''The Battle of San Pietro'' is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...

about the Battle of San Pietro Infine, from Naples, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was shot by

Jules Buck Jules Buck (July 30, 1917 – July 19, 2001) was an American film producer. Career He was a cameraman for John Huston's war documentaries and began producing as assistant to Mark Hellinger. In 1952 he moved to Paris, then London, where he creat ...

. It was released in the US in 1945 but shown to US troops earlier. Huston and his crew—which included the British novelist and screenwriter

Eric Ambler Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 – 22 October 1998) was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for book ...

—were attached to the U.S. Army’s 143rd Regiment of the 36th Division. Unlike with many other military documentaries, it was claimed Huston’s cameramen filmed alongside the infantrymen as they fought their way up the hills to reach San Pietro. However, Huston's claim that the film was made during the battle was proven false by the research of Peter Maslowski in his 1993 book, ''Armed With Cameras''.

Production

The film was made to be intentionally more realistic than other examples of its genre. One scene includes close-up views of the faces of dead soldiers as they are being loaded into body bags, a level of realism unheard of in both fictional portrayals as well as newsreel footage of the time. The

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

delayed its release to the public because it showed dead GIs wrapped in mattress covers; some officers tried to prevent soldiers in training from seeing it, for fear of damaging morale. General George Marshall came to Huston and took the film's defense, stating that because of the film's gritty realism, it would make a good training film. The depiction of death would inspire soldiers to take their training more seriously. Huston quickly became unpopular with the Army, not only for the film but also for his response to the accusation that the film was anti-war. Huston responded that if he ever made a pro-war film, he should be shot. The film was screened to U.S. troops in North Africa in 1944, where

John Horne Burns John Horne Burns (October 7, 1916 – August 11, 1953) was an American writer, the author of three novels. The first, ''The Gallery'' (1947), is his best known work, was very well received when published, and has been reissued several times. Bi ...

described it in a letter as "almost more than any heart can stand". Huston was no longer considered a pariah; he was decorated and eventually promoted to major.

Reception

In 1991, ''The Battle of San Pietro'' was selected for the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

References

Additional sources

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External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Of San Pietro, The 1945 films American documentary films American World War II propaganda shorts Black-and-white documentary films 1940s English-language films Films directed by John Huston Films scored by Dimitri Tiomkin Italian Campaign of World War II films United States National Film Registry films 1945 documentary films Films with screenplays by John Huston Articles containing video clips American black-and-white films 1940s American films English-language documentary films

Production

Reception

See also

References

Additional sources

External links