you're from the foundation board so we can recognize you and 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, in whose memory. we are presenting the program and the hollywood versus history series. it's this uh, it's it's jerry rosenblum who's made this possible by a generous gift his estate tonight, military historian brian steed of, the army commanding general staff, college we have a special installment of the series it's a little broader in scope looking at hollywood filmmaking during world war two and its role in shaping nation's response to and support of the war. brian will, take a particularly close look at the best years of our lives, a seminal film released a year, the war that successfully departed from the flag waving norm. it earned eight academy awards, including oscar for best picture. brian steed is an professor of military history at the commanded general staff college, where he since 2013 and was honored as a military educator of the year. in 2018, he served as an armor officer in middle east for an area officer in the u.s. army. he retired from active as a lieutenant colonel. it was brian who actually helped us launch the hollywood versus series in january when he explored the 1975 swashbuckling film the men who would be king. and this is his 10th time that he has spoken at the library, starting back in 2014. so he is one of our stars here at the library. please join me in welcoming brian steed back to the library library. okay. so thank and welcome. i love here i love i love talking about movies. i'm a fan not just as a thing to do for fun, but as art. so we're going to talk about different aspects of film. it's going to be different as was already. i'm not going to focus just on one movie, but we are going spend most of our time talking about the best years of our lives. so i'm going to use a lot of superlatives tonight. i think they're all warranted. you might take umbrage with few, but that's okay because i'll make you think why isn't the best or the greatest or whatever so i'm okay for you to argue with? point okay. so we're going to talk about world two and movies. so why this film? well, at the beginning of last school year so back sometime september october, one of my students made the comment in almost a whimsical, even a a wistful of back in world war two the entire nation was united behind the war effort. and wouldn't it be nice the entire nation was united today and and he said it in such a way that it was like it automatic, like organically wanted support the war effort and that time i told him like, whoa, it wasn't exact organic. like a lot of that was manufactured. and it was created both by the government and, by hollywood. and it's important to recognize that a lot of the country was not necessarily especially before pearl harbor was not support of world war two or what was happening that we now know as world war two. and even after the japanese bombed pearl harbor, a lot americans were not in support. the europe first strategy, because the germans bombers. so why are we focused effort on europe and helped shape this and it helps shape how we perceive world war two even until today so the other part that i to bring up and you can like this one of those areas you could argue when i'm talking about film by the way i'm not counting silent film that doesn't count. i know that probably some people out there that will argue point i'm talking about synchronized sized sound and motion picture that film so this is the first war. world war two is the first global war or multi regional war that is fought in the age of film. that's something to think about in our world today. i want to take back to imagine because i don't think even with all the non brown hair i see out there, i don't think anybody in this was born in an era where there wasn't a talkie okay, everybody here has lived a life where motion picture was a thing so i want you to go back to a world where motion picture wasn't a thing where you didn't see images and when did when you went to them, you only went one place like. in today's world you can watch movies on the television screen. you can watch movies on your phone right. or if you don't want to watch a movie, you can play video games. we'll talk that competition in today's there's so many different ways to get media but back in war two there was kind of one and it was the movie theater or the cinema. if want to be fancy about it. okay so if we go back, the first synchro guys sound and motion picture the jazz singer 1927. we're going to talk academy awards a couple of times tonight. so the academy awards begin in 1927 and the first best picture winner is a silent picture winner, wings. it's after that that it's the next year that the first sound synchrony sound motion picture gets best picture. and that's broadway melody. now, what's interesting is and this is just totally but the first several years of the academy awards it was not based off calendar year. so you get this like 1928, 29 stuff in the early academy because it wasn't a calendar year system and i can't recall what year we went to it. i want to say it was early 30 spent anyway, eventually they went to the system have now where the academy awards are based off of release date in a calendar as opposed to how it was originally. okay so when we think of big blockbuster movies, a lot of us might think of avengers endgame, one of the biggest grossing in american history. okay. and so when we look at this, this isn't this is who saw and it's interesting ticket sales. so these are people sitting in okay. and ticket sales are actually recorded not for the united states. it's recorded for united states and canada. so these population numbers are also states and canada. so as popular as avengers endgame was only about quarter of the population saw. that movie. now we compare that to the next or the previous blockbuster before that, which was titanic and. it's about 44% of america saw and canada when i say america, just think north america, in this case, american canada. but now let's go back to this of the early talkies, right? snow white and the seven dwarves, one of the biggest movies ever, 72% of america went and saw movie. now anybody want to guess what the biggest all time ticket selling movie is is? yes. gone with the wind. a, 130% of america went to see that movie. okay. so when we're talking about blockbusters like these, don't even compare. but of course, in the gone with the wind age, you had one option, right? it's either theater or the radio. guess two options, right? but if you want to see somebody moving, it's one option. right. but and today you have a lot. so movies are important. now, i would argue one of the great est and most influential directors in history is the german film director, leni riefenstahl makes two great films. most of you, even if you haven't seen it you've seen it and i'm going to show you a couple of clips from them triumph of the will, which is the 1934 nazi party congress movie. we'll show a clip from that. and olympia, which is the 1936 summer olympic shown. she is so influential because she shapes how the world imagines film to be right. and almost every director copy her. okay, so when we watch triumph of the will, you will have all seen these images. some of these images. look a whole lot like the award in the original star wars movie. you know, when luke and and chewbacca up to get their medals. right, like. that's right it is literally taken from their right you're going to see the march of the hyenas from the lion king as hitler. i think it was scar that was standing up on top right in the hyenas march in front of him that's what happens in this film they're copying leni riefenstahl's triumph of the will when frank capra, who makes the why we fight series to teach american soldiers. we fight for world war two when he makes and when he starts in the production of that first film, he first watches triumph of the will for the first time in 1942. and he comes out of that viewing and he says the nazis are going to win this war because of the influence of this movie on public. public will and how he knew that society would be shaped. he knew this is what he to compete against. okay. now, when we talk about not nearly as important in of shaping the war effort, but i think it's really important movie for those of you who are sports fans to watch, i'm a huge track and field. so right now i'm kind of in heaven because we just had the us track and field championships and we're about to have that the world track and field championships and cinematic sports coverage is pioneer ad by leni riefenstahl. of course is the 100 meter. this is actually 100 meter semifinal with jesse owens. it's fascinating. leni riefenstahl was accused of being a nazi and fought that in court something like 32 times and won every case on legal grounds because she never was a nazi, whatever else. and when you watch this movie, her portrayal of jesse owens is quite a positive one. it's like he breaks the world record, by the way. and in the semifinal, not in the final, but anyway. so hollywood is shaping or movies are shaping how people and see the world and now fdr will the same thing. fdr here is a speech that he has and presented because at the motion picture or the academy by the academy of picture arts and sciences. they love watch films. so he gives this little film of himself, and this is what's shown at the 1941 academy awards. we have seen the american motion picture become famous in all the world. we've seen it reflect our throughout the rest of the world. the aims and the aspirations and the ideals of a free people and of freedom itself. the motion picture industry is utilized its vast resources resources of talent and facilities. the nation's effort to help the people, the hemisphere to come to know each other. dictator those who enforce the total form of government think it's a dangerous thing. they are unfortunate people to know. in our democracy, officers of the government are the servants and never the master of the people. so this is expressing the power. hollywood. about nine months before pearl harbor, but it's a little more than a year after the war has begun in europe. so he's addressing an audience that is dealing with war and is being torn about how to present the war to the american people, like the whole industry goes to war. disney goes to war i wish i could show commando duck. i really toyed with the idea that i absolutely love it. it's fascinating that of all the disney characters that to war it's donald who goes most often and and the only other one who actually goes pluto. okay. and he's a dog, right? like a legitimate dog. not like a goofy dog, but a dog dog. but donald is the guy who goes he never joins the navy, which i think is misrepresent authentic himself. right. because i always thought he was a sailor, but he joins the air force and he joins the army. and in one, he becomes a special forces guy. it's pretty comedic one. oc but disney also produces victory through air power, which is major this of air ski does a book titled victory through air power and this is where disney walt himself wants to present day severe skies theory about how air power can win the war fast or roosevelt doesn't watch this movie until churchill demands that he does and he makes roosevelt promise and roosevelt promises or then demands get his own set of the films brought to him. and he watches it. and supposedly, at least according to the disney, it's only after roosevelt watches victory through air that he commits to the combined bomber offensive against the nazis in germany. so quite an influential movie the entire is is bankrolled by and distributed by disney. it's actual commercial flop. okay why we fight disney. all the animation for that series. and then of course do the shorts that appear in-between and before and after so many movies in theaters, a great series is available on netflix. i'm not doing as promotion. i don't get a kickback from netflix. it's called the five came back. it's three part series and it talks about five american film directors, all academy award winners who go. and for those you guys, you know the man 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're going to spend most of our time, most of the rest of our time talking william wyler, who is another important on this. but a lot of hollywood actors, significant ones also go and join the effort in a significant and serious way. like not just, hey, i'm doing as a liaison to military, but actually fighting, right. and so in the five came back, steven spielberg, who's a producer of the of the series and also a guy who comments throughout it makes this comment. and i think that this is something that was true, that hollywood recognized they needed to show that. so i want to into why. okay. so let's talk about william. he's our director of the film tonight. william wyler is actually willy wyler is in his name, isn't william? it's not made william until he comes to hollywood. and then make it longer. because willy, i guess, was too casual for hollywood, which is kind of funny anyway. so william wyler is a of french men from alsace, a little village in alsace and lorraine coleman, who's he's also jewish. he is sent to hollywood to work for his uncle in the movie industry, the twenties. and then william will become director. maybe now second superlative of the evening, i think is i think he is hollywood's greatest director. he's nominated for 12 best director academy awards. he wins three every he's the only director in an academy award history that every movie he wins for best director also wins for best picture. so he's not just a great director. he also directs great movies, which is something that him important. the other thing he's known for and it's said two different ways, he's as 40 take willy he's also known as 90 take william a stick with 40. take willy because i saw that more often than 90. take willy. but because he would take after take after take, he was a very, very, very demanding director and that demand he produced just the most number of academy award winning actors and actresses in hollywood's okay he has more than any other direct heir that will get nominated and he has more than the next two directors who will win. so not only is a great director. he also great films and he directs great performances. i would also throw out that i think greatest movie ever made is 1959, is ben-hur, and that's his. now, this is his joke that it took a -- to make a really great movie about. jesus christ. and i actually do think that it is a great about jesus christ. so i'm with him all the way on that one. okay. and my my list of his favorites, if you haven't seen it, i highly recommend you go out and see big country with gregory peck, not of his academy award nominees, but fantastic film, great western. okay. so. mrs. miniver and, the best years of our lives are bookends of william wyler's world war two war experience. so, mrs. miniver is the last movie he directs before he goes off to war. best years our lives is the first movie he directs after he comes back from the war. and it's great you can watch them in close proximity to each other because you will get a sense of how his view of war changes between two because william wyler goes to war, he will film the memphis belle, my wife and i. we just had an opportunity two weeks ago, i think we were at the us force museum in dayton, ohio. highly recommended, fantastic museum. and there they have the memphis belle, the b-17 that he filmed, and he just jampacked that thing with cameras. and he flew on bombing missions with that aircraft. he loses his hearing flying in a b-24. i think it is during the war doing similar filming because it's just a much louder aircraft. he didn't the proper hearing protection he loses his hearing on one flight so he personally suffers as a result of his wartime service and and by the way the red font or the people who win the orange font to the people nominated and so this a very successful movie and what we get from mrs. is the sense of what war the toll takes so he starts making this movie before pearl harbor and. he wants the american people to support the british in their war effort. so we're not at war yet. but he wants america to commit to the war and to support the british. so he shows miniver just a regular relative speaking common british housewife wife who's dealing with the challenges of the war some give you some spoilers. this is an 80 year old movie. so at this point i don't feel bad but their house is going to get bombed and pretty much destroyed in the blitz and, the way their family deals with it. her husband will take their boat to help dunkirk. she will be she will encounter the only german in the movie is a pilot that gets shot down and makes his way into her home and she has to hold him off at gunpoint. it's fascinating that when producer saw the dailies or really the guys at the studio saw, the dailies, they were really concerned and they called william in and they're like, hey, willy, you can't show the german this way. we're not at war. the german people and willy's response was, look, if i had 100 germans in the movie, i would show good germans, but i've got one. and so that one is going to be one of garang's monster. and so we really wanted to show him as sort of this, i want to burn world kind of thing. so when you watch the movie get that sense, this is a creepy german guy, right, who's a true believer in the nazi and willy it that way. now, what's fascinating is after pearl harbor, the studio didn't complain anymore. so it was of interesting. okay so here is the i'm going to show you from mrs. miniver. this comes at the very end the village has been. a lot of things are destroyed. it's the preacher in the protestant church who's giving the sermon i want you to hear in that preacher, william wyler. he's the preacher. and he's talking to you about what this war is about. the homes of many of us have been destroyed and the lives of young and old have been taken. they're scarcely a household. it hasn't been struck to the heart. and why why? i shall tell you why. because this is not only a war of 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 woman and child who loves freedom. this is the people's war it is our war we the fighters fighting. then fighting with all that is in us. and may god the right. this is the people war. like he was saying, our homes in our factories. you could have added in there in the theaters right. because that's what william wyler, that's how he's fighting war is in the movie theater. and so this the people's war, that's how he goes off to war, by the way, he will be the memphis belle a mission as his wife receives his best director, academy award on his okay, so he finds out a western union telegram that he won the academy award. so it's people's war now. we go to this film because this movie is about what does to the people a mrs. miniver the people. this is the people's war. now what does war do to people? that's what best years of our lives about. i have up here the birth dates of each of the actors and actresses, and it's kind of useful to look at them because they don't exactly match up right. but it's all right, this is this hollywood right? and it is interesting, the film in black and white, because it was believed in the 1940s, that color was for fantasy. it was for comedy. it was for and imitation. it wasn't for serious. serious movies were black and white. okay. that's what real people that's what adults saw. it's black and white movies. okay. so are some facts about this one is you look at it, 38% of america went and saw this movie. it was a pretty popular movie, was the best selling movie other than gone with the wind up until 1950, it's not until the 1950s, that there is a more popular movie than this one. so this is ranked number two all the way for the entire decade of the forties. okay. it has this distinct of winning. it says seven academy awards plus an honorary award. okay, we're going to about harold russell a bit, but harold russell is is the he plays homer in the film. he's the name is the sailor who's lost both his arm and harold russell actually did lose both his arms, but it was in a training event where he was doing the training and. hollywood. he was nominated for best supporting actor. but the didn't think he would win it. so they gave him an honorary award and. then he won the best supporting actor award as well. big becoming the only person in history to win oscars for the same role. so if you have that on trivial pursuit or something, that is the answer. it's harold russell. okay, so this is set in boon city. they don't tell you what state it's supposedly patterned off of cincinnati ohio but it's actually filmed in california. so it's fascinating that william wyler wanted very normal look to the film. so he gave his cast money and told them to go buy their costumes off rack. okay, so theresa right. myrna loy, virginia mayo, they just all went to a regular department and bought regular clothes. so you do not see them dolled up in hollywood costume. this is all just very regular and. you get that feel when you watch the film film. it's interesting. 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 she agreed that she would be willing to film both this movie and the secret life of walter mitty. so 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 doesn't up in any of the dialogue though. virginia mayo really, really close to it in. one scene and i will talk about the importance of the b 17 as a metaphor in this film because you got to remember william wyler, memphis, belle b-17s, it's a big part and he uses the b 17 as a way to instruct throughout. so one of the ways he does this is that the three war veterans never having met before during the war meet at an airport and they fly home to boon city on a b-17, they can't get a decent flight for weeks, but there's a b-17 that is making hops across america and. they are able to get a ride on that. and one of the hops is going to land in boon city. they all jump on together and then each main character, like they all get off the aircraft and then they all reunite with their family. one by one by one. each of these main characters has a significant problem. okay, this one of the things i love about this movie is it's is is his poetry it okay. so william wyler shows like when you look at it initially one of these guys is broken it's homer like he obviously does not have hands he's got hooks everybody sees everybody recoils at them every body does. okay. it's very memorable. but all three of these men are broken. and what we'll see by the end of the film is that the one that is most obvious broken is the one that is actually least broken. and talk a little bit more about the irony is that william wyler sets up throughout the film as he goes on. okay. so obviously has a war injury. al struggles with family integration. he's got myrna boys, his wife he's got an adult daughter, a nearly adult son and, and he's been away from home for like three plus years. and they're to reintegrate. and then fred comes back and has all sorts of issues, ptsd, they all sort of resort all of their issues. now, for me, this movie is a little bit personal, so i'm going to get a little personal here. 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 so my grandfather and two of his brothers went to fight in world war two. they all left from a dinky town. great falls, montana, and like they never would have been further 50 miles from that city in their whole, but then they end up going off. one of them flies in b-17 during the war. one of them is in the american division and fights throughout the southern pacific theater with macarthur, and the other guy ends up being in north africa, in italy. right. so they end up seeing the world. these three brothers. and when they come back now, none of them lost their arms. so it's not quite like the film, but they all have problems with. integration. some of them deal with self-made taxation issues as they try to deal with their ptsd in a society. that's not quite ready to understand ptsd. it's fast. so when i watch this movie, i just i think about my family and it's a really easy connection for me. so who are they? where we got homer russell or homer parrish? sorry. getting mixed. homer parrish. he's a us navy. he's a sailor. he's a petty officer. second class. he says he's on an aircraft carrier. okay and he serves in maintenance in an aircraft. before the war, he was a high school star, right. and stevenson, fredric march, he serves in the 24th, 25th infantry division tropic lightning bunch of campaign ends he ends up ends the war in japan as of the occupation force based off of his service stripes know he serves at least two and a half years overseas. he's gone from his family for longer than three years as a process. the war service. he's a sergeant first class. so we think of rank, lowest rank middle rank, highest rank. and once again, it gets the ironies. and when you look at because what did al do before the oh, he was a banker. he worked in a bank. okay. respectable, you know, white collar job. then we have fred dairy. he served in the he was a bombardier in the eighth air force is multiple awardee. you know, he's a captain again served two and a half years. what did he do before the war? he was a soda jerk. so he had the lowest social position. his parents are kind of nobody. his dad sort of comes across as i don't know, like a nerdy well, i mean, seems like a decent guy, but, like, there's something wrong. live in, like, a tar paper shack. now, of course, this is, you know right before the war. so we don't know the back about why they're in these destitute situation, but he's financially destitute or his family is his family's pretty well off and his family loves and adores him. but he's the one physically broke. he's the one who self-medicate and. he's the dude who is most emotionally shattered as a result of the war and. we're going to watch that one by one. so this is homer, home to. that's his sister. now, watch how he greets mom and dad dad. big hugs. everyone's happy. this is the girl next door door. you. you got to hand it to the navy 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 problems. again, a fantastic thing by. the way you might have recognized teresa. right? she is also actually that's not right. i got the actress's name wrong and i can't remember. it doesn't matter. she thank you. she been her sister. so anyway if you if you want go there keeps it all on family i guess in a way. okay, so here's al as he goes home and this is him talking to son is a samurai. sorry, bro. thanks very much. here's a flag i found on a dead -- soldier and all i'm writing on it are signatures and good luck messages from his relatives. yes, i know that japanese attach a lot of importance. the family relationship. yeah, yeah. entirely different from us. say, you were at hiroshima, right? your dad. well, did you happen to notice any of the effects of radioactive beauty on the people who survived the blast? oh, i didn't. should i have to draw? aren't you going take the is part of what you do. yes. gee thanks awful lot to have these things you might see in the morning i don't go around okay just okay so our back the conquering hero and his son thanks him for things okay it's kind of it's fascinating. okay and then now here's fred and what he's going through. we to see two clips of this. so hello. good afternoon. good ask you get out of the plane. teach yourself someone. come on the you guys bring the rocket out. fred, wake up. good. i was trying to get to you got up. we've found your guardian. it's all right. thank for that soup. go back to sleep. that's. so, willy. shows us what fred is going through in that sequence. here's how his wife responds to like we don't see him have that experience his wife but but here's how his wife reacts fred yeah are you really all? of course i'm all right what? i mean in your mind is my mind. you think i'm gone goofy. i've been wondering what was good. ask. why did you hear about him? you talk in your sleep, honey. sometimes you shout some things on fire and you want somebody to get out. you keep saying get dusky kotecki ski. oh, he was a friend of mine and be 17 pilot. i got it over berlin catch you get those things out of your system oh sure. maybe that's what's holding you back. you know, the war's over. won't get any place to start thinking about coming out of it. okay, honey, i'll do that. okay. we to talk about some of this in a bit. so this is i'm going to show sequence from the beginning and the end of the film. so this is the three of them as they're riding in the b-17 coming into boon city. and i want you to pay attention to what they're talking about. and then we're going to show, at the end, what how fred is dealing with what he's going through. okay. so they're in the bombardier position, which is kind of important. that's fred's always small. i never knew there were so many planes in that junk. now. oh, boy. but we get it done with 1143 and i'll. but some of them are brand new from the factory to this crappy that's all i could find out. okay that william wyler's message, young men go off to some of them brand new from the factory, right? the scrapheap. that's what war does to people. it takes new planes and, junk some right. and here we have fred at the end. he's climbed up in one of those junkyard planes in his old bombardier position. and william wyler showing no engines. it has no propulsion. it can do any of the things that it was made to do, just like fred kirk. and there's fred trying to figure out what on earth to do in his old position, where he was actually a hero multi time decorated for what he accomplished during the war. this is the best shot of the film camera in over the shoulder. really awesome. and as fred's contemplating how deal with his life, we're going to see a guy through the bombardier window looking up at him, yelling at him. right. there is the image. that guy's at him. and fred's like, oh, i got to come out and deal with this guy. and we're going to hear the sound is going to come back up in a moment. we're going to hear this final conversation. and i want you to pay attention because this is wyler's final point about the meaning of, the war and the meaning of fred's life. i used to work one of those reviving old memories, you know, maybe some of them out of my system, where they can take your last look at these crates we're breaking up. yeah, i know. in the junk, man. you got everything going later. this is no job. we're using this material for killing prefabricated houses. right? remember the beginning straight from the factory, right. the junk heap. what's william wyler tell you at the end this junk, this is what you build a civilization on. so all these men who fought in the war and come back broken just because they're a broken hulk of a b-17 doesn't make them junk. okay, so why is this movie like? i think this is the most courageous movie ever made? so this is my other superlative of the film. why? because most movies are about the period that they're made. like, i'm a big of science fiction movies, and i love them. because what science fiction does is, is like the little mosquito in the jurassic park movie. it gets captured, amber, and then it holds a little dna so that you can make dinosaurs later on that kind of thing. movies do that they, capture a moment in time what people were thinking, what hollywood was about the world right. and sci fi does that better than anything. but what's brilliant about this movie is the period in which made is the period that it's about like wyler is making this about the end of the war at the end of the war. so it's like this is one of these points why it's not to talk about how historically accurate it is because it's a genius discussion of the issues at the time they're made and these are issues that in most cases we don't really as a society other than in a film like this for decades. there's a reason why so many world war two vets self-medicated self-medicated. like i already said, every main is broken. and one of the things that's fascinating is we only run into in the whole movie to other service members, like one is a guy that al will help at the bank he was a seabee and al's like oh i'm going to give him a loan though he doesn't have collateral and all kind of gets in trouble for it. but al does it anyway. he sticks to his guns. right. and that's the big emotional moment for al in helping like this is, what i'm going to do with my life to help build this country and help these men who fought. that's what he's going to do. the other guy is some sleazy dude who's hitting on wife, right? and so we kind of get like so we get both sides, the honorable dude. and then they're kind. okay, questionable cat here. but those everybody did not serve in the war. the other show the jerks they stay the other guys they worked in factories because that was true about america to as many people as we put the military, we put four or five times more in most of america, served the war effort by building things, not by and the war and the movie does address that and this idea of the arsenal of democracy. so here are the courageous things he deals with. and we've seen this already war time, disability, ptsd, reintegration, anxiety, self-medication, social acceptance. nobody understands these guys. like these guys are like glue. so the first time they meet is at this airport before they get on the b 70 or it's actually they meet al as they get on the b-17 and yet these guys are the bestest buddies ever because they all have something in common that apparently almost nobody else in boone city shares with them. right. so they have difficulty getting society to understand them. and you already see this idea of this revisionist the use of the nuclear bomb. it was a good thing or bad thing like it doesn't get discussed in much, but just in dad's things, you get that brief hint of his son sort of, you know, thinks maybe the nuclear bombs are a little sketchy. and then there's another guy, the soda fountain, who talks about how the guys who fought were the real suckers in the war and that we were actually just fighting for corporate interests or whatever else. okay. obviously, that's never been said before or since, but anyway, it's just an interesting aspect of the film. so i would just offer you one if you haven't watched this moving along time, you ought to go see it, get it again, watch it again. it is really, really worth your time. it is a long movie, but it is a great movie and it at some really, really profound points and gives you a sense of in a period of time that i think one of the most authentic films that's ever been made and, it deserves the credit that it has. so i think i'm ending with that. yeah. so just going to open it up for questions, but you all very much for your attention. brian, thank you very. anyone with a question we've up two microphones at the front of each aisle, if you would use those. those are particularly important for. our viewing audience on c-span, on our library website, youtube site when we put the video up. thank you. thank you. thanks. coming again, my question is, we had four presidents, maybe five, i'm not sure on carter that came out of world war two. and i'd like for you to really comment on reagan. kathy, within the film video, whatever want to call it back then. yeah. well it's so fascinating how much that generation shaped america right. we think about each of the presidents that followed, whether it's a guy like eisenhower who obviously gets elected based off of his wartime service and his signifier. and then each of the other presidents up until ronald bell, george h.w. bush is our last world war two, serving president. right. and each of them, it is a shaping event, even with reagan, where he doesn't deploy, he a significant player in in the liaison with hollywood and there's so much i wanted to say on this topic like it was it's fascinating. if you look at all the movies that hollywood produces in terms of top money earners academy nominees and how many of them are in some form or about the war effort. so gary cooper's movie, sergeant york comes out in 1940 and you look at other movies that are quite significant some of them are whimsical movies, broadway, melody, kind of movies that but they're often rah war movies in their way. right. and then you have, of course, all sorts of john wayne, you know, the fighting seabees and and those sorts of films as well that are a little bit it's fascinating. how many hollywood actors felt they had to explain why they didn't fight john wayne goes into great lengths to explaining why he didn't fight, you know, 41. he's got a family. like he has all these explanations as if he had to do that and what's what's sort of sad. john ford teaching treats him a little bit like garbage because he didn't like. there's one story about john wayne getting cursed out by john ford for not saluting properly. he's like, why don't you salute like somebody who served and like everybody sort of like, hmm, okay. and you just imagine john wayne getting called like that. now, of course, john ford, if you're familiar with his story, he's actually wounded at midway. he's filming at the battle of midway and he sets his camera up in the perfect place, which is also the perfect to get bombed. so he does get injured. so it is a fascinating it does shape our whole society and it shapes how our presidents look at international relations for a while i would argue to a degree we're still shaped by war two like okay so it's unfair i can't do this exercise with you guys because you're all now, but sometimes i'll do an exercise where i tell people, close their eyes and i say a word and there's an image going to come into your mind when i say that word. and i want you to think and capture what that images. and the word i'll say to my students is, and i'll ask them, okay, what's the image that comes to your mind? and for most of our students at the command, general college, even though this is 2022, their images are world war two images it's you know hitting the beach saving private ryan. it's, you know, doing an air bomb drop or airborne drop. it's something that comes out of world war two. it is still for much of our military, our government, it is still what we think of when we hear the word war. and it's just fascinating. i don't think we've ever beyond that war yet. so it's interesting. and when guys like whimsically go back, i quite often remind my students like oc because they're like, oh, wouldn't it be great to go back to a world where everybody was united? like, yeah, and we killed 80 million people. i don't know that we want to go back to that world, right? like that's there's some there's a downside there but it is interesting that that's what shapes our mind. yes. go ahead okay. you had that you thought the movie ever, ever made was and i agree wholeheartedly. oh, thank you. i think that movie was the most out of all time. and i would like to hear you elaborate, if you could, on specific scenes you thought were dynamic. okay. well, i think this day it has the two best action adventure scenes filmed. so the chariot race scene and the naval battle like naval battle scene is like other than, well, if you've watched as many times as i have, you notice some of the catapult shoot much straight up in the air and coming out. okay, so there's a couple of like but if you just watch it, it is athena tech for how naval combat done like we could show if we were teaching first century naval warfare. our students, you could watch that scene. it's a scene for that. and the cherry scene is just flat out the best action scene ever made, except maybe until top gun maverick, i don't know, but but but it's actually like it's all practical. like there's none of that cgi. it's pretty awesome. and so for those reasons, my favorite though, and i think i to say this is the reason why i love it as a movie about jesus is they never show jesus his face they just show the influence of jesus on other people's faces. and i just love that aspect because i think as somebody who likes jesus, that his influence, others was more important than him. i think william wyler does that better than any director ever. so those would be my three reasons. i'm sorry, sir. you had a question then? you have. i call these kind of formula movies that during that world war two, the last formula movie and it flopped that i recall the green beret with john wayne where they thought, we're going to do a world war two formula movie and get everybody fired up for vietnam and wow. did that backfire? your thoughts? well, okay, one, you're right, it did flop. i, i think like so, folks people failed to the environment in which their what and i'm sure you're probably familiar john wayne wanted to make a movie that would motivate the american people right and so he was making a movie with an intent rather than just the story and letting the story make the message. look, i think that's what wyler does brilliantly both and mrs. miniver, he's little preacher. i mean, i guess the pun, with the minister at the end. but like, he's a little preacher than he is. and best years of our lives. best years of our lives. he just lets story make the message. and one of the things that i i'm challenged by with our with our students and i say that in of the 20 to 30 age range is lot of them are not taught to be critical viewers so they'll just watch movie and they'll just let it wash over without really, really thinking about the movie means. and like each these like little elements about why the be seven teens and why is that aspect of of straight from factory to the junkyard and and those sorts of things and how significant that is for making the message like really great film directors nothing is wasted. everything has a purpose and best movies are that way. and the best directors, everything they do is there for a reason. i think well, wyler does that beautifully. the best years of our lives. i think john wayne got to driven by the message and he didn't just let the story do it but i mean he's the duke. i don't know. you know, where i have grounds to actually criticize, but but that would be my critique of that film. oh, yes, sir. the thing that amazes about best years of our lives, i suspect the makers of that movie supported world war two, but it still was an anti war film. my question is, how do you support a war? but also make it anti-war, which any honest war sort of is? how do you support a war and then say, look, this is what it does to people. how does that how do you figure he put those two things together? i one, that is a great question. it gets to some profound points because i offer that every authentic war movie is an anti-war movie. every movie made somebody who has experienced war is an anti-war movie because nobody who's fought in a war wants to be more war. right. and think that's true of everybody, whether they were a uniform or not, like nobody. it's why when they show caricatures of of of military people and they show them as like warmongers and like the general wants to have war and all that sort of thing. like nobody who's actually seen war wants war, right? and i think wyler and which why i like the five came back when you look at those directors frank capra and his famous it's a wonderful life, right. which is another box office flop. and but that's that is both jimmy stewart and frank working through their ptsd on set. okay so george bailey breaks down that's jimmy stewart flew i can't remember how many missions flew over germany. that's him breaking down from the war. okay. that's what makes that movie so powerful. and you could argue that's an anti-war movie in that sense, but but the bigger point is that there are even wars destroy people. there are some wars that are worth and part of the point and i think william wyler wholeheartedly to the end his days agreed that world two those sacrifices losing his hearing i mean think about that this is a this is a a movie director who no longer can hear dialogue. right. like how do you do your professor but he to the of his life would say that that sacrifice was worth it for that war. right. and that's the key thing it isn't that, you know, 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 greater good that is worth what we're doing? right. and in world war two, if you're listening to william wyler and william wyler come back like he will break filming. he's filming a movie called thunderbolt for the army about the i can't remember what the aircraft's name is. but anyway, it's a it's an attack aircraft and people. yeah. thank you. thank. and he breaks in the middle of filming that to go his home village in milieus and that's when he realizes that everybody all the -- there that he knew all his family all of his his family's friends and associates are all dead. right? so this is a guy who recognizes that. okay. yes, i've lost my hearing. but i'm alive. right. and it's it's worth what we do now. it's fascinating that george one of the other five directors, he will end up filming at. i can't remember he's at auschwitz or anyway, he's at one of the first camps that we liberate. and his film crew is the first guys in there. and he realizes that we're not making a movie now. we're recording. and so has his crews record evidence will be used at the nuremberg trials. right. and so and george stevens was a famous comedy. like that was his strength doing he will not direct another comedy again after the war because he just can't do it it completely changes his personality and that's could probably imagine that would so anyway yes sir. we will make i think we caution here to make these the last two questions of the evening on a book and the previous one because when i saw the green berets, we thought it was comedy. i it in the in what pass for the officers club at danang airbase in vietnam which was just a little trailer in the screen was, a bed sheet. we tacked up there. we were throwing beer cans at it. so and watching the sunset over the china sea, which is impossible because rises over the south. this this is is it because i have given medical history talks where we we deal with how certain things are dealt with and particularly how the tobacco industry put a lot of money into putting smoking into the movies and this one is no exception. there's a completely gratuitous scene where they're all smoking, but homer pulls a little trick. he's able to light a cigarette using his hooks. then wyler takes a later scene where he's meeting his future father law. and he tries to do this and he's ignored and just shoved aside while there, while they're trying to light, it's a very interesting contrast. the tobacco being introduced. thank you for sharing. that's a good point, lawrence arabia is a better movie. but my my my question when i was coming here, i was thinking, any movies about black veterans coming back? any movies about the japanese soldiers coming back? any movies about rosie the riveter and? what happens to her? and i can't come up with one. they're maybe spike lee movie and i haven't seen it all the maybe about the black experience after the war but i can't think of one. that that's a really good question because. well no that's a bad question because it stumped me i guess because a good question would be one i had to answer. i guess. but now 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 address in their. this is the one i'm thinking of now is ford versus and that's about a white guy but it would be a movie like that where they're reference thing that this guy did serve and you're not disrespecting him that kind of movie but that i can't think of one right now of the civil rights movement have got to be well it's coming back i just yeah. yeah, i agree. i think that's a great point. i, i now i'm going to, i will spend some time on that one. thank you just for a quick sir. could you use the microphone. i got to use the mic. sorry. like they said, i have to be ruthless. that so i will not talk to you unless you're at the microphone. clint eastwood. first flags of our fathers and then the real gun. and i think of the sequel is letters from iwo jima. and that looks at japanese perspective of the battle. that is correct, but not necessarily coming home. that's that's during fighting. you're right. yeah. the coming home part is i think a bit but let's face it, there's not a lot of movies do a couple coming home literally coming home is coming out of vietnam we do a couple of those films but we don't do these for most wars. we will do them later. it's interesting, there are some other societies like you'll get british and australian films that will be made about coming home from world war one, right? neorealism, yeah, yeah. italian filmmaking. and one other quick thing. were you aware of the wall street journal on friday, may 27th, they had a nice. article about this movie. no, i didn't look it up. okay. garland, texas, is writing a book or already did, and it's $45. anything. the books are great, but they talk about that for me. they said that was of the worst novels ever and they turn it the perfect movie, which is best our best years of our lives. okay. well, thank you. and i do feel like i have to say, okay, i'm a huge fan of lawrence of arabia. okay, that. but i want say one of my best cinematic years of my life was 2019, when there's some company that brings classic movies to the big theater back. yeah let's see heads nodding. you know, i can never think of what the company is but the same year and 2019, i to watch on the big screen ben-hur in may and lawrence of arabia i think in september. it was absolutely awesome. i'd never seen either one of them on the big screen. so you ever get that opportunity? absolutely it out. okay, i think i fine. thank you so please join me in thanking him. one more so today we're gonna be talking about the question of what it was like to be arrested. the subject is the arrest in the united states 1880s to 2001. now, the reason i chose that, periodization, is that we've been in class talking about the 19th century up through. the 1880s with our tj stiles book and with our timothy guilfoyle book and and i didn't want to go any past 2001 because it's a i think that there are so many people who have so much sort of living experience