Book Description
Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II -and they were legion -Jimmy Stewart was unique. On December 7th, when the attack on Pearl Harbor woke so many others to the reality of war, Stewart was already in uniform - as a private on guard duty south of San Francisco at the Army Air Corps Moffet Field. Seeing war on the horizon, Jimmy Stewart, at the height of his fame after Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and his Oscar-winning turn in The Phadelphia Story in 1940, had enlisted several months earlier. Jimmy Stewart, Bomber Pilot chronicles his long journey to become a bomber pilot in combat. Author Starr Smith, the intelligence officer assigned to the movie star, recounts how Stewart's first battles were with the Air Corps high command, who insisted on keeping the naturally talented pilot out of harm's way as an instructor pilot for B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators. By 1944, however, Stewart managed to get assigned to a Liberator squadron that was deploying to England to join the mighty Eighth Air Force. Once in the thick of it, he rose to command his own squadron and flew twenty combat missions, including one to Berlin. "My father would feel honored by this book." -Kelly Stewart Harcourt, daughter of Jimmy Stewart "We would have made Jimmy a group commander [equivalent to an army regiment] if the war had lasted another month." - General Jimmy Doolittle. "An excellent biography of a distinguished airman and fine human being." - Roger Freeman, author of The Mighty Eighth: A History of the U.S. 8th Air Force. "How wonderful it is that Starr Smith has finally directed a literary light on the personal history of Jimmy Stewart. . . . I welcomed Starr's book. It is needed and wanted. Bravo!" - Gay Talese. "This is a very well researched and written book. . . . It fills a place in history about no mere actor but a courageous and selfless man, Brigadier General Jimmy Stewart, USAF." - General Michael E. Ryan, former Chief of Staff of the Air Force. "I have met a few movie stars, but of them all, I think that Jimmy Stewart was most like those modest heroes he portrayed. Now journalist Starr Smith has raised the curtain on Stewarts gallant service as a bomber pilot and air combat commander in World War II." -Walter Cronkite, from the Foreword
Customer Reviews:
I Wanted to Like this Book.......2007-09-23
In reading the other reviews of this book, I found something very interesting: both the positive and negative are basically correct. This book is a near love letter to Stewart, but it also really fails to describe his military experiences. Stewart was the Pat Tillman of another era. He enlisted--enlisted--in the U.S. Army before--I repeat--before Pear Harbor. This after he was an Oscar winning movie star. The book is good at building up and describing Stewart's early career in Hollywood and his initial training. You get a good feel for his leadership ability. Then, the author fails to deliver. There is nothing about the missions Stewart flew. The book reads like a series of articles from unit alumni newsletters. It strikes me that Smith used this book as a post-retirment mechanism to renew old friendships from the war, and while everyone seems to agree that Stewart was an amazing man of integrity and character, they fail to provide any meaningful evidence to support their position.
The Camera Doesn't Lie.......2007-02-18
The first step towards writing a good book is to pick a good subject. Chances are, even if you are not that great of a writer or do not have something especially compelling to say, if you have picked a good subject then the book will float on its own. Jimmy Stewart is a good subject and Starr Smith's brief biography of him, focusing primarily on his service as pilot in World War II, floats. Starr Smith served as an Intelligence Officer with the Eighth Air Force and became acquainted with Jimmy Stewart in London when they were stationed together. Stewart served in London as a Bomber pilot with the Eighth Air Force. It's a little known fact that service as a Bomber Pilot in World War II was more dangerous than service as an infantryman. For an Oscar-winning movie star to brave those risks was exceptional. For me, this was an uplifting and enjoyable book.
Jimmy Stewart was born in Pennsylvania in 1908 and grew up in Indiana. He became entranced with acting during his senior year of high school and continued to act when he went on to Princeton University. After graduation, Stewart worked as an actor in Massachusetts with a small acting company where he met another aspiring actor who would become his room-mate when they subsequently went to New York. That actor was Henry Fonda. The two actors shared a love of airplanes and flying and often spent evenings in their small New York apartment building model airplanes.
Stewart and Fonda both landed in Hollywood in 1935 and launched upon successful movie careers. Stewart had gotten wide acclaim for his role in "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" and later won an Academy Award for his role in the "Philadelphia Story" in 1939. But when war came, Stewart volunteered for service with the Army. He was initially turned away because he was too light but, undeterred, he gained the required weight and joined up, eventually earning an officer's commission as a pilot. Despite frequent attempts to get to combat duty in Europe, Stewart served as a flight instructor in the states until he finally got his wish and landed a combat assignment with the Eighth Air Force in London. The Eighth Air Force -- which is featured in the classic war film "Twelve O'Clock High" (a must own) -- had the mission of flying the precarious daylight bombing raids over Germany.
This brings us to the best part of the book: first-hand testimonials from Stewart's men on what type of officer and leader he was. Unsurprisingly, he was a very competent pilot and an active leader who was very involved in the details of his job. The below quote from one of Stewart's men says a lot about his leadership style:
"Jimmy Stewart walked all through the airplane, checking us all out, and returned to the flight deck. On the intercom he asked each crew position questions about our routine. He asked me, "What are you doing now, Sergeant Robinson? What do you see out the waist window? Can you see the supercharger position? Are the exhausts smoking? What color is the engine exhaust? How much fuel do we have on board? Are you checking it? Are the fuel gauges off and drained?"
Stewart wanted to see every engineer on the flight deck. I went forward. Then more questions. "Robinson, can you fly as first engineer? Can you operate all turrets? Can you arm the bombs?" He had a question about everything. Stewart really knew this airplane. He wanted us to know it too."
After the war, Stewart married at the age of 41 and raised a family with twin daughters in Hollywood. He had a stepson killed in action in Vietnam while serving as a Marine officer. Stewart went on to become a Brigadier General in the Air Force reserve and remained most proud of his service during the war - much more so than his many acting accomplishments. In conclusion, this book leads us to believe that the camera captured Stewart's true essence in his most famous role as Frank Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life." Like Bailey, Stewart lived a wonderful life; and it is this fact more than anything else that makes this book such an inspiring and enjoyable read.
BOMB.......2007-01-05
This book is lousy with a Capital "L". Shallow, superficial, with almost no detail about the missions flown. Even includes one totally irrelevant chapter about Army maneuvers conducted in Lousiana- that Stewart had no part in at all! There are no insights into Stewart's personality- all we find out is that he conducted excellent pre-mission briefings, and that he was a skilled pilot- which most Jimmy Stewart fans know already.
Almost a third of the book deals with other irrelevancies, like the Jimmy Stewart museum and how he married and raised a family- after the war.
Don't waste your money.
A good read but somewhat disappointing.......2006-10-20
I was well aware of Jimmy Stewart's military record when I set out to read this book. I was, however, anxious to learn a bit more about Stewart's combat exploits during World War II. In that regard, this book was somewhat disappointing. Rather than let us get inside Stewart's heart and mind and sense what he experienced, it appears to chronicle Stewart's time in service, letting us know where, when, and in what capacities he served; what a great guy he was, how dedicated and successful he was, and when and to what ranks he was promoted; and, in general, what many of those who served with him thought of him, but it never gets down to the nitty-gritty of what he actually did at a personal level. The reader, it would seem, is always looking from the outside in.
I was also disappointed by the fact that much of the book isn't even about Jimmy Stewart. Stewart seems to be a thread running through a broader story about World War II in Europe and, more specifically, the air war as fought by our B-24 Liberator bomb groups. I say that because more often than not the author deviates from his presumed subject, Stewart, and goes off on a tangent (e.g., Eisenhower's appointment, George C. Marshall, one officer or another, the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1940, manufacturing B-24 bombers, the Wright crew, Churchill and Roosevelt at Casablanca, and various reminiscences of one person or another). Perhaps I'm being too critical, but I would estimate that only about 30% of the book actually deals directly with Jimmy Stewart while the remainder concerns other topics. And much of the 30% is a bit repetitive.
All that said, this is still an interesting history of the air war in Europe, much of it in the words of men who actually served with Jimmy Stewart. From that standpoint, it is well worth reading. After doing so, the reader will know where Stewart served, in what capacities, how many missions he flew, when he was promoted, what people thought of him, what medals and commendations he won, and where the Brigadier General James Maitland Stewart museum is located, but he or she probably won't have a real sense of the man, himself. But, maybe only Jimmy Stewart could have told that side of the story, and he was much too unpretentious a man to ever do so.
Humility comes before Honor-Stewart had both.......2006-03-27
Smith does a nice job recounting the days the Jimmy Stewart spent in the military during WWII. I found it very detailed oriented and less filled with anecdotes than I would have thought all these years removed from WWII. I knew a bit about Stewart's involvement in the Army Air Corps, which became the Air Force, but this book really filled in the details of his time during the war. Guys like Jimmy Stewart are a far cry from the phonies like Alec Baldwin who threaten to go back to Canada but wind up sticking around the USA to sap of of our money with second rate films.
I think you will be amazed to find out all that Stewart had to do in order to become the hero he was. He was not drafted as a previous review claims, rather he inlisted against the will of the studio. He also had to endure undesired special treatment because no one wanted to put him in harms way. Eventually his desire to train for and see active duty prevailed and some forty odd years later this film star retired as Gen. Stewart, donating all of his retirement money back to the Air Force.
This is a great book about an American hero. Like many of his day, Glen Miller, Ronald Reagan. Stewart did not wait he willingly enlisted!
Customer Reviews:
A Warm Survey of an Amazing Story.......2006-10-26
As a Casablanca lover (words don't do it justice), I ate this book up. Harmetz writes with warmth about nearly everyone involved in the film except Jack Warner, about whom she writes with a deserved respect. The stories of the bit players, most refugees, expanded the Casablanca context tremendously for me. The suspense, and the tale of how this gem could have been different in so many ways (or not produced at all), made me appreciate this cultural icon even more. I haven't seen the film since reading this book, but you bet when I do I'm going to turn off the phone.
Great book on the best film of the 1940s.......2003-09-25
Aljean Harmetz's "Round Up the Usual Suspects" is one of the best books on the making of what is probably the best film of the 1940s (and possibly of all time). Harmetz explains almost every aspect of the story--often sounding more like fiction than fact--of the making of this all-time winner. These aspects include who was behind the camera, the actors, and the writers. She provides many details about life behind the WB shield--which collaborates the view of Jack Warner as a jerk seen in a fine book,"Hollywood Be Thy Name"--the fights on who wrote the screenplay, and how they all meshed together to create an enduring classic. She also explains how the film escaped the propanganda machine of later 1940 films. If you love this film, you should read this book! Let us hope that it returns to print witht he release of the special DVD edition of "Casablanca".
A Great Read on the Making and Success of Casablanca.......2003-01-07
This book is a great read. Although heavily documented, the "characters" come alive throughout--the characters being actual actors, the Warner brothers of Warner Bros., the director, writers, even the lighting director and sound men on the set.
It wonderfully describes the studio system, the differences between the studios and how "properties" were loaned out, and how WW II affected everybody in the movie business.
Two quotes had me laughing until I was in tears. It is a great book. Additionally, the hardcover with translucent dustjacket is most gorgeous. This is a winner and a keeper for movie history buffs.
The best MAKING OF A MOVIE book I have ever read!.......1998-08-28
"Round Up the Usual Suspects" provided many behind-the-scenes tidbits about CASABLANCA that I've never heard before - Murray Burnett's lawsuits against Howard Koch, the feud between Jack Warner and Hal Wallis and a precise picture of the Warner Brother house style. Ms. Harmetz provided an excellent and detailed account of Hollywood moviemaking in the early 40s. After reading this and her books on GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ, she just may well be one of the foremost historians of Hollywood's Golden Age.
A Miracle of Accidents.......1998-07-29
"Casablanca" is quite simply my favorite film. Its history encompasses the studio system at its finest, the political movements of World War II (the famous Casablanca conference provided invaluable free publicity for the film), and some of the best casting in film history (my favorite character was always Claude Rains' Louis Renault).
In "Round Up the Usual Suspects," Aljean Harmetz has brought the history of this film to glorious life, exploring its origins and dispelling its myths. (How seriously was Ronald Reagan considered for the lead? Did Ingrid Bergman know the ending?)
Her attention to detail would have been sufficient to make this a great book, but Harmetz does much more. Her greatest achievement (and it's great indeed) is to present the film as a miracle of accidents, the almost coincidental meeting of the forces of Hollywood with the forces of history.
"Round Up the Usual Suspects" is essential reading for anyone interes! ted in the story of how a great film is made.
Book Description
ritically acclaimed when published in 1992 as Round Up the Usual Suspects, The Making of Casablanca offers the ultimate insider's look at the politics and personalities behind the most celebrated movie of all time-Casablanca. Updated and timed for the 60th anniversary (Thanksgiving Day, 1942) of this movie, this critically acclaimed book draws upon years of research, including access to Ingrid Bergman's personal acting diaries and the vast Warner Brothers archives, as well as interviews with many of those close to the film, including the late Paul Henreid, Lauren Bacall, and scriptwriters Howard Koch and Julius Epstein. Richly detailed and full of surprises, The Making of Casablanca debunks many cherished myths about the casting, script, story, and stars, to reveal the realities of the highly pressured Hollywood studio system during World War II.
Customer Reviews:
I came to Casablanca for the waters..........2005-09-22
Have you ever purchased something twice and started to read or listen to it and realize you have already read or purchased it before?
As Bogart says in his cafe, " I was misinformed". A few years ago,I bought and read this book under the title, "Round Up The Usual Suspects" and I enjoyed it very much. I then bought it again (recently, I'm not that disoriented-yet) under it's new title, "The Making of Casablanca" same book, and same level of enjoyment. Aljean Harmetz was a New York Times correspondent and she is a skilled writer. Ms. Harmetz unfurls the story of the production of "Casablanca" in an entertaining fashion. So many things could have been undone by the studio and the government (released before World War II) the producer Hal Wallis kept the production on even keel and how Wallis went about it, is the crux of the story. Great insight into the era and the number of refugees who portray refugees, Bogart stories and Bergman tales. A really absorbing read, especially if you are a fan of the movie...and who isn't?
Fascinating, unputdownable.......2003-10-08
I read this book in hardcover, and loved it. CASABLANCA is my all-time favorite film, and I've read all the other books about it, too, but this one is by far the best. It's a great study of how the film got made, at a level of (fascinating!) detail not found in other references. I recommend it without reservation.
Book Description
Challenging conventional scholarship placing the origins of film noir in postwar Hollywood, Sheri Chinen Biesen finds the genre's roots firmly planted in the political, social, and material conditions of Hollywood during the war. After Pearl Harbor, America and Hollywood experienced a sharp cultural transformation that made horror, shock, and violence not only palatable but preferable. Hard times necessitated cheaper sets, fewer lights, and fresh talent; censors as well as the movie-going public showed a new tolerance for sex and violence; and female producers experienced newfound prominence in the industry.
Biesen brings prodigious archival research, accessible prose, and imaginative insights to both well-known films noir of the wartime period -- The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Double Indemnity -- and others often overlooked or underrated -- Scarlet Street, Ministry of Fear, Phantom Lady, and Stranger on the Third Floor.
Customer Reviews:
Tantalizing Theory.......2006-09-27
Yes, Shari Chinen Biesen has detonated a landmine in the field of film noir studies with her contention that, far from being a postwar movement, noir is totally tied up with actual conditions of the war being felt and fought during Hollywood studio production; so we might come to see the heyday of film noir as not the release of OUT OF THE PAST, nor any of the location-dominated "March of Time" inspired docudramas, but much earlier on, with the filming of THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.
She invites us to attend to the way WWII scared the daylights out of Los Angeles and curtailed social activity through a literal blackout in which the previously iconic klieglights were darkened "for the duration," while West Coast citizens and government officials and conspiracy theorists worried about how soon the Japanese would attack southern California by bomber or submarine or from within.
Secondarily the arrival of so many talented artists from Nazi-dominated Europe gave film a darker cast, both in front of the camera and behind. She points to STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR, THE MALTESE FALCON, PHANTOM LADY, and DOUBLE INDEMNITY as beneficaries of this process. With the top male stars in uniform, like Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, the studios had to improvise and invent a new sort of cinema, one in which their female stars would henceforward be paired with freaks--old men, foreign men, little boys--the refuse of the draft. This was a time when an actor like Albert Dekker, Orson Welles, Peter Lorre, Laird Cregar, George Sanders, could dreeam of Hollywood stardom; when super short actors like Alan Ladd were suddenly magnified; when gay actors who'd been declared unfit for military service could become huge box office draws, their heterosexuality reinscribed by press flacks; and older men found their stardom artificially extended by a decade or more (William Powell, Ronald Colman, guys like that.) A few remaining tall, handsome, young and heterosexual men remained employable--John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, becoming stars no little thanks to the vacuum around them. And they were talented too, of course.
And women moved behind the camera too, as editors, producers, writers: Joan Harrison, Catherine Tunney, Harriet Parsons, Virginia van Upp, Leigh Brackett. As BLACKOUT progresses towards the end of the war in 1945, we relive a strange moment in history in which Hollywood once again hardened itself for the invasion--the re-entry into their midst of all the returning vets, stars, writers, directors and miscellaneous personnel--who would put these trends on fast track and bring them outdoors.
Thorough, detailed, insightful and scholarly.......2006-09-14
"Blackout" is subtitled "World War II and the Origins of Film Noir," and Sheri Chinen Biesen, an assistant professor of radio, television and film studies at Rowan University, delivers the goods in this scholarly book. At the end of World War II, a large backlog of American films suddenly became available overseas. The French, seeing these films for the first time "all at once" instead of over a period of years, noticed a "dark" trend in them that had not been especially obvious to their American producers. French critics coined the term "film noir" to describe what they saw as virtually a new genre in filmmaking.
Films noir typically (but not exclusively) featured hard-boiled private detectives, alluring but deadly "femmes fatale," stories told in flashbacks, complex plots, unconventional camera angles and stark black-and-white photography. Many of them involved crimes gone wrong, double- and triple-crosses, murder and mayhem, and the nastier side of human relationships. "Blackout" shows how these characteristics arose from the political, social, cultural and material conditions that existed in America during World War II. For example, films noir are "dark" because: a) lights were in short supply, b) power was rationed, and c) the West Coast (where most films during the War were made) was blacked out nightly because of the fear of Japanese submarine attacks. Many film noir stories took place at night, because the Government prohibited daytime photography that could accidentally include defense installations--thus eliminating most of the favored movie-making locations in Southern California. Relationships between men, serving overseas in combat, and women, who now did many of the previously male-dominated jobs on the Home Front, changed during the War, and films noir could not help but reflect these changes.
One of the most fascinating aspects of film production in World War II was the interaction of the movie studios with the Production Code Administration (PCA). "Blackout" describes in detail how the PCA enthusiastically carried out its "responsibility" of censoring screenplays that the studios presented to it in order to obtain the important "seal of approval." For example, the PCA banned "excessive drinking...references to sex, suggestive dancing, [and] any condoning of divorce..." from the screenplay for "Phantom Lady." This is just one very minor example. One wonders not only how films made under the heavy hand of PCA censorship could be very good (which many are), but indeed how any meaningful films could possibly have been made at all.
"Blackout" covers the evolution of film noir trends in great depth. It focuses on genre classics such as "Double Indemnity," "This Gun For Hire," "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "Murder, My Sweet" and "Laura," but it also covers many other films. The text is detailed, readable and thoroughly footnoted, although I did find it somewhat repetitive in parts. For example, the point about location filming restrictions is similarly made many times. "Blackout" may be heavy going in some places for readers with just a casual interest in the subject, but it is nevertheless an excellent primer on the development of a uniquely American film style.
A historical and theoretical study informed by careful primary research.......2005-12-10
This volume stands out as one of, if not the, best book in English on film noir, a movement previously largely defined mostly through stylistic analysis and psychoanalytic interpretation. It differs from traditional approaches, offering background which the other books fail to include. By relying on historical sources and context, Biesen indicates noir's rise with the social and most particularly production circumstances brought about by World War II. None of this has been treated before, in any detail, and many of her points are original (such as the impact of realism on film noir). Demonstrating how actual wartime life and daily constraints led to the genre will be one of the ways this book will be important for historians of all types for this era and its culture. The book is simultaneously accessible yet sophisticated, vital and engaging, and is written to attract the widest possible audience.
The primary research mines lodes of information too often overlooked in film studies, demonstrating the manner in which such sources as censorship and studio publicity may enhance a critical and theoretical examination. Biesen demonstrates a familiarity with the films and supporting documentation which are the source of the book's assertions. Unlike so many studies marked by excessive theoretical speculation and cursory historical research, this book combines a wide range of examples with a determination to remain rooted in the evidence they offer.
Biesen merges close interpretation of individual films, production history, censorship records, publicity, critical response, audience reception, the star system, industry history, and genre analysis. Most studies use only two or three of these possibilities, and the author is to be commended for the depth and breadth of research.
Endemic of this exhaustive research is the usage of reviews beyond Variety and the New York Times, the indexed, reprinted journals which are as far as most studies go--although neither offer representative reviews. Few scholars have mined such treasures as the film pressbooks, especially with such fruitful results.
So too, Biesen's arguments have been carefully thought through; for instance, I was pleased to see the connections between noir and the espionage genre made, similar genres whose relation is too often overlooked. The role of female executives in producing noir was surprising. The linkage between realism and noir was a brilliant insight, and a case convincingly made by the author, one which will profoundly change conceptions of the genre. The relevance of HUAC in ending noir was also enlightening.
I was relieved to see, too, that the author knows to interpret documents, not simply taking them at face value. For instance, noting when filmmakers blithely disregarded censorship instructions will change conceptions of the role of censors.
I strongly and without reservation recommend this book.
Outstanding. Highly Recommended. Excellent Book........2005-10-30
Outstanding. Highly Recommended. Excellent Book. A fascinating, engaging, innovative and original work. A fine account of film noir and 1940s Hollywood filmmaking, film censorship and propaganda, and wartime conditions in America's movie capital during World War II. Ample noir stories of Los Angeles, Raymond Chandler, Humphrey Bogart, James M. Cain, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Alan Ladd, Peter Lorre, Howard Hawks with hardboiled crime, venetian blinds, swirling cigarette smoke and smoldering seductive femme fatales like black widow Barbara Stanwyck, Veronica Lake and Rita Hayworth. A rich provocative study. Terrific and enjoyable read for film buffs, cineastes, film critics, movie fans, industry insiders, cultural historians, researchers and cinema scholars, and an insightful and compelling look at the unexplored history of film noir and wartime Hollywood in the 1940s. Biesen's Blackout is quite a find, a must-read book on film noir. Wonderful revelations and essential reading for lovers of film noir.
Book Description
The immediacy and perceived truth of the visual image, as well as film and television's ability to propel viewers back into the past, place the genre of the historical film in a special category. War films--including antiwar films--have established the prevailing public image of war in the twentieth century. For American audiences, the dominant image of trench warfare in World War I has been provided by feature films such as All Quiet on the Western Front and Paths of Glory. The image of combat in the Second World War has been shaped by films like Sands of Iwo Jima and The Longest Day. And despite claims for the alleged impact of widespread television coverage of the Vietnam War, it is actually films such as Apocalypse Now and Platoon which have provided the most powerful images of what is seen as the "reality" of that much disputed conflict. But to what degree does history written "with lightning," as Woodrow Wilson allegedly said, represent the reality of the past? To what extent is visual history an oversimplification, or even a distortion of the past? Exploring the relationship between moving images and the society and culture in which they were produced and received, World War II, Film, and History addresses the power these images have had in determining our perception and memories of war. Examining how the public memory of war in the twentieth century has often been created more by a manufactured past than a remembered one, a leading group of historians discusses films dating from the early 1930s through the early 1990s, created by filmmakers the world over, from the United States and Germany to Japan and the former Soviet Union. For example, Freda Freiberg explains how the inter-racial melodramatic Japanese feature film China Nights, in which a manly and protective Japanese naval officer falls in love with a beautiful young Chinese street waif and molds her into a cultured, submissive wife, proved enormously popular with wartime Japanese and helped justify the invasion of China in the minds of many Japanese viewers. Peter Paret assesses the historical accuracy of Kolberg as a depiction of an unsuccessful siege of that German city by a French Army in 1807, and explores how the film, released by Hitler's regime in January 1945, explicitly called for civilian sacrifice and last-ditch resistance. Stephen Ambrose contrasts what we know about the historical reality of the Allied D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, with the 1962 release of The Longest Day, in which the major climactic moment in the film never happened at Normandy. Alice Kessler-Harris examines The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter, a 1982 film documentary about women defense workers on the American home front in World War II, emphasizing the degree to which the documentary's engaging main characters and its message of the need for fair and equal treatment for women resonates with many contemporary viewers. And Clement Alexander Price contrasts Men of Bronze, William Miles's fine documentary about black American soldiers who fought in France in World War I, with Liberators, the controversial documentary by Miles and Nina Rosenblum which incorrectly claimed that African-American troops liberated Holocaust survivors at Dachau in World War II. In today's visually-oriented world, powerful images, even images of images, are circulated in an eternal cycle, gaining increased acceptance through repetition. History becomes an endless loop, in which repeated images validate and reconfirm each other. Based on archival materials, many of which have become only recently available, World War II, Film, and History offers an informative and a disturbing look at the complex relationship between national myths and filmic memory, as well as the dangers of visual images being transformed into "reality."
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- To Hell and Back
- To Hell and Back DVD
- The human side of war
- War is Hell
- A Real American Hero
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To Hell and Back
Audie Murphy
Manufacturer: MJF Books
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ASIN: 1567311164 |
Book Description
Originally published in 1949, To Hell and Back was a smash bestseller for fourteen weeks and later became a major motion picture starring Audie Murphy as himself. More than fifty years later, this classic wartime memoir is just as gripping as it was then. Desperate to see action but rejected by both the marines and paratroopers because he was too short, Murphy eventually found a home with the infantry. He fought through campaigns in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. Although still under twenty-one years old on V-E Day, he was credited with having killed, captured, or wounded 240 Germans. He emerged from the war as Americas most decorated soldier, having received twenty-one medals, including our highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. To Hell and Back is a powerfully real portrayal of American GIs at war.
Customer Reviews:
To Hell and Back.......2007-10-15
I had searched for years for the movie, "To Hell and BAck" as my late husband was one of the soldiers on the field when the medals were presented, I am so happy that I received it and in such good time and condition. Always depend on Amazon.
To Hell and Back DVD.......2007-09-02
Delivered better than expected and packaged very well. Item got here sooner that promised. Excellent seller and look forward doing business again.
The human side of war.......2007-08-21
This book was very interesting as it describes his entire Army career from North Africa to southern France. It is amazing on how many times he was wounded and barely escaped death from near misses (mortar round landing next to his foot). His courage and ability to survive multiple campaigns definitely makes every one of his awards justly earned and well deserved. Even with is wounds and illnesses, he was able to quickly return to the front line and serve with his fellow front line soldiers.
His camaraderie and loyalty to his squad and platoon is shared through survival and trust. The attrition rate of soldiers in his company was very high, a fact that is somewhat understated in official military records. Official U.S. military records cited in most history books often report those killed in action, but not those who died from accidents or disease. After reading different history books which cite official combat casualties and comparing the first hand accounts of Audie Murphy, it is clear who is telling the truth. The ground soldier states the way it is, the official reports tend to show only a portion of the casualties. Comparing the number of replacements received in a unit versus their combat casualties also paints a better picture of how deadly frontline duty is, from both the enemy and disease. Beyond the Beachhead (about the 29th Infantry Division in Normandy) also describes the high replacement rate for the division.
There are books about soldiers who have received the Medal of Honor, but they only describe that one event where the soldier earned recognition for their valor. This book tells the whole story, from the daily mundane preparation for duty to the fear and worries of watching your battle brothers fall. Very few of the original soldiers in his squad lived to see the end of the war after serving two years in three different campaigns.
The book goes into a lot more detail than the movie as the movie also changed and compressed different events for time. The human side of the war and the personal emotional price paid is described in more detail here. Every friend lost was a part of him that died too.
Good book to add to the collection.
War is Hell.......2007-08-04
Audie Murphy , my what a great american ,such courageand above all,unconcern for self,love of his family and fellow man and his homeland.
A truly dedicted person to what ever tasked was give to him.
Handsome , youthful , tough , made not be reconized as a great actor , but he puts everything into it, he's got and his natural personality flows making him stand with some of the greats. . Every boy / man should see this movie before he takes a coommittment for his country. The movie is worth putting in your library , its not the modern fake action commando type , but it has a real atmosphere of the guts it takes to be an hero and live to tell.
Giving more respect to our young soldiers of to day who give there lives for freedom. Good movie.
Luddy
A Real American Hero.......2007-07-18
This is an incredible movie. The story of a true American Hero. The fact that it is Audie Murphy's story ensured that it didn't get the "Hollywood Treatment" and is a factual retelling. Unique, and awe inspiring.
Book Description
An in-depth study that examines WWII movies, analyzing many motifs, stereotypes, ficiton-as-fact, distortions, and prevarications that permeate this genre.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating stuff for movie and history buffs.......2000-08-24
I enjoyed this book immensely. Did you grow up watching such great classics as "Sergeant York", "A Yank in the RAF", "Sahara", "Flying Tigers", "Wake Island", "Gung Ho", and "Air Force". These are but a few of the great movies made during WWII to bolster American morale. There were also some real stinkers. I never cared much for "Mrs. Miniver", "Dragon Seed", "Days of Glory", and several others that were just plain bad of silly. This book explains the reason behind these films and some of the history of their making. The Office of War Information (OWI) was founded by the government to monitor the content of the war films fed to the American Public and set standards to follow and frameworks to work within. There is some very interesting stuff here. Why was Italy treated as a nonbelligerent? Why were Austria, Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Rumania never mentioned? Why was there no distinction of Russian ethnic groups (they were all just simply Russians)? Why were Japanese depicted as barely more than monkeys and the Germans as stupid baffoons, but no racial slurs? This book gives great insight about Hollywood, the movies, and WWII.
Excellent.......1998-09-12
This book was extrodinary, and I recommend for everyone to read and purchase it.
Book Description
At the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp, communist prisoners organized resistance against the SS and even planned an uprising. They helped rescue a three-year-old Jewish boy, Stefan Jerzy Zweig, from certain death in the gas chambers. After the war, his story became a focus for the German Democratic Republic's celebration of its resistance to the Nazis. Now Bill Niven tells the true story of Stefan Zweig: what actually happened to him in Buchenwald, how he was protected, and at what price. He explores the (mis)representation of Zweig's rescue in East Germany and what this reveals about that country's understanding of its Nazi past. Finally he looks at the telling of the Zweig rescue story since German unification: a story told in the GDR to praise communists has become a story used to condemn them. Bill Niven is Professor of Contemporary German History at the Nottingham Trent University, UK.
Book Description
The daring raid on the great dams of western Germany by Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron in May 1943 is probably one of the best known and most widely told stories of the Second World War. In 1955 the raid was immortalized on film by director Michael Anderson in The Dam Busters, starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd. It became Britain's top grossing film of 1955 and in the half-century that has followed, thanks to its almost annual airing on the small screen, it has become a film classic. It is also a firm favorite with aviation enthusiasts due in no small measure to the breathtaking flying sequences featuring the Avro Lancaster. Tucked away in the Pinewood Studios archives are hundreds of rarely seen 'still' photographs from the making of the film. Including everything from storyboarding to location shots, and from the stars and personalities to the aircraft themselves, it is estimated that only about 10 per cent of these high quality pictures have ever been published before. In this book they are supplemented by stunning and previously unpublished air-to-air photographs, taken by the aircrews who flew the Lancasters on camera. Drawing on eyewitness accounts and interviews with film unit and flying personnel, Filming the Dam Busters evokes the optimistic outlook of the new postwar Elizabethan Age, when British cinema had a force and reach not equalled before or since.
Customer Reviews:
Nigel Wilkinson.......2007-08-07
This is an excellent addition to the film which is rated as one of the best of the Second World War.
Falconer does it again............2005-10-23
Jonathan Falconer has written a very accessible and informative account of the making of one of the best war films ever produced, the story of the innovative and daring WWII mission by the RAF's famed 617 squadron destruction of the Mohne' and Eder dams in Germany's Ruhr Valley in May 1943. For Falconer, this book is a labor of love and follows on his excellent and well illustrated book "The Dam Busters" about the raid itself. With that love comes a committment to detail and thoroughness about the filming of the 1955 movie..finding the by then scarce four Lancaster bombers to use in the film, their modifications including painting different idenifications on both sides to allow the filmakers to create the illusion of more than four planes, lead actor Richard Todd who played Wing Commander Guy Gibson's insistance on wearing the same hard to find Luftwaffe flotation device the real Gibson wore and prized, how the filmakers improvised to show a bouncing bomb which when the film was made was still a secret. The book includes descriptions of filming the flying sequences including some harrowing low level formation scenes over water, and interviews with the pilots who flew those scenes. There is also a description of the post production work in the days before digital special effects including construction of giant models of the dams and their environs. The resulting production was not only a very popular film in it's day but also a well researched, accurate description of the real story itself. The film lives on as a recently released DVD. Anyone who has seen the film will find this book informative, well illustrated, and a worthy addition to ones library on WWII aviation, movie making, or the Dams raid itself.
Average customer rating:
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Hollywood War Films, 1937-1945: An Exhaustive Filmography of American Feature-length Motion Pictures
Michael S. Shull , and
David E. Wilt
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0786428546 |
Product Description
From 1937 through 1945, Hollywood produced over 1,000 films relating to the war. This enormous and exhaustive reference work first analyzes the war films as sociopolitical documents. Part one, entitled "The Crisis Abroad, 1937-1941," focuses on movies that reflected Americas increasing uneasiness. Part two, "Waging War, 1942-1945," reveals that many movies made from 1942 through 1945 included at least some allusion to World War II.
Books:
- King Harold II and the Bayeux Tapestry (Pubns Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies)
- Knight in Shining Armor: Discovering Your Lifelong Love
- Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
- LETTERS FROM 'NAM: A Family Memoir
- Military Uniforms in America, Volume I: Era of the Revolution: 1755-1795 (Military Uniforms in America)
- No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf
- Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
- Pickett's Charge--The Last Attack at Gettysburg
- Principles of Anatomy and Physiology w/ Brief Atlas
- Rebels from West Point
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