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 directors learn their vision for the films is not always permissible by the US government.

Wyler is shocked by the racism he encounters against African American soldiers and refused to make a film recruiting black soldiers.

Meanwhile, the films’ racist depiction of the Japanese versus human depiction of the Germans causes worry for the War Department, which at that time planned to redistribute the Japanese-American population from internment camps into towns across the United States.

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.