Today we’re celebrating not only the 243rd anniversary of declaring our independence from the crown, it’s American Pulps first birthday. That’s right, one year ago today we changed our name from Shit Show Pulps to American Pulps.
To celebrate both our nation and film, I’m going to talk about a documentary on Netflix I just finished that we think you’d like.
Five Came Back
This 3 part series debuted in 2017, I don’t know what took me so long to watch it but I thought it was awesome. It follows five directors from Hollywood who went on to work for the military making documentaries and propaganda. The five directors are Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, William Wyler, and George Stevens.
I went into this documentary knowing Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” series and being a huge fan of his work. As fans of Film Noir, John Huston is one of the top directors and writers of the genre. And John Ford’s work on Grapes of Wrath and Westerns like Stagecoach is legendary. But I went away really liking and respecting the hell out of William Wyler and George Stevens.
Wyler’s work on The Memphis Belle followed the final mission of the Memphis Belle, a B-17 Flying Fortress.
Stevens was there for most of America’s European theater, filming troops storm the beaches of Normandy, documenting the Battle of the Bulge, and being one of the few American’s in uniform allowed to go ahead with de Gaulle to film the liberation of Paris. And while he was filming Germany’s surrender he was worried the room was too dark and he didn’t get a good shot. So Stevens took Charles de Gaulle and Choltitz, the commander of the German garrison and military governor of Paris and had them recreate it! That’s ballsy.
Here’s Ford’s Battle of Midway
And Capra’s first of the Why We Fight series, Prelude to War.
And here’s the Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel written, Mel Blanc voiced Private SNAFU cartoons of the era.
