india, china. i know from personalized station, what these pictures meant to and overseas. a lot of folks place values on these programs the motion picture industry is providing. we do know this. the morale of our troops is high. the left, music and general entertainment which comes out of a single small package like this one, have helped fulfill that morale here. >> this year, c-span celebrates 45 years of harboring congress like no other. since 1979,

we've been your primary source for l, providing balanced, unfiltered view of government, taking your door policy is debated and decided with the support of america's cable companies. c-span. 45 years and counting. powered by cable. >> i want to spend a special thank you to the u.s. army command and staff college for the long partnership of the library and the collaboration with this great series that we have going, hollywood versus history which we continue tonight with a terrific time examining the historical accuracy of military movies to continue at least through the end of the year so we hope you come back and you tell your friends to come back, as well. the number of representatives hear from the college and a number of command and general staff college foundation board members here, as well. would you please stand if you are from the foundation board so we can thank you for your

support of this great series? thank you so much, thank you. once again, we extend our gratitude to the late jerry rosenblum and his memory we are presenting the hollywood history series. it is jerry rosenblum who has made this possible by a generous gift from his estate. tonight with military historian brian's heat of the army command and general staff college, we have a special installment of the series, a little broader in scope, looking at hollywood filmmaking during world war ii and its role in shaping the response to the war. brian will take up particularly close look at the best years of our lives. a film released a year after the war that successfully departed from the flag-waving norms. that earned it academy awards including the oscar for best picture. brian steed is associate

professor of history of the command college where he has taught since 2013 and was honored as military educator of the year in 2018. she served as an armor officer and middle east foreign area officer before he retired from active duty as a lieutenant colonel. it was brian who actually helped us launch the hollywood history series in january when exploring the 1975 bar sparkling film the man who would be king. this is the 10th time he has spoken at the library, back in 2014. he is one of our stars here at the library. please join me in welcoming brian steed back to the library. >> okay, so thank you and welcome here, talking about

movies. not just as a thing to do for fun, but as art. we will talk about different aspects of film. not just focused on one movie but we are going to spend most of our time talking about the best years of our lives soon going to use a lot of superlatives tonight. i think they are all warranted. you might take coverage with a few, but that's okay. i will make you think why it is not the best for the greatest or whatever, so i am okay for you to argue that eric we will talk about world war ii uruguay this film? at the beginning of last school year, october, one my students made a comment in almost a wistful way to united behind the war effort.

he said it in such a way that it was automatic everybody organically wanted to support the war effort here at that time, i told him it was not exactly organic, like a lot of that unity was manufactured. it was created by the government and hollywood here a lot of the country was not necessarily before pearl harbor was not in support of world war ii. even after the japanese bombed pearl harbor, a lot of americans were not in support of the europe first strategy because the germans didn't want us, so why are we focusing effort on europe? hollywood helped shape this and

it helps shape how we perceive world war ii even until today. the other part i want to bring up, this is, by the way, not counting silent film bureau that does not count. there are probably some people who will argue that point, but i'm talking about synchronized sound and motion picture, so this is the first war. world war ii, the first global war or regional war fought in the age of film. that is something to think about. in our world today i want to take you back to imagine because i don't think even with all the non-brown hair i see out there, i don't think anyone in this room was born in an era where there was not a talky. everybody here has lived a life where motion picture was a thing. i want you to go back to a world where motion picture was not a thing. where you did not see moving

images. and when you did, you only want one place. in today's world, you can watch movies on the television screen or on your phone. or if you don't want to watch a movie, we will talk about the competition. in today's world, there is so many different ways to get media. back in world war ii, there was kind of one, and it was the movie theater or the cinema if you want to be fancy about it. so we go back, the first synchronized sound and motion picture is the jazz singer. 1927. we will talk about academy awards a couple of times tonight. the first best picture winner is a silent winter. it's after that, the next year the first synchronized sound

motion picture gets the best picture and that's the broadway melody. what is interesting is the first several years of the academy awards was not based off calendar year, see you get this 1928, '29 stuff. i can't recall what year we went to it. anyway, eventually they went to where we are now based off of release state in the calendar year as opposed to how it was originally. when we think of big blockbuster movies, a lot of us might think of offenders in game. one of the biggest grossing films in american history. so we look at this. this is who saw it? these are people sitting in seats. okay, and ticket sales are actually recorded not for the

united dates but for the u.s. and canada, so the population numbers are also the u.s. and canada. as popular as avengers and kim was, only a quarter of the population saw that movie. we compare that to the previous blockbuster before that which is titanic. about 44% of america and canada saw it. just thinking north america in this case. let's go back to the age of the early talkies. one of the biggest movies ever, snow white and the dwarves. 72% of america went and saw that movie. does anyone want to guess what the biggest all-time ticket selling movie is? yes, gone with the wind. 130% of america went to see that movie. okay, so when we are talking about blockbusters, these don't

even compare. but of course, you had one option. it's either the theater or the radio. if you want to see somebody moving is one option. today we have a lot here i would argue one of the greatest and most influential directors in history is the german film director, humans to great sounds. most of you, even if you've not seen it, you've seen it. i will show you a couple of clips from the triumph of the will, a 1934 nazi congress movie and the 1936 olympic games are shown. she is so influential because she shapes how the world imagines film to be. almost every director will copy here you will have all seen

these images. some of these images look a whole lot like the award sin in the original star wars movie when luke and han and chewbacca walked up to get their metals. it is literally taken from their. you will see the march of the hyenas from the lion king. i think it was scar that was standing up on top and dying is match in front of him. that's what's happening. they are copying triumph of the will. when they made the widely watched series about how to teach american soldiers why we fight for world war ii, when he starts in the production of the first film, he watches this for the first time in 1942 and comes out of the viewing and says the nazis are going to win this war because of the influence on this movie of

shaping public well and how he knew society would be shaped. and you this is what he had to compete against. not nearly as important as shaping the war effort but i think it's a really important movie for those who are sports fans to watch. i'm a huge track and field fan. i'm in heaven because we have the track and field championships. cinematic sports coverages pioneered by lanny. this is the 100 meter semi final with jesse owens here she was accused of being a nazi and fought it in court like 32 times and won on case of libel grounds. when you watch this movie, her portrayal of owens is a positive one. he breaks the world record in the semifinal, not the final.

but anyway, the movies are shaping how people think and see the world. now fdr will say the same thing. is speech that he has found and presented at the academy of motion picture arts and sciences, they love to watch film. she gives this film of himself and this is what is shown from the 1941 academy awards. >> you have seen the american motion picture become almost all around the world. a symbol of civilization throughout the rest of the world. the aims and aspirations. the freedom itself. the motion picture industry has utilized its vast resources, resources of talent and facilities, in a sincere effort to help the people of the hemisphere who come to know

each other. dictators, those who enforce the totalitarian form of government think it is a dangerous thing for their unfortunate people to know that in our democracy, officers of the government are the servants and never the masters of the people. >> this is expressing the power of hollywood about nine months before pearl harbor. but it is a little more than a year after the war has begun in europe, so he is addressing an audience that is dealing with the war and is torn on how to present the war to the american people. the whole industry goes to war. disney goes to war. i wish i could show commando duck. i toyed with the idea. i love it but it's fascinating. of all the disney characters

who go to war, donald goes most often. the only one who actually goes is pluto, okay, and he is a dog. like a legitimate dog. not like a goofy dog, but a dog dog. donald is the guy who goes into never joins the navy which i think is misrepresenting himself, right? i always thought he was a sailor, but he joined the air force and he joins the army. in this one he becomes a special forces guy. a pretty comedic one. there is a book titled victory through airpower. this is where disney, walt himself, wants to present the theory about how airpower could win the war faster. roosevelt chose not to watch this movie until churchill demands that he does. he makes him promise, and then

demands to get his own set of the films brought to him and he watches it and supposedly, at least according to the disney archivists, it is only after roosevelt watches victory through airpower that he commits to the combined bomber offensive against the nazis in germany. it's quite an influential movie. the entire thing is bundled by disney and distributed by disney. why we fight. disney does all the animation for that series. and of course, they do the shorts that appear in between before and after so many movies in theaters. a great series is available on netflix. i don't get a kickback from netflix. it's called the five came back. it is a three-part series and it talks about five american film directors, academy award winners who go. and for those of you who know, the men who would be king that i talked about last time i was

here is directed by john houston, one of those five who came back. we will spend the rest of our time talking about another important figure on this. a lot of hollywood actors, significant ones also go and join war effort in a significant and serious way. not just doing this as a liaison, but actually fighting. and so in the come back, steven spielberg and another he makes comments throughout it makes this comment. i think this is something that was true. that hollywood recognized they needed to show that. let's talk about william weiler, our director of the film tonight.

it's not made william until he comes to hollywood because willie, i guess, was too casual for hollywood, which is kind of funny. so he is a frenchman from a little village and he is also jewish. he is sent to hollywood to work for his uncle who is in the movie industry or the 20s. maybe my second superlative of the evening i think as i think she is hollywood's greatest director. he is nominated for 12 best director academy awards. he wins three. is the only director and academy award history that every movie he wins for best director also wins for best

picture. he is not just a great director. he also directs great movies which is something that makes him important. the other thing he is known for, it is said two different ways. he is known as 40 take willie or 90 take willie. i will stick with 40 because i saw that more often, because he would do take after take after take. he was a very, very, very demanding director. from that demand, he produced the most number of academy award-winning actors and actresses in hollywood history. he has more than any other director that would get nominated, and more than the next two directors who would win. not only is he a great director, he directs great films and great performances. think the greatest movie ever made his 1959's movie, and it's

has joke that it took a jew to make a great movie about jesus christ. i do think it is a movie about jesus christ, so i am with him all the way on that one. and vilest of his favorites, if you have not seen it, i would recommend you go out and see big country with gregory peck. not one of his award nominees but a fantastic film. okay, so, the bookends of william wyler's world war ii experience. this is the last movie he directs before he goes off to the war. best years of our lives is the first movie he directs after coming back from the war.

it's great if you can watch them in close proximity to each other because you will get a sense of how his view of war changes between those two, because william wyler goes to war . he will film the memphis belle. my wife and i had an opportunity to weeks ago at the you force air force museum in dayton, ohio. highly recommend it. fantastic museum. and there they have the memphis belle that he filmed and he packed that thing with cameras and flew on bombing missions with that aircraft. he loses his hearing flying the b 24 i think it is. during the war, doing similar film and because it's louder aircraft and he did not have the proper hearing protection. he loses his hearing on one flight and personally suffers as a result of the wartime service. the red font are the people who win, orange is the people who are nominated. this is a very successful

movie. and what we get is a sense of what the war, the toll it takes. she starts making the movie before pearl harbor and he wants the american people to support the british and their war effort. we are not at war yet but he wants america to commit to the war and support the british, so he shows mrs. miniver, a relatively speaking common british housewife dealing with challenges of the war. this is an 80-year-old movie so i don't feel bad spoiling it, but the house gets bombed and destroyed in the blitz. the way their family deals with it, her husband will take their boat and encounter the only german in the movie, a pilot that gets shot down and makes his way into her home and she has to hold him off at gunpoint your kid is fascinating that

when the producer saw the dailies are the guys in the studio so the dailies and they were really concerned and i called him and like you cannot show the german this way. we are at war with the german people and his response was look, if i had 100 germans in the movie, i would show good germans. but i've got one, so that one is going to be one of karen's monsters. wanted to showcase this i want to burn the world kind of thing. so you get the sense that this is a creepy german guy who was a true believer in the nazi ideology and really wanted it that way. what is fascinating is after pearl harbor, the studio did not complain anymore and it's kind of interesting. here is the clip i'm going to show you. this comes at the very end, the village has been bombed. there is the preacher in the

protestant church given that sermon. i want you to hear in the preacher william wyler. he is the preacher and she is talking to you about what this war is about. the homes of many of us have been destroyed. the lives of young and old have been taken. scarily a household that has not been struck to the heart and why? i shall tell you why. because this is not only a war of soldiers in uniform. it is a war of the people of all the people, and it must be fought not only on the battlefield, but in the cities and in the villages, and the factories and on the farms, and the home and in the heart of every man, woman and child who loves freedom. this is the people's war. it is our war.

we are the fighters. fight it, then. fight it with all that is in us. and may god defend the right. >> this is the people's war. like he was saying in our homes, in our factories, you could have added in there in the theaters, that's how he's fighting this war, is in the movie theater. this is the people's war. that's how he goes off to war. he will be filming the memphis belle on a mission as his wife receives his best director academy award on his behalf. okay, so he finds out in a telegram that he won the academy award. it's the people's war. we go to this film. this movie is about what war does to the people.

this is the people's war. the birthdays of each of the actors and actresses is useful to look at. they don't exactly match up. business hollywood. it is interesting. the film is in black and white. it was believed in the 1940s that color was for fantasy. it was for comedy. animation. it was not for serious movies. serious movies were black and white film. that's what adults saw, black and white movies. so what are some facts about this? 38% of america went to see this movie. it was a pretty popular movie. it was the best-selling movie other then gone with the wind

up until 1950. it is not until the 1950s that there is a more popular movie than this one. services ranked number two for the entire decade of the 40s. it has a distinction of women. seven academy awards, plus an honorary award. we will talk about harold russell a bit, but harold russell plays homer in the film. a sailor who has lost both of his arms. and harold did lose both his arms in a training event he was doing the training and hollywood, he was nominated for best supporting actor but the academy did not think she would win it. so they gave him an honorary award. and then he won the best supporting actor award, as well.

becoming the only person in academy history to win two oscars for the same role. if you have that, that's the answer. this is set in boone city. they don't tell you what state. it is supposedly patterned off of cincinnati, ohio put filmed in california. fascinating that william wyler wanted a very normal looked to the film, gave his cast money and told them to go by costumes off the rack. they just all went to a regular department store and bought regular clothes. so you don't see them dolled up and hollywood costumes. this is all just very regular. can you get that feeling when you watch the film. virginia mayo wanted to be in this role so badly and william wyler did not want her to be in

it that she politics over his head and agreed that she would be willing to film both this movie and the secret life of walter mitty simultaneously. oftentimes, she was running from one set to the other set to be able to film on the same day. so it's kind of interesting. the title does not show the dialogue. it's really, really close to it in one scene, and i will talk about the importance of the b- 17 is a metaphor in this film. you have to remember it's a big part. he uses the b-17 as a way to instruct everything throughout. one of the ways he does this is the three war veterans, never having met before during the war meet at an airport and they fly home on a b-17. they can't get a decent flight for weeks, but there is a b-17 making hops across america and the rebel to get a ride on

that. one of them will land in boone city, so they'll jump on together. each main character gets off the aircraft and they'll reunite with their family one by one by one. each of these main characters has a significant problem. one of the things i love is his poetry and it. william shows when you look at it initially, only one of these guys is broken. he obviously does not have hands. she has hugs everybody recoils at him. everybody does. it is very memorable, but all three of these men are broken. what we will see by the end of the film is that the one most obviously broken is the one that's actually leased broken. we'll talk a little bit more about the ironies that william wyler sets up throughout the

film as it goes on. obviously homer has a war injury. al struggles with family integration. he's got boys, his wife, an adult daughter and a nearly adult son and he's been away for like 3+ years, struggling to reintegrate. fred comes back and has all sorts of issues with ptsd. they'll sort of resolve their issues. for me, this movie is a little bit personal. i don't know that my extended family is going to watch this, so i think i'm okay, but this movie reminds me of my family. my grandfather and two of his brothers went to fight in world war ii. phil left the town, great falls, montana. they never would have been 150 miles from the city in their whole life. but they go off and one of them flies b-17s during the war.

one of them with flights throughout the southern pacific theater with macarthur. the other guy ends up being north africa and italy. they end up seeing the world. when they come back to, none of them lost their arms, so not quite like the film. some have issues with integration, self-medication issues as they deal with ptsd in a society that is not ready to understand ptsd. it's fascinating. it's a really easy connection for me. we've got homer russell. homer parrish, the u.s. navy, a sailor, a petty officer second class. he says he is on an aircraft carrier and serves maintenance on an aircraft carrier before the war, he was a high school sports star. he serves on the 25th infantry

division tropic lightning. a bunch of campaigns. he ends the war in japan as part of the enemy occupation force. at least 2 1/2 years overseas. he is gone for over three years in the process of the war service. when we think of rank, lowest rank, middle rank, highest rank. once again it gets to the ironies. what did he do before the war? he was a banker. he worked in a bank. respectable white-collar job. then he was a bombardier in the 8th air force. served 2.5 years overseas. what did he do before the war? he was a soda jerk. have the lowest social

position. his parents are kind of nobody. his dad comes across as a ne'er- do-well. seems like a decent guy but there is something wrong. they live in a tarpaper shack. we don't know the back story about why they are in these destitute situations, but he is financially destitute or his family is. his family is pretty well-off. his family loves and adores him. he is the one who is broke, self medicate and is most emotionally shattered as a result of the war and we are going to watch that one by one. now, watch how he greets mom and dad dad. big >> finances happy sister. watch how he greets mom and dad.

big hugs. this is the girl next-door. youy as you're trained. that kid how to use those. i couldn't train how to put his arms around his girl to stroke her hair so they're all feeling bad for homer and his integration >> you've got to hand it to the navy. they sure trained that kid how to use those hooks. could not train him to put his arms around her. >> there feeling bad for him and his integration problems. you might have recognized teresa wright. i have the name wrong and i can remember it thank you. she has been her sister. so anyway, if you want to go there, keeps it all in the family i guess. anyway. here is al as he goes home and

this is him talking to his son. >> and samurai sword. thanks very much, that. >> here's a flag i found on a dead soldier. all the writing, signatures and good luck messages from his relatives. >> another japanese attach a lot of importance to the family relationship. entirely different from us. >> you were at hiroshima, weren't you? did you happen to notice any of the effects of radioactivity on the people who survived the blast? >> no, i didn't. should i have? >> are you going to take the souvenirs father brought you? yes. thanks an awful lot, that, for these things. good night. see you in the morning.

>> okay, so he comes back, the conquering hero and his son exam for these things. okay. it's kind of fascinating. and here is fred and what he is going through. we will see two clips of this. t up. we've found your guardian. it's all ri >> wake up, wake up. wake up! wake up >> it's all right. go back to sleep. go back to sleep, go back to sleep. so he shows us what fred is going through in that sequence.

here is how his wife responds. we don't see how that experience with his wife, but here is how his wife react. >> fred, are you really all right? >> of course, i'm all right. >> i mean, in your mind. >> my mind? you think i've gone goofy? i've been wondering, what was that? >> where did you hear about him? >> you talk in your sleep, honey. sometimes you shout something is on fire and you keep shouting to get out. >> 17th pilot over berlin. >> got to get those things out of your system. maybe that's what's holding you back. the war is over. you won't get any place until you stop thinking about it. come on, snap out of it.

>> okay, honey, i'll do that. >> we will talk about this in a bit. i will show a sequence from the beginning and the end of the film. this is as they are writing in the b-17 coming into boone city and i want you to pay attention to what they are talking about and then we will show at the end how fred is dealing with what he is going through. so they're in the position which is important, fred's position. >> i never knew there were so many planes. message, young meno some of them brand >> some of them looked brand- new. all good for now. >> that is william wyler's message. newman go off to war.

some of them brand-new from the factory, right to the scrap here. this is what war does to people. it takes brand-new planes and junks them. and here we have fred at the end who has climbed up in one of those junkyard planes. william wyler showing us no engines, no proportion, can't do any of the things that it was made to do, just like fred. and there is fred trying to figure out what on earth to do this old position where he was actually a hero, multiple times decorated for what he accomplished during the war. this is the best shot of the film. really awesome. she is contemplating how to deal with his life, looking up

at him, yelling at him. right there is the image. that guy is yelling at him and fred is like oh, i have to come deal with this guy. it will come back up in a moment. we will hear this final conversation and i want you to pay attention. the final point about the war and the meaning of fred's life. >> i used to work in one of those. >> reviving old memories? >> getting some of them out of my system. >> we are breaking them up. >> i know. you're the drunk man. you get everything sooner or later. >> this is no junk. we are using this is building material for prefabricated houses. >> from the beginning, straight

from the factory, right to the junk heap what does he tell you at the end? this is not junk. this is what you build a civilization on. all of these men who fought in the war and come back broken, it does not make them junk. i think this is the most courageous movie ever made. this is my other superlative of the film. most movies are about the period that they are made. one science-fiction does is like the little mosquito in the jurassic park movie, it is captured in amber and it holds the dna so you can make dinosaurs later on. that kind of thing. movies do that. they capture a moment in time, what people are thinking, what hollywood was thinking about

the world. what is brilliant about this movie is the period in which it is made is the period that it is about. wyler is making miss about the end of the war at the end of the war. so this is one of those points where it is not useful to talk about how historically accurate it is, because it is a genius discussion of the issues at the time they are made, and these issues in most cases we don't discuss as a society, other than in a film like this for decades. there is a reason why so many world war ii veterans self medicated. like i already said, every main character is broken. and one of the things that is fascinating as we only run into in the whole movie to other servicemembers. okay, one is a guy that he helps at the bank. he was a cb.

he gives him alone even though he does not have collateral and gets in trouble for it. does it anyway, sticks to his guns. that's the big emotional moment. this is what i'm going to do to build the country and build these men who fought. that's what he's going to do. the other guy is some sleazy dude heading on fred's wife. we get both sides of the honorable dude and questionable here. everybody else did not go to the war. they stayed back and worked in factories. that was true about america. as many people as we put in the military, we put four or five times more in factories. most of america serves the war effort by building things, not by fighting. and the movie does address that. this idea of the arsenal of democracy. you're the courageous things it

deals with. wartime disability, ptsd, reintegration anxiety, self- medication social acceptance, nobody understands these guys. these guys are like glue. the first time they meet is at the airport before they get on the b-17. yet these guys are the best buddies ever, because they all have something in common, but apparently almost nobody else in the city shares with them. so they have difficulty getting society to understand that. and you already see this idea of this revisionist view, the use of the nuclear bomb, whether it was good or bad thing, not discussed much. but you get the brief hint of his son sort of things maybe the nuclear bomb is a little sketchy. there is another guy at the soda fountain who talks about how the guys who fought were the real suckers in the war.

that we were actually fighting for corporate interests or whatever else. obviously, that was never said before or since. but anyway, it is just an interesting aspect of the film. i would offer you, one, if you've not watch this movie in a long time, you want to go see it. get it again, watch it again, it's really worth your time. it is a great movie. gets into some really profound points and gives you a sense of america in a period of time that i think is one of the most authentic films ever been made. it deserves the credit that it has. so i will open it up for questions. thank you all for your attention. >> thank you very much. anyone with a question, we have set up two microphones at the

front of you child. those are particularly important for our viewing audience on c-span and on our library website. things for coming again. my question is, we had four presidents, maybe five, i'm not sure, that came out of world war ii. and just like for you to really comment on reagan because he was on film, video, whatever i call it back then. >> it's so fascinating how much the generation shaped america as we think about each of the presidents that followed, whether it is a guy like eisenhower. it selected based off of his

wartime service. each of the other presidents up until george h.w. bush. the last world war ii serving president. even with reagan, where he does not deploy, he is a significant player in the liaison with hollywood. there's so much more i wanted to stay, say on this topic. if you look at the movies that hollywood produces in terms of top money earners, academy award nominees. how many of them are in some form or another about the war effort lacks comes out in the 1940. some are significant. some are whimsical movies. but they are often war movies. and then you have all sorts of

john wayne, fighting and all of those sorts of films that are open. fascinating how many hollywood actors felt that they had to explain why they did not fight. he goes to great lengths to explain why he did not fight. 41, has families, all of these expectations as if he had to do that. what is sort of sad is john ford treats him like garbage because he did not. like there is one story about john when getting cursed out by john ford for not saluting properly. like what you salute like somebody who has served? and everybody goes okay. just imagine john when getting called out like that. he is actually wounded at midway. he is foaming at the battle of

midway and he sets his camera up in the perfect place. so he does get injured. it does shape our whole society and shapes our presidents look at international relations for a while. i would argue to a degree we are still shaped by world war ii. it is unfair. i cannot do this exercise with you guys because you are all tainted now. the image that comes to your mind when we say that word. what is the image that comes to your mind? for most of our students at the college, even though this is 2022, there are images of world war ii images. heading the beach, saving private ryan, doing and airborne drop, something that comes out of world war ii.

it is what we think of when we hear the word war. it's fascinating. i don't think we've gone beyond that yet. it is interesting. guys that whimsically go back. great to go back to a world where everybody is united. don't want to go back to that world. there is a downside. it is interesting that this is what shapes our mind. yes, go ahead. >> you had stated that he felt the best movie ever made has been her and i agree wholeheartedly, i think it was the most outstanding movie of all time. i would like to hear you elaborate more if you could on specific scenes that you thought were dynamic.

okay, i think to this day it has the two best action- adventure scenes ever filmed. the chariot racing in the naval battle. if you've washed it as many times as i have, you notice some of the catapults shooting straight up in the air and coming down. if you just watch it, it's authentic for how naval combat was done. if we were teaching first century naval warfare to our students, you could watch that scene. the chariot race scene is the flat-out best action seed -- scene ever made. it's all practical effects none of that cgi. for those reasons, my favorite, the, the reason why i love it is they never show jesus' face. they just show the influence of

him on other people's faces. and i just love that aspect because i think somebody who likes jesus, that his influence on others was more important than him. and i think william wyler does that better than any director ever. those would be my three reasons. i'm sorry, sir, you had a question? >> i call these kind of formula movies. the last formula movie flopped but i recall is the green beret with john wayne. were they thought we are going to do it world war ii movie and get everybody fired up for vietnam. and it backfires. your thoughts? >> you're right. it did, absolutely. i think like so many folks, people failed to recognize the

environment in which they are operating. making a movie that would motivate the american people. with the intent, rather than just telling the story and letting the story make the message. i think that's what wyler does brilliantly. in mrs. miniver, he is a little preachy or. pardon the pun. a little more preachy than best years of our lives. he just lets the story make the message. one of the things that i am challenged by with our students and i say that in terms of the 20 to 30 age range, a lot of them are not taught to be critical viewers. they will watch a movie and let it wash over them without thinking about what the movie means. each of these little elements

about why it's straight from the factory to the junkyard and those sorts of things and how significant that is as a message. a really great film director wastes nothing. everything has a purpose. the best movies are that way. everything they do there are for a reason. i think john wayne got driven by the message. i don't know where i have grounds to actually criticize him. but that would be my critique of that film. >> i suspect the makers of the movie supported world war ii. it still was an antiwar film. my question is how do you support a war but also make an

antiwar? which to be honest, war sort of is. but how do you support a war and say this is what it does to people? how do you figure he put those two things together? >> it's a great question. i would offer that every authentic war movie is an antiwar movie. every war movie made by somebody who asked experience war is an antiwar movie. nobody who has fought in the war wants there to be more war and i think that's true of everybody whether they wear a uniform or not. this is why when the show caricatures of military people and they show them as warmongers, like the general wants to have war and all of that sort of thing. nobody who has actually seen war wants war. and i think wyler, which is why i like the five came back.

the famous one, it's a wonderful life, another box office flop. that is both jimmy stewart and frank capra working through their ptsd onset. so when george bailey breaks down, that's jimmy stewart who flew, i can't remember how many missions he flew over germany. that's him breaking down from the war. that's what makes the movie so powerful. and part of the poind i think william wyler wholeheartedly to the end his days agreed that world two those sacrifices losing his hearing i mean think about that there are some wars worth fighting. wholeheartedly to the end of the day agree world war ii, es those sacrifices, losing the hearing. think about it. this is a movie director who no

longer can hear dialogue, right? like how hado you do your profession? but to the end of his life, he would say that sacrifice was worth it for that war, right? and that's the key thing. it isn't that wars are never good. sometimes that evil is necessary to achieve a greater good, right? and the challenge for citizens is to be involved and to recognize, okay, is there a greater agood that's worth wha we're doing, right? in world war ii if you're listening, they'll come back. like he'll be filming a movie called thunder bolt for the army about i can't remember what the aircraft's name is. but any way it's an attack aircraft, and yeah, thank you. thank you. and he breaks in the middle of filming that to go to his home

village. that's when he realizes all the juice there that he knew. all his family. all of his family's friends and associates are all dead. right? so this is a guy who recognizes okay, yes, i've lost my hearing, but i'm alive, right? he will end up filming at, i can't remember in auschwitz. his film crew is the first one in there and he realizes we're a movie now, we're recording evidence. he has them record evidence that will be used in the trials, right? and george stevens was a famous comedy director, like that was his strength, doing comedy. he will not direct the other

comedy again because it changes his personality as one would imagine it would. any way, yes, sir? >> and we will make these the last two questions of the evening. >> i want to bookend the previous one. we thought it was a comedy. i watched it, the officer's club in vietnam, which is just a little trailer and the screen was a bed sheet. we were throwing beer cans at it and watching the sunset, which is impossible because it will rise over the south. >> this movie is interesting because i have given medical history talks, where we deal with how certain things are dealt with. it is a scene where they are

all smoking, but he's able to light the cigarette using his hooks. then he'll take a later scene where he is meeting with his future father-in-law and thhe tries to do this. he's completely ignored. and while they're trying to light it. >> thank you for sharing that. that's a good utpoint. but my question is when i was coming here, i was thinking about any movies about black veterans coming back. any movies about rosie the riveter. maybe about the black experience after the war, but i

can't think of one. >> that's a really good question, well no, that's a bad question because it stumped me. but that's a great question and i'm trying to think if -- because the only movies i would think, and i don't think they would address it in there, the one i'm thinking of now is ford verses ferrari and that's about a white guy. it'd be a movie like that where they are referencing they did serve and you're not disrespecting him. i'll spend some time on that one. >> sir, could you use the microphone? >> sorry. they said i thave to be ruthle

about that. i will not talk to you unless you're at the microphone. >> the first flags of our fathers, the sequel is letters. and that will look at the japanese perspective. that's correct. we would do a couple coming home where we would do a couple of those films. but we don't do the four most wars. it's interesting, there's some other societies that you'll get british and australian films that will be made about coming home from world war i, right? >> yeah. italian film making. >> one other quick thing. were you aware of the wall street journal on friday, they

would have a nice article about this movie? >> no, i didn't know that. >> okay, look it up. some gal in texas is writing a book or already did. they didn't think the books were so great, but they talked about that glory for me. they said it was one of the worst novels ever and it is the best years of our lives. one of my best cinematic years of my life was 2019 when some company that brings classic movies to the big theaters back. yes, i see yheads nodding and the same year in 2019, i got to watch on the big screen that was awesome and so if you ever get that opportunity, absolutely take it up. >> and thank you so much.

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