John HustonReport From The Aleutians (1943)

Director John Huston, while a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1943, creates an Academy Award winning documentary, which he narrates with assistance from his actor father Walter, treating of the Armed Forces' successful effort to prevent the fall of the Aleutian Islands to advancing Japanese troops who had captured several islets. Although no claim can be reasonably made that this location was of major strategic importance during the War, it presented enormous tactical and logistic difficulty for those assigned there, and Huston's color film demonstrates the determined ensemble work upon the outpost of Adak by a wide range of military specialists who combat loneliness and boredom along with notably severe weather conditions. The work was made over a six month period, and is climaxed by the preparations for, followed by an actual filming of, a bombing run over Japanese-occupied Kiska, wherein Huston nearly lost his life, and which is significant for its combat footage and for the atmosphere of suspense present in the viewer who wonders if all will return safely.



This item is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: John Huston
Producer: John Huston
Production Company: U.S. War Department
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: WWII; war; documentary; kiska
Contact Information: www.k-otic.com

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: jimelena - - December 2, 2005
Subject: Progadanda

My dad was in the Aleutians during WWII so I watched this. This is a propaganda film. It does not begin to relate the huge mistakes made, the tragedy upon tragedy, or the reasons why it is known as "the forgotton war". Maybe someday the truth will come out but even 60 years after it is still too sad, too horrible, to be remembered for what it was.

Reviewer: FrankinHolland - - November 6, 2005
Subject: Report From the Aleutians

Starts out slowly but the bombing run at the end had me on the edge of my seat. This will be around for as long as human civilization survives.