Posts tagged 8/22/69
Hollywood Fakes Combat Footage!

Shocking Historical Facts

"Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear."

“Five legendary, Oscar-winning movie directors abandoned their lucrative Hollywood lifestyles to volunteer for often-grueling military service during World War II as part of a corps of hundreds of filmmakers who recorded the Allied advance across occupied Europe and in the Pacific.

“Five Came Back,’’ a new book out Monday by film historian Mark Harris, recounts their adventures — sometimes under enemy fire — and details how they sometimes secretly faked combat footage that has been passed off as the real thing for decades in documentaries.

“They all could have gotten out of service because they were too old and/or their work as civilians was so important to American morale,’’ says Harris. “But they all wanted to be in the thick of it and served for at least three years.’’

John Ford, who had already won three of his unmatched-to-date four Oscars and received a Purple Heart for wounds received while shooting the Academy Award-winning feature documentary “The Battle of Midway,’’ also co-directed “December 7,’’ which won the 1944 Oscar for Best Short Documentary.

Less than four minutes of film records the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, so Ford and co-director Gregg Toland (who photographed “Citizen Kane’’) staged footage using miniature battleships and airplanes on the Fox lot in Hollywood.

This was embellished with entirely staged shots taken in Hawaii of sailors manning surface-to-air guns “in time to perfectly frame our response to a surprise attack,’’ Harris says. “Even 70 years after Pearl Harbor, we still so want that to be true.’’

Once America entered the war, logistical problems and bureaucratic snafus sometimes made it difficult to get film crews to the front lines in time. This was especially true in Africa, where British army crews recorded lots of impressive footage, but most of the few combat scenes photographed by Americans during the invasion of Casablanca went down with a sunken ship.

So Frank Capra (whose three Oscars included “It Happened One Night’’ and who oversaw an ambitious series of army training films) assigned George Stevens (whose two Oscars after the war included “Giant’’) to spend two weeks in Algiers staging re-creations (that Harris says were obviously faked) using tanks and soldiers assigned to him.”NY Post

NYSL:Mark Harris, Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War

John Huston Fakes Combat Footage

“Personally supervised by Capra, director John Huston staged additional “African’’ footage in California’s Mojave Desert with dummy tanks being bombed from the air, as well as additional recreations of dogfights between Allied and (fake) German fighters that were shot in Orlando, Fla.

Decades later, Huston labeled the faked footage, which turned up in an Anglo-American documentary called “Tunisian Victory,’’ as “disgraceful.’’

But Harris says Huston — Oscar winner for “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’’ and father of actors Anjelica and Danny Huston — was less frank about the authenticity of “The Battle of San Pietro,’’ his critically acclaimed documentary about an Italian battle that was selected in 1991 for the Library of Congress’ prestigious National Film Registry.

Harris’ research reveals that Huston arrived at the very end of the battle, which took the lives of more than 1,000 Allied soldiers. But with encouragement of his superiors, who provided equipment and hundreds of GI extras, he shot what Harris regards as the most convincingly faked footage of a World War II battle — shot on the actual locations with real participants.”NY Post

Read More:

Ronald Reagan's World War Two Fakery Revelaed

NY POST: How Oscar-winning directors faked WWII combat footage

NPR: Hollywood Goes To War In 'Five Came Back'

The Early History of Faking War on Film - Smithsonian Magazine

John Huston’s Fake Documentaries Of World War II

Lights, camera fiction: Second World War documentary footage a Hollywood fake

Hollywood Goes To War!

Filming, faking and propaganda: The origins of the war film, 1897-1902

When an Army of Artists Fooled Hitler - Smithsonian Magazine

Reconstructed newsreels by Georges Méliès

Film Projection Technology Throughout History

Lookout Mountain Air Force Station/Film Studio


ShockvertisingPatrick DelVecchioOutrage Marketing, shockvertising, shock advertising, shock and awe advertising, Simon Says Shock The Masses, shock marketing, shock, shock and awe, awe marketing, shock and awe advertising tactics, shock and awe marketing, shocking advertisements, Controversial Marketing, Controversial Marketing Campaigns, Marketing Controversy, shocked audience, outrage advertising, outrage marketing, outrageous ads, outrageous advertisements, guerrilla marketing, Guerrilla Marketing, Social Media Guerrilla Marketing, Marketing Campaign That Converts, shock advertising theory, shock advertising design, shock advertising examples, shock advertising case studies, shock advertising articles, shock advertising magazine articles, shock advertising designers, shock advertising campaigns, shocking content, clickbait advertising, clickbait, Rick Rolled, shock advertising and your mind, Controversial Mass Media Analysis, tabloid marketing, yellow journalism marketing, rumor marketing, gossip marketing, marketing hyperbole, marketing hype, anger advertising, anger marketing, sex sells, sex marketing, sex advertising, Subliminal Logos, Subliminal Logos and Neuromarketing, subliminal advertising, sex, rated x advertising, provocative advertising, provocative advertising tactics, provocative marketing, controversial marketing, controversial advertising, controversial ads, controversial marketing methods, provocative marketing methods, shockumentary, shock tactics in advertising, I'm feeling stellar, I'm Feeling Stellar, i'm feeling stellar, i'm feeling stella, GOOGLE SEARCH US OUT, motion graphics creator, release the Snyder cut, Neuromarketing Principle, neurology and advertising, Neuromarketing logos, neuromarketing blogs, neuromarketing blog, neuromarketiing, neurological linguistic programming, neuromarketing, Neuromarketing, Neuroscience, Neuroscience of Logo Design, Neuromarketing test, Neuro Design, consumer neurosciences, consumer neuroscience marketing, Consumer Neuroscience, consumer neuroscience, Gap and the Neuroscience of Logo Design, neurology, neuro, graphix, pataphysics, pataphysicist, PR Stunt, Patrick DelVecchio, DelVecchio Patrick 911, Delvecchio Patrick, Delvecchio Patrick 911, simon shack delvecchio patrick, delvecchio patrick 9/11, 9/11 delvecchio patrick, Patrick DelVecchio 9/11, 9/11, 9/11 Truther Movement Impact Examined, November 22, November 22 1963, November 22 1963 news, November 22nd 1963, August 22 1969, 8/22/69, 8/22/1969, 22/8/1969, 22/8/69, i m feeling curious, i m feeling stellar, google i m feeling stellar, google i m feeling curious, google I m feeling stellar, i'm feeling curious, google I m feeling curious, Google Search Us out, i'm feeling, i'm feeling stellars, I'm feelin stellar, I’m feeling curious, google i'm feeling curious, google I’m feeling curious, google I'm feeling curious, snel graphics, fake combat footage, fake war images, Hollywood goes to war, hollywood history, CIA Hollywood, Hollywood goes to wars, Newsweek The Truth Behind JFK's Assassination by Max Holland, Five Came Back, John Huston, Frank Capra, War PropagandaComment