The Battle of San Pietro

{{short description|1945 documentary film directed by John Huston}}

{{about||the actual World War II battle|Battle of San Pietro Infine|the 1734 battle of the War of Polish Succession|Battle of San Pietro}}

{{Infobox film

| name = The Battle of San Pietro

| image = File:The Battle of San Pietro (1945).webm

| director = John Huston

| writer = John Huston

| narrator = John Huston

| music = Dimitri Tiomkin

| cinematography = Jules Buck

| editing = John Huston (uncredited)

| studio = Army Pictorial Service

| distributor = War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry

| released = {{Film date|1945|05|03}}

| runtime = 32 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

}}

The Battle of San Pietro is a documentary film directed by John Huston about the Battle of San Pietro Infine, {{cvt|60|mi}} from Naples, during World War II. It was shot by Jules Buck. It was released in the US in 1945 but shown to US troops earlier.

Huston and his crew—which included the British novelist and screenwriter Eric Ambler{{cite magazine| url= https://newrepublic.com/article/117175/battle-san-pietro-what-makes-war-documentary-true | title= The Best World War II Documentary Was Faked| first= David | last= Thomson| magazine= New Republic| date= 4 May 2014 | publisher= | accessdate=}}—were attached to the U.S. Army’s 143rd Regiment of the 36th Division. Unlike with many other military documentaries, it was claimed Huston’s cameramen filmed alongside the infantrymen as they fought their way up the hills to reach San Pietro. However, Huston's claim that the film was made during the battle was proven false by the research of Peter Maslowski in his 1993 book, Armed With Cameras.{{cite book | last= Maslowski| first= Peter| title= Armed With Cameras: the American Military Photographers of World War II| place= New York| publisher= The Free Press| year= 1993| isbn= | pages= 83–94}}

Production

File:John-Huston-uniform-cropped.jpg

The film was made to be intentionally more realistic than other examples of its genre. One scene includes close-up views of the faces of dead soldiers as they are being loaded into body bags, a level of realism unheard of in both fictional portrayals as well as newsreel footage of the time.

The United States Army delayed its release to the public because it showed dead GIs wrapped in mattress covers; some officers tried to prevent soldiers in training from seeing it, for fear of damaging morale.{{cite book| first= William L. |last= O'Neill| title= A Democracy At War: America's Fight At Home and Abroad in World War II| publisher= Free Press| year= 1993| page= 258 |isbn= 0-02-923678-9}} General George Marshall came to Huston and took the film's defense, stating that because of the film's gritty realism, it would make a good training film. The depiction of death would inspire soldiers to take their training more seriously.

Huston quickly became unpopular with the Army, not only for the film but also for his response to the accusation that the film was anti-war. Huston responded that if he ever made a pro-war film, he should be shot.{{Cite episode|series=TCM Spotlight|title= Five Came Back|url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/1104934 |access-date=15 September 2015 |first= Ben| last= Mankiewicz| authorlink= Ben Mankiewicz| network=Turner Classic Movies|date=8 September 2015}} The film was screened to U.S. troops in North Africa in 1944, where John Horne Burns described it in a letter as "almost more than any heart can stand".{{cite book|last=Margolick|first=David|title=Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns|year=2013|publisher=Other Press| location= New York |page= 108| isbn= 9781590515723| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3Bv5Ym9atTgC&pg=PT118 }} Huston was no longer considered a pariah; he was decorated and eventually promoted to major.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

Reception

In 1991, The Battle of San Pietro was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".{{Cite web|title=U.S. FILM REGISTRY ADDS 25 'SIGNIFICANT' MOVIES|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-09-26-9103130465-story.html|last=Kehr|first=Dave|website=chicagotribune.com|date=26 September 1991 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-18}}{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-05-18}} The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.{{cite web|title=Preserved Projects|url=https://www.oscars.org/academy-film-archive/preserved-projects?title=san+pietro&filmmaker=&category=All&collection=All|website=Academy Film Archive}}

References

Additional sources

{{cite encyclopedia | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ay5rIWCXlLsC&pg=PA81| title= The Battle of San Pietro| encyclopedia= The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film| editor-first= Ian| editor-last= Aitken| year= 2013| page= 71| publisher= | isbn= 9781136512063| via= Google Books}}
{{cite book| first= Eric| last= Ambler| url= https://www.agorabooks.co/titles/here-lies/| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190430095359/https://www.agorabooks.co/titles/here-lies/| url-status= usurped| archive-date= April 30, 2019| title= Here Lies| format= Memoir| year= 1985| via= agorabooks.co}}

External links

{{cite web| url= https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/battle_pietro.pdf |title= The Battle of San Pietro |format= Essay |first= Ed |last= Carter |via= National Film Registry}}
{{cite book| chapter= The Battle of San Pietro | first= Daniel| last= Eagan | title = America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry| publisher= Bloomsbury Academic| year= 2010 | isbn= 978-0826429773| pages= 382–384 |url=}}
{{Internet Archive film |id=battle_of_san_pietro |name=The Battle Of San Pietro}}
{{IMDb title|0036630}}

Category:1945 films

Category:American short documentary films

Category:American World War II propaganda shorts

Category:Black-and-white documentary films

Category:1940s English-language films

Category:Films directed by John Huston

Category:Films scored by Dimitri Tiomkin

Category:Italian Campaign of World War II films

Category:United States National Film Registry films

Category:1945 short documentary films

Category:Films with screenplays by John Huston

Category:Articles containing video clips