Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime Documentaries Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime Documentaries Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 16, 2016

One of the more interesting tangential issues which arose when the United States entered World War II is how many male Hollywood stars simply left their cushy Los Angeles lives and enlisted to become part of the fight. Could you imagine any star in the 1950s, 1960s or later voluntarily signing up to fight in any of the many conflicts which followed World War II, whether that be Korea, Vietnam, or even Iraq and/or Afghanistan? Many top box office attractions like James Stewart, Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda and Clark Gable joined various branches of the armed services and fought with distinction. But it wasn’t only those who performed in front of the cameras who were moved to join the fight, and it is now part of the annals of film history that such celebrated filmmakers as Frank Capra helped to craft a series of documentaries that were meant to spark a “rah rah” spirit back home while also encouraging the hordes of fighting forces overseas. If Capra and John Ford are regularly cited for their wartime film efforts (several are included in WWII in Hi Def and Why We Fight ), a relative newcomer by the name of John Huston was also plying his filmmaking trade during the conflict, and this new compilation collects several of Huston’s World War II documentaries in one set.

Many younger folks may not even know that there wasn’t an officially separate “Air Force” in World War II, and so Winning Your Wings’ mentions of the Army Air Forces may sound a bit odd. This is one of the more unabashed American propaganda efforts of this era, one that serves more or less as a recruiting film for young guys in high school and college who wanted to learn to be pilots and fight the good fight from the skies above the infantry and navy troops. James Stewart, then himself a relative newcomer to the ranks in the Air Force(s), is host for the adventure, assuring a variety of young men that they have the “right stuff” to join up. One of the funnier vignettes involves what might be termed a “dumb jock”, who laments the fact that his grades aren’t very good. Stewart assures him that the letter on his sweater is the only “grade” he’ll need to be part of a new team. Baby Boomers will recognized Don DeFore as a somewhat older gas station attendant who is wondering if his age might get in the way of enlisting (it won’t).

Report from the Aleutians is the only color offering on tap in this collection (albeit in a pretty shoddy looking version), but it’s unusual in another way as well, documenting the everyday lives of soldiers in a remote outpost rather than relying on “action” like actual battle scenes, though that aspect does ultimately show up relatively late in the proceedings. This is a fascinating piece for those who have wondered about the day to day “monotony” our fighting forces have faced in various epochal conflicts, but there’s also a rather heart rending honesty to events presented here, including death. Olive makes an error when it lists this as having received the Academy Award for Documentary Feature (they actually make another mistake by listing its category as Documentary Short Subject), but in fact it didn't win and was only nominated that year (Desert Victory, another wartime effort, won).

Listed as San Pietro on the back cover, The Battle of San Pietro was, until Let There Be Light, the most contentious of Huston’s World War II documentary oeuvre. Huston long claimed that he and his crew were in the midst of actual battle during scenes that made it into the documentary, but both raw footage and subsequent research have proven this to be at least partially false, as it’s patently obvious from the raw footage that certain scenes were not only staged, but shot repeatedly so that Huston could have his pick of takes. What made the film controversial in its own time, though, was its forthright depiction of some of the horrors of battle, namely the huge mortality rates that attended some skirmishes. For that reason, The Battle of San Pietro was initially suppressed since some in the chain of command thought that Huston’s unflinching display of dead Americans would be demoralizing. Some accused Huston of being anti-war when this was first unleashed on an unprepared public, to which Huston famously responded that if he ever made a pro-war film, he should be shot.

Let There Be Light has made a previous appearance on Blu-ray as a part of WWII in Hi Def, and I’ll simply repeat my comments from that review here:

Let There Be Light is at once both the most intrinsically fascinating and the most disturbing documentary included [in] this compilation. Long suppressed by the United States government (the film wasn’t even screened until the early 1980s), this John Huston helmed feature recounts the rehabilitation of the emotionally scarred veterans who returned from the war in mental shambles, proving that “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” is not a relatively recent phenomenon. The film states that nothing was staged for dramatic purposes, and while some more jaded viewers may question that assessment, there’s no denying the gut wrenching drama of watching mentally unstable vets attempt to regain their emotional and rational equilibrium. In fact some of them are suffering from such extreme psychosomatic problems they need to regain their physical equilibrium. This is a no holds barred look inside psychiatry as it was practiced in the postwar era. There’s very little coddling going on, and an emphasis on drug-induced therapy, but as a glimpse into both a troubling phenomenon and a time capsule look as to how it was handled back then, Let There Be Light is completely visceral viewing.

Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime Documentaries Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime Documentaries is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.32:1. As should probably be expected given the varying provenances of the four documentaries included in this compilation, video quality is fairly highly variable. The worst of the bunch is no doubt Report from the Aleutians, obviously sourced from an element generations away from the original, and looking like a reduction print of a blow-up (the film was shot in 16mm and then blown up to 35mm for some theatrical presentations). Colors are almost nonexistent at times, and contrast is pretty anemic as well, leading to a gritty, grainy presentation that offers very little in the way of detail and (especially) shadow definition. Things are a good deal better with the black and white documentaries, though each has their fair share of damage to the elements. Winning Your Wings is the softest looking of the three black and white offerings, though it's appealingly organic, with a healthy and natural looking grain field. The Battle of San Pietro is perhaps marginally sharper, especially when the camera is stationary, though the difference is probably incremental. Let There Be Light has better contrast than the Topics release, with good black levels and decently modulated gray scale. None of these presentations is going to win any awards for mind blowing video quality, but when considering the historical importance of the films, the shortcomings are at least a little easier to overlook.

Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime Documentaries Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Things are perhaps marginally better with regard to Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime Documentaries' DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono soundtracks, though once again limitations of the sources prevent things from ever rising much above acceptable levels. There's age related wear and tear on display courtesy of distortion, cracks and pops, though nothing ever rises to really objectionable levels. An overall boxy quality to the proceedings keeps sounds effects like explosions and gunfire from ever reverberating with much force, but the narration is typically presented relatively cleanly and clearly.

Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime Documentaries Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• An Introduction (1080p; 26:14) isn't officially listed as a "supplement," but provides a good generalist overview of Huston's work on these wartime documentaries, including giving some back story on various production methods.


• San Pietro Raw Camera Footage (1080p; 33:01) is fascinating (silent) footage showing that Huston did indeed stage some of the scenes seen in the documentary, as evidenced by some multiple takes of various scenarios.


• Shades of Gray (1080p; 1:05:50) begins with the following explanatory text:

  After the suppression of Let There Be Light, the U.S. Army commissioned this dramatized remake of the film, which was produced without Huston's involvement.

  This contains some pretty clunky re-enactments of various real life scenes seen in Let There Be Light.

Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime Documentaries Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime Documentaries is a fascinating collection of pieces that serve to remind contemporary viewers that the United States was just as involved in "propaganda" as any Axis power was during World War II. The highlight here is no doubt Let There Be Light, which still retains an incredible emotional power, but the other three films all have their compelling points of interest. Video and audio quality are often pretty spotty here, but if granting those aspects a bit of slack considering the history involved, this release easily comes Recommended.