you cannot watch san pietro anymore and take it as truth.ally discarded anything that looked to clean, too perfect, too hollywood. that is a mark of a very smart filmmaker and someone who really understood that war movies were going to have to look different than they had looked until that point. as a document of film making history, i think it is fascinating. as a document the lengths to which the army would go, including stretching the truth, it is an important part of america's war so making history. >> john huston's daughter is the award-winning actress angelica huston. did he fully understand the impact that his work had later in his career? >> unlike many of the other directors, john huston directed vigorously until the very end of his life. not all of the movies he made were good. he ran into some financial problems and was very honest about the fact that he took certain jobs to get the paycheck. if you look at the movies he made, including, "under the volcano" and "the dead," they are some of the best movies he ever made. >> those wh

army film depicting the 1943 battle that destroyed the town of san pietro,ilitial pietro,ilitially. praised at the time for the battle that killed over 1,000 americans, the film was composed of almost entirely re-enacted scenes. we speak with film historian mark harris. >> the book is titled five came back, a story of hollywood and the second world war. joining us from new york is mark harris. as we look at some of the leading directors from this time period, including john huston, what can you tell us about him? >> well, huston was a really fascinating, larger than life figure. his career in hollywood was just starting when the war broke out. he had had a kind of never do well adolescence and early 20s. he had been involved in a few car crashes. he fled to paris at one point. his reputation was really not great. and then he came back to hollywood, started to build a reputation as a screen writer, particularly with the help of william wyler, who was something of a mentor and very good friend to him. and then just before pearl harbor, had his breakthrough success with the first movie

army film depicting the 1943 battle that destroyed the town of san pietro,ilitial pietro,ilitially.t the time for the battle that killed over 1,000 americans, the film was composed of almost entirely re-enacted scenes. we speak with film historian mark harris. >> the book is titled five came back, a story of hollywood and the second world war. joining us from new york is mark harris. as we look at some of the leading directors from this time period, including john huston, what can you tell us about him? >> well, huston was a really fascinating, larger than life figure. his career in hollywood was just starting when the war broke out. he had had a kind of never do well adolescence and early 20s. he had been involved in a few car crashes. he fled to paris at one point. his reputation was really not great. and then he came back to hollywood, started to build a reputation as a screen writer, particularly with the help of william wyler, who was something of a mentor and very good friend to him. and then just before pearl harbor, had his breakthrough success with the first movie he direct

government in world war ii, we feature director john huston and the battle of san pietro, a 32-minuteilm depicting the 1943 battle at

the new one earth at san pietro was plowed and sown.> the people pray to their patron saint to intercede with god on behalf of those who came and delivered them and passed on with the noise of a passing battle. ♪ ♪ >>> director john huston and the 32 minute film the battle of san pietro. joining us from new york is author mark harris. what is your take away from this film? >> you know, it's easy to look at this film and say, got you. you said you were telling us the truth but actually lied to us. now, i think if you watch the movie knowing that it's restaged, some of the restaging becomes obvious. i feel that there are beautiful and remarkable things in this movie that we now take for granted. for instance, the way the camera jumps and shakes when a grenade goes off or who there's purported enemy fire. that was a technique. it's a technique that we understand to be part of the language of war movies to be seen on screen but it was something that huston in a way invent invented. when john moore made a film, he surprised people by leaving