Five Came Back 1.03

The Price of Victory

This episode follows the the five directors through the end of their service and into their civilian lives after the war.

Topics discussed include

• the D-Day landing (Stevens, Ford)
• Ford's service in the war comes to an end in disgrace
• the liberation of Paris (Stevens)
• the liberation of Rome (Wyler)
• Wyler's visit to the town where he was born in France
• Wyler's service in the war comes to an end with disability (deafness)
• the liberation of Dachau (Stevens)
• end of the war in Europe
• end of the war in the Pacific
• Liberty Films (Capra, Wyler, Stevens)
• the post war films of George Stevens

Five Came Back 1.02

Combat Zones

The story of the exploits of the five film directors continues in this episode. The story picks up where it left off and goes up to just before D-Day in 1944. The same talking heads that appeared in the first episode are also in this one. Once again there are archival interviews the five directors at the center of this story.

Topics discussed include 

• difference between war in the movies and the reality of war
• use of animaiton in the Why We Fight series and in the Private Snafu shorts
• Wyler's abortive role in making a movie about Black soldiers in the US Army
• the spill over from Ford's civilian working relationship with Daryl Zanuck

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.