindbergh]
France has now been defeated,

and, despite the propaganda
and confusion of recent months,

it is now obvious that England
is losing the war.

And I have been forced
to the conclusion

that we cannot win this war for England,

regardless of how much assistance
we send.

That is why the America First Committee
has been formed.

[narrator] In 1940,
John Ford solidified his reputation

as one of the most socially

and politically engaged filmmakers
in Hollywood

with two new films:

The Long Voyage Home
and The Grapes of Wrath.

[Greengrass] The Grapes of Wrath
is the great, great Hollywood film

about the nature of society.

Well, maybe it's like Casy says.

A fella ain't got a soul of his own,

just... a little piece of a big soul,

the one big soul
that belongs to everybody.

You can see reality
coming ever closer to Ford...

in The Long Voyage Home,

where you have the reference
to Norway having fallen.

To introduce an element
that's so specific, so contemporary,

I mean, literally ripped out
of that day's newspapers.

He did it deliberately.
It was a deliberate choice.

[airplane approaching]

One of my most interesting experiences
in filmmaking

was The Long Voyage Home,
by Eugene O'Neill.

I never realized at the time
that, in a few months,

I'd be being bombed from the air
by the same type of planes.

[narrator] By then, addressing the war
in movies was no longer enough for Ford.

He petitioned the Navy to start
an official photographic naval unit

to be called Field Photo.

And he recruits cameramen,
soundmen, editors,

all the elements that he would later bring
to the US government.

[narrator] Field Photo met once a week
on the Fox lot

and ran through drills
with props and costume uniforms.

The unit was soon designated
an official part of the Naval Reserve.

The whole idea of John Ford in uniform,
which he was obsessed by, incidentally,

the idea of John Ford, of all people,
fitting into a Navy hierarchy...

It's that divided personality.

He yearned to be
that disciplined man of rectitude.

But it was at odds
with the rebel outsider.

Behind the sort of hard drinking,

he was a highly attuned thinker
and artist,

who could see that the world
was collapsing.

[narrator] Ford received his third
Best Director nomination that year

for The Grapes of Wrath.

William Wyler was also nominated
for the third time

for his work on The Letter.

[Spielberg] All of Wyler's movies
before the war,

they were like sitting down
with a good book.

But they weren't relevant
to the affairs of the world in any way.

[man] Next, the awards.

[Spielberg] Frank Capra
brought the nominees

that were in attendance at the Oscars
that night onto stage,

which was kind of weird.

And then, while they were standing there,
he gave the award to John Ford,

who never even showed up,
because Ford was out fishing on his boat.

[narrator] Wyler, once again,
went home empty-handed.

[trumpets play]

[man] The Motion Picture Academy
of Arts and Sciences

hears an inspiring radio message

direct from the president
in the White House.

We have seen the American motion picture
become foremost in all the world.

We've seen it reflect our civilization
throughout the rest of the world.

The aims and the aspirations
and the ideals of a free people

and of freedom itself.

[narrator] In June, 1941, Nazi Germany
began a massive invasion of Russia,

in a dramatic escalation of the war.

[man] These are the first motion pictures
of the Nazi-Soviet war.

Film released by Moscow.

The Red Army in action.

The Germans drive deep into Russia.

Stalin has ordered the destruction
of everything in their path.

[narrator] A month later, Warner Bros.
released Sergeant York.

Huston was one of the writers
of the film,

a true story about a decorated hero
in World War I.

[Coppola] It's the story of, essentially,
a man who was a conscientious objector,

who believes that the Bible says
that we should not kill,

and he does not want to kill.

Of course, he turns out to be
the most effective soldier.

He takes out an entire
German gun emplacement.

[gunfire]

Them guns was killing hundreds,
maybe thousands,

and there weren't nothin' anybody could do
but to stop them guns.

[Coppola] The movie
slowly built its premise

that someone who could be
so against killing

could ultimately also be
a very effective soldier

if the idea behind it
could make sense to him.

[narrator] Sergeant York became
the highest-grossing film of 1941.

Its runaway success
rankled the isolationists in Washington,

and they decided the time was right
to go after Hollywood.

Senator Gerald Nye claimed

that the studios were colluding
with the Roosevelt Administration

to make pro-war propaganda,
and he called hearings.

Studio heads and filmmakers were
summoned to testify before Congress.

In Harry Warner's testimony,
he stated,

"In truth, the only sin
of which Warner Bros. is guilty

is that of accurately recording
on the screen the world as it is."

[man]
Incendiary bombs and high explosives

rained down on every part
of the British capital indiscriminately.

Chungking, a mass of flaming ruins

after one of the most frightful
of air raids,

reminding us grimly that,
while Europe holds the headlines,

the China war drags on
with unending tragedy.

Yet, the stubborn defense
against Japan goes on.

I got a call from my agent.

He wanted to see me about a picture
called Mrs. Miniver.

I didn't know anything about it.

He said it's about England at war.

Oh, well, I was interested right away.

[Spielberg] I really think that he began
to try to find a cause.

And I think his first cause
as a filmmaker was Mrs. Miniver.

[bomb whistles, getting closer]

[very loud explosion]

[airplanes overhead]

He really told the story of solidarity
and strength.

Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon,

and the power of that marriage
and that family,

that they were unshakeable.

It just was something that we want
to live up to ourselves.

[little boy giggles]

And I think he knew
that he could make a contribution.

I think Wyler knew that he was
strong enough in his self-confidence

to know that he could tell a story
about the real war

and have a tremendous impact
with that story stateside.

There was a scene with a German pilot
who was shot down over England,

and he was caught by Mrs. Miniver
somehow.

And I said, "This man has got to be
one of Mr. Göring's little monsters."

And I got a call
to go see Mr. Louis B. Mayer.

He said,
"We're glad to have you here with us,

and we're glad
you're making this picture,

but you must remember one thing:

we are not making a hate picture.

We don't hate anybody.
We're not in the war."

I said, "Mr. Mayer,
you know what's going on in the world.

I mean, do you know what's going on?"

He said, "Yes, I know.
But look, we have stockholders.

You know, we cannot satisfy
our own personal feelings."

I said, "Look, Mr. Mayer, I'm sorry.

I have one German in this picture.

If I had several Germans, I wouldn't mind
having one nice, friendly chap.

But I've only got one,
and if I make this film,

this one German is going to be
one of Mr. Göring's little monsters

who wants to destroy the world
and kill all the Jews,

and so on and so forth.

And otherwise, I don't make the film."

[ominous slow drumming]

[Roosevelt] December 7, 1941:

a date which will live in infamy.

I ask that the Congress declare

that, since the unprovoked
and dastardly attack by Japan,

a state of war has existed

between the United States
and the Japanese Empire.

About halfway through
making Mrs. Miniver...

Pearl Harbor.

Germany declares war on us.

We didn't even have to declare war
on them.

We declared war on Japan,
Germany declares war on us.

I get a call from Mr. Mayer.

"I've been thinking a lot
about what you said."

He said, "You know, maybe you were right.

You go ahead and do the way you want it.

It's okay for now. All right."

[chuckles]

He'd been giving it a lot of thought.

Rotterdam we destroy in two hours.

That's thousands killed. Innocent--

-Not innocent! They were against us!
-Women and children!

Thirty-thousand in two hours.

And we will do the same thing here!

[shouts in German]

And at the end of Mrs. Miniver,

with the pullback that reveals
the gutted church...

Wyler's talking directly to audiences,

talking directly to the British audiences,

talking directly
to the American audiences.

It just seemed like a declaration
of commitment,

that we're all in this together,
and we're going to fight until we win.

And it was a very
beautifully-written speech.

This is the people's war. It is our war.

We are the fighters. Fight it, then.

Fight it with all that is in us.

And may God defend the right.

If you can make a film
that has something to say...

[quiet singing]

...entertaining, of course,
is the main purpose of it,

but if film can contribute something
to the social conscience of your time,

then it becomes a source
of great satisfaction.

[Spielberg] That was
his first contribution to the war effort.

[industrious, fast-paced strings play]

[Greengrass]
For each of those five filmmakers,

they wanted to respond

as so many millions of men and women
responded.

They chose to serve.

[strings continue to play]

[man] Overnight,
America's heavy industry has converted

to full-time war production.

[narrator] Ultimately, one-third of
Hollywood's male workforce would join up.

But in the first days after the attack,

the movie industry was uncertain
about what its role should be.

Business as usual felt impossible.

Working hours were curtailed.
So was nightlife.

The clubs and bars and restaurants
where Hollywood congregated

were all closed, as the West Coast,
terrified of an air attack,

enforced blackouts every night.

Capra went to Washington
almost immediately after Pearl Harbor

to begin one of the largest
filmmaking efforts of the war.

[Capra] The genesis of this originated
in the mind of General Marshall.

He was Chief of Staff.

And we were in the war.

We had no troops, we had nothing yet,
but we were at war.

He called me in and said,
"We have an enormous problem.

We'll soon have 12 million kids
in uniform,

and many of them
have never seen a gun.

These kids, with their long suits
and their long chains

and all their precocious things
they were doing at the time,

what are they gonna do?

What are they gonna do when they get
this terrible disease of homesickness?"

He wondered how we could put
into the minds of these young kids

the necessity of why
they were in uniform.

And he said,
"I think it could be done with film.

It should be done with film."

[man] He had tried it with lectures.
He had tried it with books.

It wouldn't work.
They weren't interested.

The boys weren't learning anything.

They wanted something
that boys knew about.

Now, boys liked films.

When I got out of his office,

I went into the nearest,
excuse me, can,

and sat down and said,
"Jesus Christ, what the hell am I..."

I never saw a documentary.

I thought documentaries were silly things
that rich kooks made.

And I think that the effort in America
of all propaganda films

was an effort of recruitment and belief.

[man] Give the boys a reason to fight
and don't lie.

They must believe it.

If they don't believe it, we're dead.

[narrator] Capra came up
with an ambitious idea:

a series of seven films
called Why We Fight

that would detail the history

of German and Japanese aggression
leading up to America's entry in the war.

He started urging screenwriters
to come to Washington and begin work.

Additionally, the War Department
sent emissaries

to convince some of Hollywood's
most talented men

to leave their jobs behind
and lend their abilities to the cause.

[Huston] Captain Sy Bartlett
was a kind of envoy from Washington,

also a Hollywood writer.

There were a list of people,
Anatole Litvak, Willy Wyler,

John Ford, Frank Capra,

who were asked to come into the service,

and I was the least of these.

[Coppola] Probably at that time,
there was no young director

with a more exciting career
than John Huston,

with his breakthrough production
on The Maltese Falcon.

[narrator] Huston's directorial debut
had become a surprise hit,

both commercially and critically.

But he would be able
to do only one more film

before reporting for duty.

[Kasdan] These five men all chose to go,

knowing it could be the end of them.

It wasn't just that their movie careers
would be put on hold.

And so, they were saying goodbye
to families, in many cases,

who never knew if they would return.

They did not have to go.
George Stevens did not have to go.

When he's finishing Woman of the Year,
Pearl Harbor happens,

and the whole world does a roundabout.

Woman of the Year is the first time
that Hepburn and Tracy worked together,

and that started a run of pictures

and a relationship
between Hepburn and Tracy

that is iconic for American movies.

[narrator] Stevens was eager
to turn his attentions to the war,

instead of distracting people from it,

but he was still under contract
to make two more films at Columbia.

Pearl Harbor was only the start
of the Japanese military offensive.

[gunfire, airplanes]

In the weeks and months that followed,
Japan invaded Hong Kong, Guam,

Burma and Singapore,

and drove American forces
to retreat from the Philippines.

In June, Ford, now overseeing all Navy
filmmaking, was sent to Midway Island.

[Greengrass] When Ford made Midway,

he thinks he's going to film flora
and fauna,

you know, in a remote, far-flung base.

In fact, what happens is,
he's told there's to be a Japanese attack.

He had to make a choice
about where he went.

What he wanted to do, I think,
was to be in the thick of it.

That was his instinct as a man.

He's there on a raised platform.

Well, in an air raid,

the one place you don't want to be
is on a raised platform,

because you're very, very visible.

But he picked that
because that was the place

where he was gonna be able to see...

He could see this perspective,
but he could also see that.

Ford always knew
where to put the camera.

[man] Suddenly, from behind
the clouds, the Japs attack!

[airplanes humming loudly]

[gunfire]

His response is purely cinematic.

At that moment, reality comes to him,
and he moves to meet it.

[humming, explosion]

[man] Planes roared
from the decks of our carriers.

Army bombers, Marines,

thunder destruction
over a 300-mile battle area.

When he was shooting,
you see the messiness

and the framing,
and the struggle for the framing,

and the sprockets coming loose...

[explosion]

...and the film becoming itself,
the image distressing,

and that accidental quality
conveying the raw drama.

That's one of the most modern moments
in cinema.

For somebody like myself,
who came originally from documentaries,

it's very interesting to me to see
that Ford was there decades before,

wrestling with those same problems.

[John Ford]
A blast of shrapnel that knocked me...

I got wounded pretty badly there.

[man] Meantime,
our warships stopped the Jap fleet.

[Greengrass] Then he takes the rushes.
He knows what he's got.

He didn't just want it to be rushes

to be cannibalized
by the Department of the Navy

or bureaucrats somewhere else
in the Pentagon.

He wanted to make a film.

He got the film and got out
and brought it to Washington.

How he did it, I don't know.

I suspect he said it was a box of cigars
or something.

I don't know how he got it out,
but he got it out.

"Here, take this and start organizing it.

But don't do it here. Go to California."

Officially, I was in the Navy,

and I said, "Well should I report
to the Navy barracks there?"

And he said, "No, I think
you ought to report to your mother.

Go live at your mother's house."

Now, the truth was, of course,

that he knew that the bureaucracy
would catch up,

and they would say, "Do you have
any film here that was brought back?"

And he could say no, he didn't.

He had to construct
not a documentary account, exactly,

but a John Ford account of reality.

The decision about whether
to show that film

in the form that Ford had made it

ultimately went up the chain,

until finally President Roosevelt
watched the film.

He gave me a little roll of film like that
and he said, "Don't look at this

and don't put it in the picture
until I tell you to."

And, of course, the first thing I did,
as soon as I got out of the cutting room,

I looked at it immediately.

[Greengrass] He found a shot.

We'll never know
whether it was a shot that he shot there,

or it was a shot that he found
somewhere else,

but a shot of President Roosevelt's son.

[Robert Parrish] Then he set up a running
of the film at the White House

with President Roosevelt.

And just before the White House running,
he said, "Now put this in."

I was told at that running,
Roosevelt talked, the way people do,

and that Roosevelt would say,
"Oh, yes, that's a B-17, and that's..."

He kept on. You know,
he had a lot to say about the film.

Then, when Jimmy Roosevelt's picture
came up, everything was silence.

Dead silent.

Nobody spoke from the time
that that shot was on the screen

until the end.

And then Roosevelt turned
to Admiral Leahy,

who was his senior aide,

and said, "I want every American
to see this film as soon as possible."

[Greengrass] Anyone who's made a film
knows those sorts of decisions,

that all is fair in the battle
to ensure the sanctity of your piece.

And that shot helped him.
Let's put it like that.

[laughs]

And the result is profound
across the US.

[gunfire]

People are suddenly brought close
to what that conflict is.

[explosions]

[narrator] The Battle of Midway

was eventually shown
in three quarters of American theaters.

It was the first time Americans
saw the war in color,

which, until then, had been associated
with escapism and fantasy.

It was also the first time the audience
witnessed an American victory.

[man] Yes. This really happened.

[women sing "The Star-Spangled Banner"]

[Greengrass] But you can still see
in that film, you know,

he picked out close-ups.

He picked out moments.

[man] Men and women of America,

here come your neighbors' sons,
home from the day's work.

[Greengrass] That was quite new.

No one had ever approached
unfolding warfare,

and approached it
with such a humane storyteller's eye.

He had witnessed
the annihilation of a...

of a military unit.

[man] At eventide,
we buried our heroic dead,

the last salute from their comrades
and their officers.

[gentle singing]

[Greengrass] He was not to know,
at the moment that he shot,

that this was a small part
of a much grander American victory.

So far as he was concerned,

he was witnessing a unit
that had been wiped out.

That, I think, marked him
very, very powerfully.

[Ford] I am really a coward.

I know I am.
So, that's why I did foolish things.

I was decorated eight or nine times,
trying to prove that I was not a coward.

But after it was all over,
I still know that I was a coward.

You go ahead and do a thing,
but after it's all over,

your knees start shaking.

[chuckles]

[narrator] While Ford was filming
on the front lines,

Capra was struggling
to get Why We Fight off the ground.

He was battling
with his screenwriters constantly,

and soon realized he'd have
almost no budget to shoot the films.

Then, in New York he saw
the Nazi propaganda film,

Triumph of the Will,

which had been directed
by Leni Riefenstahl

during the 1934 Nazi Party Congress.

[crowds cheering]

[drumming]

[del Toro] Along with America,
he awakes to the monstrous ambition

and ruthlessness of Hitler

and the propaganda machine that Goebbels
has assembled in Nazi Germany

when it's almost too late.

[ominous music]

I saw that,
and it scared the hell out of me.

I went back to my little chair
in my office and my one telephone,

and I sat there, and I sat there...

I was a...
I was a very unhappy man.

How can I possibly top this?

The power of the film itself showed
that they knew what they were doing.

[del Toro] And when he sees it,
his reaction is extremely telling,

because he comes out of seeing it,
saying,

"We're lost. We can't win this war.
These guys are gonna beat us."

Because that is how effective a weapon
thought is.

[crowds shouting]

[Capra] So, how do I reach
the kid down the street, you know?

-[interviewer] The American kid?
-[Capra] The American kid.

How do I tell him?
He's riding his bike, and. "Hey, hey."

[whistles]

"You... Do you know
what you've got in front of you?

You've got this and this."
How do I reach him?

[industrious fast-paced strings play]

The thought hit me:
"Well, how did it reach me? "

They told me.

So, I said, "Aha.
Let's let the boys see only their stuff.

We make nothing. We shoot nothing.

We use their own stuff as propaganda
for ourselves.

Let them see. Let them see the guys.
Let them see these guys."

[shouting in German]

[man] "Stop thinking
and follow me," cried Hitler.

"I will make you masters of the world."

The people answered, "Heil!"

[all shouting] Sieg Heil!

[man] "Stop thinking
and believe in me," bellowed Mussolini,

"and I will restore the glory
that was Rome."

The people answered, "Duce! Duce!"

[crowds shouting]

[man] "Stop thinking
and follow your god emperor,"

cried the Japanese warlords,

"and Japan will rule the world."

And the people answered,
"Banzai! Banzai!"

[crowds shouting]

Capra takes a route that is unique
in propaganda,

which is, he makes it folksy.

[man] Take a good look
at these humorless men.

These were to be the rulers
of the ruling race.

Speaking for the little guy.
"See those guys?

See the airs they put on?

See how they think they are superior?
Well, we're gonna show them.

We're gonna show them wrong."

[Capra] Hitler looked like
Charlie Chaplin.

He came on:

[imitates Hitler in German]

And actually, you know,
it was one of the Marx Brothers.

For the people that saw him,
a lot of people laughed.

And when Mussolini did his big,
his big stuff,

why, he, too, was a clown.

If it weren't so evil, if there weren't
so many people getting killed,

it was a comedy.

[children singing]

[Capra] Well, I said,
"We have an enormous story to tell."

Here I got the greatest heroes,
the greatest villains,

on the world stage.

Real. Not actors. Real.

[ominous music]

The truth was that if we lost,
we'd lose our freedom,

certainly, above all.

And I thought freedom
was our most precious commodity.

And if we lost our freedom,
we'd lose everything.

[ominous music continues]