Let There Be Light (Rare lost John Huston masterpiece - 1946)

1946 - Let There Be Light (John Huston) Video Codec..........: XviD ISO MPEG-4 Video Bitrate........: 1455kbps Duration.............: 58:00.979 Resolution...........: 600*454 Framerate............: 29.970 Audio Codec..........: 0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3 Audio Bitrate........: 224 kbps CBR Audio Channels.......: 2 Filesize.............: 735,923,034 SUBTITLES............: NONE http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038687/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_There_Be_Light_(film) http://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/16/movies/let-there-be-light-john-huston-vs-the-army.html http://bayimg.com/IAIGHAadE Let There Be Light is a 1946 American documentary film directed by John Huston. The film, commissioned by the United States Army Signal Corps, was the final entry in a John Huston trilogy of films produced at the request of the U.S. Government. This documentary film follows 75 U.S. soldiers who have sustained debilitating emotional trauma and depression. A series of scenes chronicle their entry into a psychiatric hospital, their treatment and eventual recovery. Some of the treatments involved then-new drugs and hypnosis, and the impression was given of miraculous cures, though the narration says that there will be continuing psychiatric care. Much of the filming was done at Edgewood State Hospital, Deer Park, Long Island, New York which between 1944 and 1946 was part of Mason General Hospital, a psychiatric hospital run by the United States War Department named for an Army doctor and general. The film was controversial in its portrayal of shell-shocked soldiers from the war. "Twenty percent of our army casualties", the narrator says, "suffered psychoneurotic symptoms: a sense of impending disaster, hopelessness, fear, and isolation." Apparently due to the potentially demoralizing effects the film might have on recruitment, it was subsequently banned by the Army after its production, although some pirated copies had been made. Military police once confiscated a print Huston was about to show friends at the Museum of Modern Art. The Army claimed it invaded the privacy of the soldiers involved, and the releases Huston had obtained were lost; the War Department refused to get new ones. The release in the 1980s by Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander Jr. was attributed to his friend Jack Valenti who worked to get the ban lifted. The United States Archives now sells and rents copies of the film, and as a government work it is freely copied. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. In 2010, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". NY TIMES REVIEW - 1981 'LET THERE BE LIGHT,' JOHN HUSTON VS. THE ARMY By VINCENT CANBY Published: January 16, 1981 FOR more than 30 years, the United States Army has been suppressing public showings of ''Let There Be Light,'' one of the documentaries made for the Army Signal Corps by John Huston toward the end of World War II. That's not to say the film has gone unheralded. The late James Agee wrote about it with enthusiasm in Time and The Nation in 1947 and 1948. Though the picture is now, at long last, opening a limited run today at the Thalia, the Army - which didn't supply this print - apparently continues to be alarmed. At this late date, it's difficult to see what the fuss is about. ''Let There Be Light'' is a good, slickly made documentary about the treatment of psychoneurotic combat veterans at Mason General Hospital on Long Island. The treatment involved the thenrevolutionary use of truth drugs and hypnosis and, though the movie tells us more than once that the cures we see will have to be supported by long, intensive psychiatric care, the impression given and even encouraged by the film is of a series of miraculous cures. With its voice-over narration (provided by Walter Huston), its use of wipes and dissolves and its full-orchestra soundtrack music, ''Let There Be Light'' is an amazingly elegant movie, far different from the kind of documentaries we're now used to and pioneered by such post-World War II film makers as Morris Engel, Robert Drew, D.A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock and Albert and David Maysles. Its studied look may have the effect of softening the movie's impact on today's audiences, who've grown up seeing riots, wars and assassinations live-and-in-color on their home television screens. Yet it's not difficult to understand the force of the film. Among the patients we see from their arrival at Mason General through their treatments, cures and releases are men suffering from amnesia, hysterical paralysis, stuttering and acute melancholia. In the late 40's, the Army seemed to feel that the film would scare off potential recruits. In his recently published autobiography, ''An Open Book,'' Mr. Huston reports the Army justified its censorship on the grounds that a public showing of the film would invade the privacy of the soldiers. Directed by John Huston Written by John Huston Charles Kaufman (uncredited) Narrated by Walter Huston (uncredited) Release date(s) 1946 Running time 58 minutes Country United States Language English

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pirateradiorocks (2011-06-13)

Thank you!

wertham (2012-05-27)

Many thanks for the Huston doc!

jorge_mt (2012-05-28)

“Let There Be Light”: John Huston’s Journey into Psychic Darkness
Good article and explanation about the manicured look of the film at: