''The Ghost Army'' is a 2013 American documentary about 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 ...

23rd Headquarters Special Troops, produced and directed by Rick Beyer.

Synopsis

The documentary tells the history of the secret U.S. Army unit of 1,100 troops that was set up in 1944 and operated until 1945 in the final stages of World War II in the fight against German army units in various parts of Europe. They used a combination of different ways of visual, sonic, and radio deception to convince the enemy of the presence of specific Army units that were in fact operating elsewhere. The unit included a large number of visual artists and designers who documented their experiences in paintings and sketches. The material employed in the 23rd Army Headquarters Special Troops' operations included decoys such as inflatable rubber tanks, trucks, jeeps, and cannon, as well as powerful loudspeaker trucks playing sound recordings of various types military heavy activity.

Interviews

* General Wesley Clark - Military and historical analysis * Peter Coyote - Narrator * Ed Biow - Private Camouflage Unit * John Jarvie - Corporal Camouflage Unit * Victor Dowd - Sergeant Camouflage Unit * Jack Masey - Corporal Camouflage Unit * Arthur Shilstone - Corporal Camouflage Unit * Gil Seltzer - Lieutenant Camouflage Unit * Joe Spence - Private Camouflage Unit *

Jack McGlynn Jack Ryan McGlynn (born July 7, 2003) is an American professional Association football, soccer player who plays as a midfielder for the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer. Club career Born in Middle Village, Queens, Middle Village, New ...

- Sergeant Sonic Unit * Harold Flinn - Private Sonic Unit * Al Albrecht - Corporal Sonic Unit * Spike Berry - Sergeant Radio Unit * John Gawne - Author of ''Ghosts of the ETO'' * Stan Nance - Sergeant Radio Unit * Irving Stempel - Corporal Camouflage Unit * Bernie Mason - Lieutenant Camouflage Unit * Dick Syracuse- Lieutenant Sonic Unit * Bob Tompkins - Sergeant Camouflage Unit

Archival footage

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...

Exhibition

The film first premiered at the Salem Film Festival on March 7, 2013. It was shown on PBS on May 21, 2013. It had its European Theatrical Premiere at the Abbaye de Neumünster in Luxembourg on November 27, 2013.

Film Festivals

* Salem Film Festival *

GI Film Festival The GI Film Festival (GIFF), a 501c3 non-profit organization founded by Army veteran Laura Law-Millett and her husband Brandon Millett, is "dedicated to preserving the stories of American veterans past and present through film, television and li ...

* International Historical and Military Film Festival * Moab Film Festival * CineSol Film Festival

Awards

Wins
CINE Golden Eagle
Televised Documentary/History * Salem Film Festival: Audience Award * Moab Film Festival: Audience Appeal Award

Critical Reaction

''The Ghost Army'' received overwhelmingly positive reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

79 out of 100. David Weigand at the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' called it a "mesmerizing documentary," going on to say: "You could call it a kind of World War II version of ''

Argo In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sour ...

'' and it makes for a documentary that is almost as gripping as Ben Affleck's film." Robert Lloyd at ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' called it "fascinating, detailed and oddly delightful." Matt Roush of ''TV Guide'' called it "remarkable and memorable…first-rate…entrancing."

Dorothy Rabinowitz Dorothy Rabinowitz is a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist and commentator. She was born in New York City, and attained a bachelor's degree at Queens College. She worked toward a doctorate at New York University from 1957 to 1960, but did ...

of the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' commented: "The unit's work was top secret, its members' experiences, recounted in this film, fascinating above all for what they tell about the determined inventiveness, the all-out ambition to try everything, characteristic of that war effort." ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' and ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' critics both called the documentary "fascinating."

Mark Feeney Mark Feeney (born July 28, 1957) is an author and arts writer for ''The Boston Globe'' for over four decades. He is the author of two books, ''Nixon at the Movies'' (2004) and ''Nixon and the Silver Screen'' (2012). Feeney is a native of Cambrid ...

at the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' praised the film while offering a rare note of criticism: "The Ghost Army" can feel a bit padded at times. Like one of those rubber tanks, it's not as imposing as it seems. But also like those tanks, it's memorable and not quite like anything else."

Feature film adaptation

On June 15, 2015,

Warner Bros Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

acquired the film adaptation rights to Breyer's novel with Henry Gayden writing the script, and Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips and

Andrew Lazar Andrew Lazar (born 1966) is an American film producer and graduate of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. He is associated with Mad Chance Productions, a production company he formed in 1997 and affiliated with Warner Bros., but als ...

producing the film. On April 23, 2019,

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

acquired the project, with Affleck attached to direct, produce, and potentially star in the film with Madison Ainsley and Lazar, and Nic Pizzolatto set to write the script.

References

External links

''The Ghost Army''
Official Web Site * * (producer's

YouTube Channel YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most v ...

)
Garber, Megan
"Ghost Army: The Inflatable Tanks That Fooled Hitler", ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', May 22, 2013. * ''The Ghost Army of World War II'',

Princeton Architectural Press Princeton Architectural Press is a small press publisher, specializing in books on architecture, design, photography, landscape, and visual culture, with over 1,000 titles on its backlist. In 2013, it added a line of stationery products, including ...

, 2015. () {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost Army, The 2013 films 2013 in American television 2013 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about World War II 2013 independent films American independent films Military deception during World War II 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films