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Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War Hardcover – February 27, 2014

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Mark Harris (Author)
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4.4 out of 5 stars 190 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Press; 1St Edition edition (February 27, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1594204306
  • ISBN-13: 978-1594204302
  • Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 2.8 x 9.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (190 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsThe Best Years of Their Lives
By takingadayoff TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on December 10, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Five Hollywood directors volunteered for active duty after Pearl Harbor. They ranged in age from mid-thirties to late forties and had families to support. They were in no danger of being drafted at their age, and taking an indefinite leave from their careers was risky. They took huge cuts in pay to join up. They all accepted commissions and spent the war doing what they did best -- making movies.

I came into Five Came Back with a pretty sketchy idea of who these five directors were (Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, William Wyler, George Stevens). I remembered Capra did It's a Wonderful Life and John Ford did westerns, or was that John Huston? So, to be honest, I was ready to bail out if it turned out to be for insiders.

Once I started the book though, I was hooked. Mark Harris did a tremendous amount of research to track down the stories of the five. There's a fair amount of personal information and some gossipy bits, but mostly it's the story of the movies they made while they were in uniform. Since they were working for Uncle Sam and not for a movie studio or a news outlet, most of what they did was propaganda and training films. But because these were talented and creative men, they didn't churn out standard issue films.

While all the stories are fascinating, that of George Stevens is the most gripping. He was with the first Allied unit that entered the Dachau concentration camp after the Germans had fled. No one was prepared for the horror. And as an army unit, they were unable to do much right away for the many inmates who had survived to that point. Stevens filmed as much as he could, and his film would be used as evidence during the Nuremburg Trials. The experience shattered him though, and it took years for him to recover enough to make movies again.Read more ›
2 Comments 103 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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5.0 out of 5 starsYou can't go home again.
By Steve Schwartz VINE VOICE on December 26, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Five top Hollywood directors -- John Ford, Frank Capra, John Huston, William Wyler, and George Stevens -- enlisted in the armed services for World War II to offer their skills in documenting the conflict. Ford, the most prescient of the five, actually joined the Navy several months before Pearl Harbor. All had made classic films before the war. All of them put their very lucrative careers on hold, with no guarantee that they would or could resume them afterward. Except for Capra, all of them saw action. Capra stayed in the US to help organize Hollywood's war effort and the army's propaganda.

James Agee remarked in one of his film essays that most of these men's work deepened after the war, and this book shows you why. Harris also paints a detailed picture of the complex relationships among the studios, the military, and the movie-going public.

Ford, famously, was wounded during the Battle of Midway. Wyler risked his life filming bombing runs over Germany and actually lost his hearing trying to get a particular shot. Ford and Stevens filmed the D-Day landings at Omaha and Juno beaches, respectively. Stevens documented (he realized immediately that his footage would be used as evidence) the liberation of Dachau. He would not allow his men to film the worst of it, but shot the crematoria and other footage himself. Huston worked mainly in Italy. Capra spent his war mainly creating the Why We Fight series, in the process coming up with many narrative innovations that we now take for granted.

Harris also contrasts these men with other Hollywood people who served. Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th-Century Fox, strutted like a popinjay in his tailored uniforms and insisted on being addressed as "Colonel." He squandered resources and produced nothing usable.Read more ›
9 Comments 37 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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4.0 out of 5 starsIn-depth look at the impact of WWII on the movie business, and vice versa
By Gary K. McCormick VINE VOICE on January 3, 2014
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
"Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War" examines the impact that the Second World War had on the Hollywood film-making community in general, and five top directors – William Wyler, John Ford, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens – in particular. It is a well-researched volume with considerable detail (sometimes too much, frankly) which brings to light aspects of the uncomfortable alliance between civilian filmmakers and their military counterparts that most readers, even WW II aficionados, might not be aware of.

The partnership between the Hollywood community and the military film-making establishment that was forged in hurried fashion when the United States was plunged into war on December 7th, 1941 was never an easy one, and the varied wartime careers of the five notable film directors around which the volume is structured brings this fact to light.

Treading carefully with government and military information establishments which often viewed them as slightly untrustworthy, liberal-tending dilettantes, these five men brought their own personal and political baggage to the task of making training films and morale-boosting documentaries for the civilian and military populations. John Huston was a thrill-seeking adventurer who firmly supported the war, Frank Capra was a timid sort whose beliefs wavered with the current political wind – his only true conviction the fear of being ostracized.

While some went to the front, in harm's way – notably John Ford and John Huston – others contributed from the home front; Frank Capra, for example. For all the trials and tribulations these five men encountered, the over-arching impression that I came away with was that they didn't really accomplish much.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Interesting and very well written. I learned a lot and was entertained at the same time.

Published 1 month ago by William L. Myers
4.0 out of 5 starsFascinating Chronicle of the Wartime Careers of Five Great Hollywood...

This is the kind of chronicle which will inevitably prove of interest to all fans of the classical Hollywood era. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Dr. Laurence Raw
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

as advertised on TCM

Published 2 months ago by Diana Barrows
5.0 out of 5 starsWORTH READING.

SPELLBINDING---A GREAT READ. LOTS OF HISTORY ABOUT INDIVIDUAL DIRECTORS AND HOLLYWOOD

Published 2 months ago by RONALD
3.0 out of 5 starsIf it walks like web-footed women with an axe to grind

I have not finished this but what I learned, through a spontaneous purchase at Barnes & Noble, I lived this story. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Nancy Drew
5.0 out of 5 starsespecially of you like old movies

Really interesting, especially of you like old movies.

Published 5 months ago by Christina D. Page
5.0 out of 5 starsFive of Hollywood's best Producers/Directors head for WWII.

Excellent book about the five Hollywood motion picture producer/directors who joined the U.S. Armed Forces to create documentaries and propaganda films during WWII. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Sandy Hintz
2.0 out of 5 starsI gave up on this book after about 100 pages ...

I gave up on this book after about 100 pages. The book really needed an involved editor to flesh out a a narrative. Each of these directors is worthy of multiple books. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Jeff N
5.0 out of 5 starsYes, They All Came Back But Oh, How They Were Changed.

This book gives incredible insight to an important time and turning point in American cinema and five of it's most important and prolific directors. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Biletnikoff
2.0 out of 5 starsOverly long and excessively detailed first half made me give up on...

I really wanted to like this as I enjoy Harris' columns on Grantland. That was, in fact my reason for buying it. However, he could've used a better editor for the book. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Justin S

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