Five Came Back cover art

Five Came Back

A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War

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Five Came Back

By: Mark Harris
Narrated by: John Chancer
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About this listen

Now a Netflix Original Series, featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Guillermo del Toro.

Before the Second World War, the Hollywood box office was booming, but the business was accused of being too foreign, too Jewish, too 'un-American'. Then the war changed everything. With Pearl Harbor came the opportunity for Hollywood to prove its critics wrong.

America's most legendary directors played a huge role in the war effort: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. Between them they shaped the public perception of almost every major moment of the war. With characteristic insight and expert knowledge, Harris tells the untold story of how Hollywood changed World War II and how World War II changed Hollywood.

©2014 Mark Harris (P)2017 Audible, Ltd Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV History & Criticism World War Entertainment Celebrity Military Imperial Japan

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All stars
Most relevant
A brilliantly written and perfectly told book. I honestly cannot recommend it any higher. It's not easy weaving the stories of five different people but the author has done a bang on job. Thanks.

Brilliant

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A brilliantly researched book that chronicles the interconnecting stories of five iconic Hollywood directors and their film work in the US armed forces during WW2. Beyond that this book contextualises the politics and changing world that the filmmakers were finding themselves in. Thoroughly engaging and reveals itself to be a story about the most important film ever made. It’s one of the best books I’ve read and certainly the best book on Hollywood and WW2.

A rich history of Hollywood and WW2

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