These kids, with their long suits and their long chains and their - and all their precocious things they were doing at the time, what are they going to do? What are they going to do when they get this terrible disease of homesickness? He wondered how we could put into the minds of these young kids the necessity of why they were in uniform. We'll soon have 12 million kids in uniform, many of them never seen a gun. And he said, we have an enormous problem. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, 'FIVE CAME BACK')įRANK CAPRA: The genesis of this originated in the mind of General Marshall. Capra, in a period interview, is very open about his own marching orders for getting into wartime films. We hear from the wartime filmmakers, too.

And Guillermo del Toro talks about Frank Capra. Paul Greengrass deconstructs the great John Ford. Spielberg himself rhapsodizes about William Wyler. Francis Ford Coppola talks about John Huston. Each of the directors who was profiled and whose wartime works are shown in 'Five Came Back' is paired with a modern director who explains that subject's approach, artistry and impact - and what a list it is.

The three-part documentary series 'Five Came Back' is co-produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television, which explains both its quality and its own high marquee value.

We'll listen back to his 2014 interview with Terry Gross in which he discusses those dedicated World War II directors - John Ford, John Huston, Frank Capra, William Wyler and George Stevens.īut first, I'll review the new documentary itself, which begins streaming today. 'Five Came Back' also premieres today on Netflix as a three-part documentary. It's about five famous movie directors who left their comfortable Hollywood soundstages during World War II to serve overseas, making war documentaries, recruitment films and other valuable contributions to the Allied war effort. Today in New York and Los Angeles, the documentary titled 'Five Came Back' premieres, based on the book by Mark Harris. I'm TV critic David Bianculli, editor of the website TV Worth Watching, sitting in for Terry Gross.

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