Introduction

Five Came Back is an American documentary based on the 2014 book Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by journalist Mark Harris.

It was released as a stand-alone documentary in New York and Los Angeles, and as a three-part series on Netflix, on 31 March 2017.

The documentary focuses on five directors – John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens – whose war-related works are analysed by modern filmmakers, respectively Paul Greengrass, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, and Lawrence Kasdan. Meryl Streep, who serves as narrator, won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator for her performance.

Outline

The series looks at the backgrounds of the five directors as World War II begins and their motives for helping the war effort.

John Ford’s The Battle of Midway was approved directly by President Franklin D. Roosevelt while Frank Capra fights to get Why We Fight made.

Five Came Back Series

You can find a full index of Five Came Back here.

Production & Filming Details

• Narrator(s): Meryl Streep.
• Director(s): Laurent Bouzereau.
• Producer(s): Steven Spielberg, Scott Rudin, Barry Diller, Angus Wall, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Eli Bush, Jason Sack, Linda Carlson, Jason Sterman, Ben Cotner, Adam Del Deo, Lisa Nishimura, Laurent Bouzereau, and John Battsek.
• Music: Thomas Newman.
• Editor(s): Will Znidaric.
• Production: Amblin Television, IACF Productions, Passion Pictures, and Rock Paper Scissors Entertainment.
• Distributor(s): Netflix.
• Release Date: 31 March 2017.
• Running Time: 59-69 minutes.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.