Let There Be Light (1946)
Genre: Documentary / War
Duration: 58 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: John Huston
Stars: Walter Huston
IMDb score:
7,4 (2.165)
Releasedate: 16 December 1946
Reviews & comments
mister blonde
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- 12709 messages
- 5848 votes
Nice documentary that painfully exposes the impact of war on soldiers. Adult men who spontaneously start to cry, can only speak with a stutter, or can no longer walk or talk at all, because they are mentally damaged. Nice film, but the whole thing is somewhat academic, making it a bit dry.
The point, of course, is how grateful we should be for our freedom and that this cannot be taken for granted. A fitting theme for Remembrance Day. Somewhat moralistic towards the end and the question always remains to what extent things are directed (through editing etc, I don't believe this was staged). But I found a number of scenes very moving, especially a number of moments in which soldiers can finally walk and talk again through psychotherapy.
And if you don't know whether it is real or acted, it seems to me that it is either very well acted or just real. I'm going for the latter.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Onderhond
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- 87623 messages
- 12890 votes
Quite double.
Just as Kos already indicated, the question always remains what was and was not real. People say in advance that nothing was staged, but should you believe that unquestioningly? Some scenes seemed a bit strange to me... at least I was very aware of the camera.
Fortunately, the image of the soldiers themselves is fascinating. There are quite a few films on the subject, but in documentary form it is a lot more tragic. It didn't seem very scientific to me and there is a lot of emphasis on ensuring that all war victims were well cared for (although a bit strange, I just remember a lot of films that were very critical of this), but still quite catchy at times.
Fortunately, it doesn't last too long, so it never really comes to a standstill. But this is still a piece of propaganda, it's best to look at it with those glasses, but there are still a few powerful scenes between the lines.
2.5*
Translated from Dutch · View original
mjk87 (moderator films)
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- 14602 messages
- 4554 votes
At the end of Band of Brothers there is a piece about the lives of the soldiers after their service, after the war. They become farmers, taxi drivers, accountants again. There is something melancholic about returning to their old lives and starting a completely new career (and life) with their whole lives ahead of them. But those were the apparently healthy men, there are also many with trauma. The latter is the subject of this documentary, which I think gives a good picture of such a hospital, but sometimes also feels a bit scripted, even if only that there had to be 6 cameras in some rooms. I then wonder to what extent this was real. I don't judge the documentary on that, but on the fact that it was shown really dry. Mostly static camera work, except for a few nice moments with a sliding camera. And then shown without any fuss, it made this little hour feel quite long. And particularly noticeable was the baseball at the end with the question what these boys are going to do, that scene in BOB was also around a baseball field. It seems that this (whether unconsciously or not) served as inspiration. 2.0*.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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