On “Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War”: A Book Review

Presenting last month's book review that never made it up...

Title: Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War 

Author: Mark Harris

Genre: Non-fiction 

About the book….

A fascinating look at five of the big directors of the Golden Age of Hollywood: John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra and the part they played during WWII. 

What I think… 

I was only intending to skim through parts of this, but ended up reading the whole thing because it was so interesting and while I was expecting this to be more about Hollywood and the movies made during the 40’s, I’m really glad that it wasn’t.

This was an incredibly informative book when it comes to WWII and part that these marvelous directors played in it when it came to capturing what was going on around the world and making an effort to boost morale. Each of these men put their careers on hold, so they could serve their country and I think Harris did an excellent job showing how it affected them both for better and worse.

There were three sections to this book with chapters broken down by location and a specific time span. Because I wasn’t overly familiar with any of the directors, minus having knowledge of a small handful of their movies, I found this made it easy to follow and keep track of what was going on as Harris went back and forth between the five men.

As an aside, some of the shorts mentioned in the book you can find online, which I really liked because I could see exactly what was being referred to. 

To sum it all up…

This is great book for those who are interested in WWII and learning about the impact that some of the big directors in Hollywood had on it.  Not something I would refer to as a quick read, but definitely an enjoyable one! ♥