The Battle of San Pietro (John Huston, 1945)

John Huston is one of the best known and most respected directors of all time (The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Asphalt Jungle, The African Queen, The Man Who Would Be King, Prizzi's Honor along with many others) but this documentary short is not well known, which is no wonder as it was attempted to bury it. Like many other Hollywood directors he was commisioned to make films for the OWI (Office of War Information) during the war. The purpose of this documentary was supposed to be propaganda but Huston made this a dedication to the soldiers he had followed and it is no less a searing indictment on those who command wars far behind the front lines and can't see the sacrifices.

The objective is a small piece of land and the sacrifices are great. We get to see the actual happenings of war, the wounding of soldiers, the boredom and homesickness, the sacrifices and the pain and suffering of civilians. When Huston had finished the film it was "tidied up" and a prologue was added to justify the hard-fought battle. Huston himself does the cynically flag-waving narration. It got a very limited release and was subsequently buried for thirty years until after the Vietnam war when many began to revise World War II.