Five Came Back 1.01

The Mission Begins

This three-part documentary series is based on the book of the same name by Mark Harris. It is about five movie directors who served in the armed forces during World War 2:

• John Ford
• William Wyler
• Frank Capra
• George Stevens
• John Huston.

The documentary series is a mix of archival newsreel footage from the 1930s and 1940s, archival interviews with the five directors shot from the 1950s to the 1980s, and clips from some of the movies they made from the 1930s and 1940s. Additionally there are clips of interviews with five current filmmakers (Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Greengrass, Guillermo Del Toro, Lawrence Kasdan) about the five who served during World War 2.

Some of the projects that the five worked on during World War 2 and that are discussed in this episode are

• Why We Fight (Capra)
• Mrs. Miniver (Wyler)
• Battle of Midway (Ford)

I read the book upon which this documentary series was based, in 2023. I wasn't aware of the Netflix series until I got a good ways into the book. So far it seems that the documentary series is more or less following the same structure as the book.